Morris D. Whitaker

Promoting resource degradation in Latin America; tropical deforestation, soil erosion, and coastal ecosystem disturbance in Ecuador

Throughout the developing world depletion of natural resources hampers the ability of many countries to meet expanding agricultural demands. In Africa Asia and Latin America the benefits of water resource management is being jeopardized by pollution. The total impact of the depletion of natural resources in developing countries can be felt all over the world. Damage to natural ecosystems threatens biological diversity and the conversion of forests into agricultural land contributes to the greenhouse effect. There are solutions such as pricing timber more realistically to end the waste of forest resources in several southeast Asian countries and eliminating tax breaks that stimulate excessive land clearing in Brazil to reduce deforestation. The international agricultural research centers have failed to develop and implement sustainable farming practices for small holders in environmentally fragile areas. It is difficult to identify and implement effective conservation strategies for developing countries because the use and management of natural resources remains at an incipient stage. The complex of national policies contributing to renewable resource degradation in Latin America is discussed in great detail. Primary attention is paid to Ecuador with sections devoted to the causes of resource degradation governmental intervention in markets failure to invest in the national scientific base the causes extent and consequences of tropical deforestation soil erosion disturbance of coastal ecosystems and policies reform.

Social Return to U.S. Technical Assistance in Bolivian Agriculture: The Case of Sheep and Wheat

Official U.S. technical assistance to the developing world has been a relatively important social investment in the post-World War II era. Approximately

U.S. Universities and the World Food Problem

4.7 billion was spent between 1949-72 in agriculture, health, and education by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and predecessor agencies (USAID, p. 47). In 1972, USAID allocated

Economic Progress in the Countryside, Forests, and Public Policy

103 million to programs in food and agriculture (p. 28), more than 20% of the amount spent on public research programs in U.S. agriculture for the same year (Boyce and Evenson, p. 152). Yet, despite the relative importance of technical assistance and the close involvement of

Economic Progress and the Environment: One Developing Country's Policy Crisis

The imponderable now is time. Certainly, it is in short supply if we hope to improve the worlds prospects for food production. The requisite scientific skills that can contribute to greater world agricultural production exist in a uniquely concentrated form in the U.S. universities. Incentives for increased university involvement in technical assistance created by the International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1975 will not become effective until a mechanism which guarantees adequate and long-term funding is established. A continuing dialogue to define the nature and scope of needed reforms is necessary if maximum involvement of U.S. scientists in agricultural technical assistance is to be realized. Such involvement is vital in meeting the food needs of the developing world.

Agricultural development in Bangladesh

Recent contributions to the literature on the causes of tropical deforestation indicate that, under certain circumstances, agricultural intensification (i.e., raising crop and livestock yields) can accelerate farmers and ranchers’ encroachment on tree-covered land. We contend, however, that the linkage between intensification and habitat conservation is generally positive. Chilean experience during the 1980s and 1990s is a good example. Domestic and foreign demand for agricultural output increased substantially. But because of productivity improvements, agricultural land use fell; the forested portion of the national territory rose from 19 percent in 1990 to 24 percent in 1998. In contrast, large tracts of forests have been converted into cropland and pasture in Ecuador during the last two decades. Productivity-enhancing investment having been very deficient, agricultural land use increased at a 2 percent annual rate during the 1980s and continued to expand in the 1990s.