Ernst Lutz

Agriculture and the environment : perspectives on sustainable rural development

The World Bank has, over the past two years, revisited its rural development strategy and in turn developed a new one, through a renewed commitment to sound development in the rural sector, and seeks to encompass farmers and their communities alike, as well as policymakers. This report gathers applied and practical research related to agriculture and the environment in the developing world, summarizing current knowledge through specific examples, stating the approaches and conditions which worked or not, and the reasons for failure. The observations and findings suggest that environmentally sound increases in productivity will be harder to achieve than in the past, though a significant potential for attaining these increases do exist. To this end, reforms are necessary, so that policy and institutional frameworks support an intensified sustainable agriculture, conducive to an environment that gives way to technological innovation. The authors in this report, review subjects from, integrating environmental concerns in rural development policies, natural resources degradation, small-farmer decisionmaking, to agricultural trade reforms, research initiatives, property regimes, etc. Institutional and social perspectives, together with technical issues and perspectives are also analyzed through various subjects in this volume.

Costs, benefits, and farmer adoption of agroforestry : project experience in Central America and the Caribbean

Developing countries are facing major challenges to their rural land use, including deforestation, increasing scarcity of tree products, and environmental degradation on fragile agricultural lands. One of the ways they have responded to these problems is by promoting agroforestry, or on-farm tree establishment and management. Public agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international donors have supported agroforestry development efforts and are considering further substantial investments. But agroforestry activities have been poorly documented and project monitoring has been weak or nonexistent or has addressed administrative concerns only. To answer the need for hard data, an analysis of the costs, benefits, and farmer adoption of agroforestry was undertaken. This was the first large-scale study of farm-level profitability of agroforestry in the tropics and involved empirical work for twenty-one projects in Central America and the Caribbean.

Agricultural Trade Barriers, Trade Negotiations and the Interests of Developing Countries

Rural growth is necessary for reducing rural poverty. But rural regions cannot generate sustained growth in agricultural demand unless they trade with cities, neighboring countries, and the rest of the world. That is the first problem. The second is that world trade in agricultural and agro-industrial products has grown slower than general trade—and developing countries have not been able to capture as large a share of trade growth in agriculture as in industry. This has constrained agricultural growth and diversification in the developing world. We argue here that developing countries will have to continue their agricultural policy reforms. But the main focus has to be on the constraints on agricultural trade imposed by developed countries—and on the prospects for reducing them in the current round of WTO negotiations. Export subsidies should be outlawed. Domestic producer subsidies reduced. Access under tariff quotas increased. Tariff escalation on processed agricultural products removed. And the level and the dispersion of bound tariffs on agricultural imports reduced.