FAO Paper: Asia-Pacific's Agri Workers Should be Prime Beneficiaries of Sustainable Agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a paper titled "Meeting Farmers' Aspirations in the Context of Green Development" which was presented in the 32nd FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on March 14, 2014. The paper examines the current efforts of some Asia-Pacific countries that address the increasing income difference between farm and non-farm incomes.

According to the paper, the region and its agricultural sector are facing two "momentous and complex transitions", a structural change that is related to fast, if uneven, economic growth, which leaves agricultural incomes stagnant, and a transition to sustainable agriculture targeted at hampering the degradation of the region's limited base of natural resources. It was recommended that there should be a search for green development that involves not just agriculture and natural resource management. It must tackle urbanization policies, patterns of public investment in infrastructure services, as well as education and development of economic sectors in rural areas not related to agriculture.

The paper suggests that the International Year of Family Farming — which aims to raise the profile and importance of family and smallholder farms - should also focus on how to manage transitions in the region to include green development based on wider environmental values, while advocating increased farm incomes to levels similar to other sectors, so the poorest and most vulnerable people in rural areas will not be disadvantaged.

Read the original article at http://www.fao.org/archive/from-the-field/detail/en/c/216838//