Fwd: [Food-news] Agriculture and Ecosystem Services; defining value.

[Guest guest]

> Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:19:41 -0400

> foodnews <foodnews

> Food News List <food-news

> [Food-news] Agriculture and Ecosystem

> Services; defining value.

>

> *www.foodnews.ca*

>

> ***Policy Gap and Confirmation: *It's halfway

> through World Water Week

> (August 20-26) and news is surely trickling out.

> After 5 years of study,

> the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in

> Agriculture is

> expecting release by the end of this year, and

> during this week's

> proceedings in Stockholm, policy briefings have been

> circulated. This

> study was conducted by the Consultative Group on

> International

> Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and its International

> Water Management

> Institute (IWMI) and sponsored by RAMSAR (wetlands

> convention), the FAO

> and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

>

> Preliminary findings of the study highlight the need

> for policy guiding:

>

> the role of investments into small-scale and

> large-scale agriculture,

> and their impacts on poverty and environment;

> the role of trade;

> the prioritization of ecosystem water needs;

> and the role of agriculture itself in poverty

> alleviation.

> ...seems like nothing out of the ordinary there, but

> what their research

> also uncovered are some very interesting figures.

>

> The study finds that rainfed agriculture produces

> 60% to 70% of the

> world's food, covers about 80% of cropland and

> serves most of the rural

> poor; yet insufficient attention has been given to

> managing water in

> rainfed areas. As they note further " The challenge

> here is to reduce

> water-related risks, especially short-term dry

> spells " which can damage

> entire growing seasons with only minimal occurrence.

> While the past

> half-century has been spent increasing food

> production through major

> hydraulic projects for irrigation, this study adds

> further merit to that

> paradigm being almost completely inappropriate.

>

> The authors of the study also argue that " growing

> more food, fish and

> fodder for animals with less water and getting more

> value for each drop

> of water are the only ways to both reduce poverty

> and stop damage to the

> environment " . The authors stress that agriculture

> can support ecology by

> managing agricultural systems as agro-ecosystems,

> generating ecosystem

> services through food production. This is

> exemplified by Ontario's with

> a green belt policy which links local agriculture

> with the precious

> ecosystems still left intact. However where policy

> has been made to

> secure value to the ecosystem, the " value " of the

> farm produce is still

> underwritten by free market swings, and like the

> short-term dry spells

> that risk the world's rainfed agriculture, even the

> equivalent

> short-term economic dry spells can do the farm

> severe damage. Thus the

> remaining question begs us to integrate the two, and

> let's hope the rest

> of this week will offer some answers. *Jonathan

> Feldgajer

>

> Scientists with Landmark Study Tracking 50 Years of

> Water Management

> Practices Call for Radical Action to Ease Water

> Scarcity

>

>

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Press/releases/CA%20Solutions%20Press%20Release%20Fina\

l.pdf

>

> http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/assessment/

>

> ** **Jonathan Feldgajer is a contributing Editor to

> Foodnews*

>

> --

>

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