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Report of the March 16, 1994 Brown Bag Luncheon
Washington Office, WSAA
Issues, Prospects and Barriers:
Sustainable Agriculture in
Central America, Mexico and Brazil
Jim Adriance and John Garrison,
Inter-American Foundation
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At the March 16, 1994 monthly meeting of the Washington Office of
the World Sustainable Agriculture Association, experts Jim Adriance
and John Garrison of the Inter-American Foundation (IAF),
Arlington, Virginia, spoke on the issues, prospects for and barriers
to sustainable agriculture in Central America, Mexico and Brazil.
Jim Adriance: Experiences in Central America and Mexico
with community-oriented NGOs and farmer groups working
on new approaches to agriculture:
"During the last 50 years the environment in Central America has
suffered enormous damage as the result of human development
activities. Large-scale commercial activities in agriculture, forestry,
livestock, etc. have caused the greatest damage. In addition, social
inequities in land ownership have increasingly forced subsistence
farmers onto more and more fragile ecosystems such as hillsides,
watersheds, and lowland rainforest regions. As the agricultural
frontier shrinks, subsistence farmers have fewer options
for migration and therefore their interest is growing in
techniques that conserve the resource base while giving
good production and economic returns.
There are other factors fueling the movement by small-scale farmers
in Central America towards sustainable agricultural methods.
Decreasing returns in production from chemical inputs along with
their increasing costs, as well as the lack of credit for small-scale
farmers (due to structural adjustment) are important factors
pushing farmers. At the same time, there has been significant
growth in the number and availability of productive farmer-friendly
techniques developed by NGOs working closely with farmers.
Increasing political and economic integration in Central America is
also important to sustainable agriculture because of the growth
in information and idea sharing among countries.
In the past, government extensionists and people from a variety of
organizations came to small-scale farmers in the region pushing
different fixed models of organic and green revolution agriculture
without taking into account increased labor and cash costs to the
farmer. Farming practices have been forced on farmers who have
not had the chance to adapt them slowly and specifically according
to the unique characteristics of their land. This has resulted in
further economic hardship and increased resentment by farmers
towards those trying to implement improvements. Working closely
with farmers to tailor sustainable practices to their particular
conditions has been much more successful.
World Neighbors, an NGO that has worked for 25 years in Central
America, has done much work with farmers to develop sustainable
techniques. Their work has shown you can get 2-5 fold increases in
production on small hillside parcels that have been farmed with
slash-and-burn techniques. Increases in production and reduction
of costs are usually the most interesting to the farmers. Part of
World Neighbors' strategy is to take new farmers to see farmers who
have developed and used sustainable techniques in order to get a
first hand look at success. Environmental benefits such as reduced
soil erosion, improved soil quality, and reduced chemical
contamination, are important components of these new techniques.
Elias Sanchez in Honduras has been developing and teaching farmers
the concept of minimal labor for twenty years on his farm, Loma
Linda. He found that traditional composting and terracing methods
required too much labor in their "unadapted" versions. Working
directly with farmers he came up with ways to do terracing and the
apply the "principle" of composting over several years. The
principles are being kept but the techniques are flexible,
dependent on the farmer's style and land.
Dissemination and transfer of ideas, sharing and spreading of
information between NGOs and farmer groups has been critical to
the success and growth of the sustainable agriculture movement in
Central America. A horizontal approach to technology transfer has
often been more successful than a vertical model where experts
come in with solutions from the outside. The premise of many
outside extensionists is that farmers are ignorant and that outsiders
have the answers. What outsiders often fail to see is the farmer
rationale for different practices. Among the benefits of slash-and-
burn agriculture for example is killing of pests, clearing a large area
in a short time, and low labor costs.
Several NGOs in the region have shown great ability at meeting
farmers where they are and working with them to find techniques
that not only cost less but increase the short-run and long-run
productivity of their land. These NGOs encourage farmers to
experiment and slowly make transitions to those techniques that
give them the best results. Facilitating farmer-to-farmer exchanges
of information and lessons and encouraging local leaders to
continue experimentation and farmer-to-farmer information sharing
is an integral part of this work.
