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LATIN
AMERICA:
Only a Few Reap
the Benefits of Growth in
Agriculture
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - Latin
America and the Caribbean are
demanding that the world's rich
countries dismantle their
protectionist systems of farm
subsidies as they seek to
sustain and expand on the
success enjoyed by farm exports
in the region, which have,
however, failed to provide
significant benefits for the
broader population.
In recent years, the
agricultural industry in the
region has achieved growth
levels that are "more than
satisfactory," mainly thanks to
exports, says a new study by the
Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
But there is little reason to
celebrate, because the upsurge
was concentrated in just a few
countries, products and markets,
and did nothing to alleviate
rural poverty, reported the
regional United Nations agency.
The study, "Panorama 2005, el
nuevo patrón de desarrollo de la
agricultura en América Latina y
el Caribe" (Outlook 2005, the
new pattern of development of
agriculture in Latin America and
the Caribbean), which was
released in Spanish on Oct. 28,
says the region is experiencing
a wave of "modernising growth"
that excludes large sectors of
the population.
"Concentrating agricultural
development in exports has been
a failure for the region from a
social and food security point
of view, and that could even
worsen if the developed
countries dismantle their much-criticised
farm subsidies," Uruguayan
activist Silvia Ribeiro,
representative of the
Canada-based Action Group on
Erosion, Technology and
Concentration (ETC), told IPS.
Since 2001, growth in
agriculture has stood at a rate
of three percent or higher,
surpassing the average growth
experienced in economic activity
as a whole, says the ECLAC
report.
But most of the 43 million
people directly employed in
agriculture are poor. And in
rural areas in the region, which
are home to around 120 million
people, a full half of all
children live in extreme
poverty.
Of the estimated 96 million
people in extreme poverty in
Latin America and the Caribbean,
45 million live in rural areas,
accounting for 37 percent of the
total population of those areas.
And at the same time that the
region’s agricultural exports
have increased, the rural
population continues to shrink.
The proportion of the population
living in the countryside
plunged from 42.6 percent in
1970 to 24.2 percent in 2001,
and is expected to fall to 20.5
percent by 2010 and to 18.1
percent by 2020.
A relatively few products sold
abroad, like fruit, soybeans,
beef, chicken and pork,
predominate in the region's
productive structures, notes the
ECLAC study.
This new pattern of growth
generates vulnerability because
it is based on a small group of
products, which are heavily
concentrated in a few countries,
a few producers and a few
markets, the report adds.
According to Ribeiro, countries
in the region are harvesting
more for export while producing
less food for the domestic
market, thus putting a higher
priority on export revenues than
on feeding the local population
and improving social conditions.
Agriculture represents around
eight percent of the combined
gross domestic product of Latin
America and the Caribbean, where
80 percent of the nearly 800
million hectares dedicated to
agriculture are used for
stockbreeding.
According to ECLAC, the
modernisation experienced by
agriculture in the region has
been concentrated in products
with a low level of processing
and a high technological
content, like the transgenic
soybeans that are so widely
planted in Argentina and Brazil.
Other products that saw an
increase in yields are sugar
cane, wheat, fruit and fresh
produce. There have also been
significant improvements in the
livestock industry, especially
beef production, followed by
chicken, dairy products and
pork.
The ECLAC study outlines some of
the problems posed by
export-based models, said
Ribeiro.
The U.N. agency points out that
the value of the region’s
exports of primary and processed
agricultural products grew
between 2000 and 2004 at a
faster rate than the value of
exports as a whole.
That growth was due to sales
outside of the region and to
non-traditional partners, like
China, with which the region
generally has no free trade or
preferential access agreements,
says the report.
Ribeiro predicted that "if the
demands that the rich countries
phase out their farm subsidies
prosper, the region will produce
even more agricultural export
products."
That would strengthen the
current model of agricultural
production, which has limited
social benefits, she argued.
The developing nations in the
Group of 20 (G20), led by
Brazil, China and India, are
demanding the dismantling of
protectionist systems, which
shell out a total of more than
250 billion dollars a year in
farm subsidies, 80 percent of
which are granted by the
European Union, the United
States and Japan.
This is one of the touchiest
issues in the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) negotiations
and one of the barriers standing
in the way of progress in the
talks on the U.S.-promoted Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
because the United States
refuses to eliminate its
domestic farm supports.
ECLAC notes that rural migration
continues, especially of the
young, and that rural areas are
losing enterprising human
capital while witnessing an
ageing of their population.
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