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In the quest of food security, Asian governments have increasingly come to adopt high yield, high-input agriculture, similar to that practiced in the West. Caught in technologico-scientific fix – economists, bureaucrats and multinational corporations promoted widespread use of hybrid seeds, heavily dependent on chemical inputs and pesticides. Yet, over recent decades, mounting evidence points to the fact that Third World HYV-based agriculture may have been cruelly misplaced. After experiencing dramatic rise in yields, Asian farmers soon realized that they needed ever increasing doses of chemicals to maintain the same harvest levels.
Asian farmers were affected in other ways. The Western model of high-yield agriculture necessitated large-scale farming. The lure of fast track economic gain enticed entrepreneurs to replace household food crops with high-value cash crops for export. These actions only serve to drive away growing numbers of rural poor populations away from their lands, and to reduce meager food in their tables. Consumers, meanwhile, were not spared, as chemicals found their way up the food chain. Fast-foods replace traditional food; cultures and nutrition were sacrificed for commerce. Instead of enhancing food security, the Green Revolution clearly accomplished only the opposite – aggravating food insecurity. There is thus a need to seek new agricultural methods, to search for alternative paradigms.
This publication “Sowing the Seeds for Our Future” is about sustainable agriculture and its role in enhancing food security, drawn from the papers and discussions at the Second Asian Development Forum (22-26 February 1993; Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines) organized by ANGOC on the theme Sustainable Agriculture Towards Food Security and Enhanced Quality of Life. Sustainable agriculture is the model counterposed to the Green Revolution. Throughout Asia, countless communities and individuals are now working on agricultural alternatives and from their effort springs new hope for our future food security.
The Asian Development Forum is a five-year annual conference which gathers key development thinkers and practitioners to discuss key issues critical to the Asian Region.