Contributing to the movement, SIMAS (Servicio de Informacion
Mesoamerican sobre Agricultura Sostenible) in Nicaragua is
documenting techniques and training methodolgies that are working
and they are publishing them in a "farmer friendly" style and
making them available to farmers, NGOs and governments. In many
countries, networks are being built and information is being
communicated. A group in Honduras, CIDICCO (The International
Covercrop Clearinghouse) has been working for five years to
document and share information on nitrogen-fixing covercrops.
CIDICCO spun-off from World Neighbors after a conclusion that
covercrops are the lowest-cost, most effective means for small-scale
subsistence farmers to increase production and enhance soil quality.
CIDICCO is now connected to over 500 organizations in 63
countries through publications and electronic mail. ALTERTEC in
Guatemala, has organized several Central America initiatives
including annual organic farmer meetings (160 people attended this
year, up from 40 people four years ago) and building national
organic certification capacity.
The prospect of organic marketing has provoked some interest in
sustainable techniques of farming. The price premium on organic
coffee and other organic fruits and vegetables has been an
important incentive for production in Mexico (coffee) and Costa
Rica (fruits and vegetables). This is not occurring as much with
small-scale farmers in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and
Honduras, however. The farmers in these countries seem more
driven by cost cutting incentives -- reducing overall cost and
planting techniques that need less cash inputs.
The cost of certification has been an economic stumbling block for
the organic farmers in Central America. Currently, inspectors must
be brought in from the U.S. and Europe, making certification
expensive. Mexico and Costa Rica have trained local inspectors to
be trained and are now trying to set up national certification
systems. This is difficult though, for it involves getting small-scale
farmers to keep records, not an easy task when many are illiterate.
There are limits and constraints in the movement towards
sustainable agriculture in Central America. One "recipe"
will not work for all farmers and should not be forced on
them because of a success elsewhere. Experimentation
must be encouraged and patience is necessary. Farmers
must be allowed to adapt to their specific situation and
abilities. Research needs to be done on proving which
techniques might be better in certain areas. Documentation
of the results of new techniques must be improved and
communication about results, good and bad, should also be
improved."
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Mr. John Garrison - Sustainable Agriculture in Brazil:
"Brazil has the largest foreign debt of the Third World and to pay off
this debt and meet structural adjustment measures the government
supports the large-scale export-oriented agricultural model. The
country has an abundance of natural resources but the rural sector
is primarily characterized by severe land concentration, massive
population out-migration (the forcing out of small-scale farmers
because of taxes or the removal of squatters who may have been on
the land for generations but have no formal title of ownership),
export-oriented monoculture, widespread land conflicts and
environmental degradation (from overuse of chemical fertilizers).
In Brazil, available land has not ended but it is disappearing fast.
The greatest causes of Amazon deforestation are the small-scale
farmers and squatters who are pushed further and further into the
rainforest as they deplete the soil through use of unsustainable
techniques.
Government investment and assistance in the agricultural sector is
geared towards large-scale export-oriented production with little, if
any, credit and technical assistance going to small-scale producers.
Major export crops are soybeans, orange juice for concentrate and
coffee. Most of Brazil's agricultural lands are controlled by a few
powerful land owners who are the major export producers. Credit
and technical assistance are available only to these producers,
leaving the small-scale farmer lacking in critically needed inputs.
Many rent land or work in a semi-slavery arrangement. Inadequate
pricing policies further complicate the situation.
The problems of the small-scale farmer include: decreasing
agricultural production levels, lack of technical assistance and
appropriate technologies, dependency on expensive and soil-
depleting chemical inputs, weak producers' organizations and
shrinking trade union movement, limited marketing potential and
lack of government credit and adequate pricing policies.
The Inter-American Foundation and others are funding a grassroots
movement that has sprouted among NGOs in Brazil. This movement
provides training and technical assistance to small-scale producers
around the issue of sustainable agriculture, also known as agro-
ecology. The major characteristics are: developing and testing
appropriate agricultural and animal husbandry technologies geared
to small-scale producers which are both economically viable and
environmentally sustainable, disseminating this technology through
innovative and participatory training methodologies, and
strengthening local producers' organizations.
The largest proponent of agro-ecology is the PTA (Programa de
Tecnologiso Alternativas) Network which comprises some 20
regional NGOs located throughout Brazil and a second-level national
NGO called Assessoria e Servicos a Projetos em Agricultura
Alternativa. Through field experimentation, applied research,
technical assistance and training, the PTA reaches tens of thousands
of small-scale farmers and recently settled squatters.
There are three established experimentation centers which attempt
to carry out scientific research in use of legumes as "green"
fertilizers, crop diversification, composting, biological control of
pests (Brazil has a problem with the overuse of pesticides but the
PTA program has been very successful in this area), seed selection,
integrated animal husbandry and irrigation. Local networking
occurs between farmer groups and NGOs to discuss techniques and
technologies.
Local initiatives have sprung up to address serious problems that are
occurring in small-scale agriculture of Brazil. Challenges that the
sector is facing include: increasing and expanding information
which takes a hard look at production costs, productivity and
sustainability over time from an economic standpoint, in order to
determine to what extent alternative agriculture has the potential to
displace chemical-intensive methods at the small-scale level; the
question of effectiveness of the various technology transfer
methodologies being utilized and the scientific rigor of the
experimentation undertaken; marketing possibilities and methods;
influencing agricultural policies on a national level. Evaluating and
addressing these challenges is an expensive and time-consuming
undertaking which requires concerted effort by the beneficiaries,
proponents and funders. But, these are areas where greater
institutional collaboration with international sustainable agricultural
groups could be forged by carrying out more funding, exchange of
information and personnel, and working on joint evaluation studies.
The economic viability of agro-ecology has not been proven for the
small-scale producer but it has helped visibly in the forming of
communities and in encouraging experimentation. The NGOs and
other grassroots level organizations are becoming more sure of
themselves, and more respected as a result of some of these
practices. For the elections in Brazil this year, some NGOs are in the
process of drafting a "Sustainable Agriculture Plan" to be given to
the competing candidates.
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About the speakers:
Jim Adriance studied Natural Resource Economics at the University
of Rhode Island and received his Master's Degree in Agricultural and
Resource Economics from the University of Maryland. He was a
Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, working with farmers to
diversify agriculture by introducing new crops in a primarily coffee
producing area. During his time at the Inter- American Foundation,
he worked for five years in Peru and Ecuador with projects in
community health, microenterprise, land-use planning and rural
development. For the past two years he has focused on sustainable
agriculture and regional integration in Central America.
John Garrison has a Master's in Latin American Studies from
Vanderbilt University. He worked for three years with the
Universidade Metodista de Peracicaba in Sao Paulo and one year with
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconomicos, a Brazilian NGO promoting
grassroots organization and civic participation in Brazil's political
process. Mr. Garrison also worked for three years with Catholic
Relief Services on Development and Human Rights in Brazil and
Mexico. He has been at the Inter-American Foundation for six years,
focusing on sustainable agriculture and the role of NGOs in Brazil's
civil society.
Mr. Garrison and Mr. Adriance may be contacted at the Inter-
American Foundation, 901 N. Stuart Street, Arlington, Virginia; tel:
(703) 841-3800; fax: (703) 525-9315; email: iafes@cdp.apc.org.
WSAA encourages the replication and distribution of this
International Sustainable Agriculture Issues Report. Please credit
WSAA and the speakers.
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About the World Sustainable Agriculture Association: WSAA was
formed in 1991 by a group of 24 leaders of the sustainable
agriculture movement from 10 countries, for the purpose of
organizing an international alliance of organizations and individuals
sharing the goal of a more sustainable agriculture throughout the
world. The Policy Directorate of WSAA, located in Washington, DC,
sponsors regular events to encourage policy-related information
exchange in support of the development and adoption of sustainable
food and fiber production systems. Reports of these meetings, held
six-eight times each year, and a quarterly WSAA Newsletter, are
available electronically and by subscription. For further
information, contact Roger Blobaum, Associate Director, or Linda
Elswick, Assistant Director, Washington Office, WSAA, 1331
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 907 North, Washington, DC; tel:
(202) 347-0637; fax: (202) 347-0654; new email address effective
4/22/94: wsaa@cdp.apc.org.