[stop-imf] Reason No. 8 to Join IMF/World Bank Protests - small farmers

[Robert Weissman]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mgj-announce] Reason No. 8 to Join IMF/World Bank Protests -
small farmers
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 11:22:07 -0700
From: Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>
Reply-To: rob@essential.org
To: "mgj-announce@lists.mutualaid.org" <mgj-announce@lists.mutualaid.org>

		WORLD BANK POLICIES HARM SMALL FARMERS

        	REASON NO. 8 TO JOIN THE FALL PROTESTS 
        	AGAINST THE IMF AND WORLD BANK

        	SEE WWW.GLOBALIZETHIS.ORG FOR PROTEST DETAILS

IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs assist foreign
investors and corporations by removing barriers to international trade
and subsidizing export-oriented agriculture, while requiring borrower
governments to slash social and financial supports to the rural poor.
SAPs also include elimination of policies protecting domestic food
production, hitting small farmers the hardest. 

Globalizing Agriculture

As with other sectors, agricultural "reforms" imposed by the World Bank
are designed to improve a country’s foreign investment climate and
reduce government deficits through cuts in spending and the generation
of foreign exchange. Key components of SAPs that affect farmers and the
agricultural sector include:

* National commitment to generate foreign-exchange earnings through the
production of cash crops and non-traditional export crops, usually with
increased use of agricultural inputs; 

* Provision of incentives and subsidies to export-oriented agricultural
firms and removal of subsidies for staple food production; 

* Elimination of subsidies and tariffs that previously protected
domestic farmers and markets from a massive influx of cheap food
imports; and 

* Reduction in the availability of credit to local farmers, particularly
women. 

Undermining Small Farms, Food Production and Ecosystems

Structural adjustments in agriculture provide benefits to, and increase
the short-term profits of, big agribusinesses. But these severe
adjustments also marginalize the rural poor, threaten local and national
food security and devastate the environment. SAPs undermine the
sustainability of agriculture in developing countries in the following ways:

Unsustainable Earnings.

Non-traditional export crops are typically non-native crops that are
highly susceptible to pests and disease and require a large capital
investment, i.e., use of expensive hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers
and pesticides and irrigation. Initial gains in currency earnings from
export crop production are almost inevitably wiped out in later years by
ecological collapse or a downswing in global commodity prices. 

Growing Inequality.

The capital investments required to "play the game" even in the short
term quickly force out small farmers who cannot afford expensive inputs
and who have a harder time getting credit to purchase them. While World
Bank-financed SAP projects often provide communities with input
packages, participating farmers are generally required to pay back their
cost. Poor harvests -- common for small farmers struggling to make the
transition -- send rural families spiraling deeper into debt. In
contrast, large, often foreign-owned, agricultural businesses make the
leap to export production more easily and benefit from the additional
array of subsidies and incentives available to exporters. The gap
between the haves and have-nots increases.

Increasing Hunger and Poverty.

SAPs seriously compromise small farmers’ ability to continue producing
staple food crops for their own use and to ensure local and national
food security. The elimination of import tariffs allows local markets to
be flooded with cheap, foreign food staples, sold at prices below local
costs of production. As a result, millions of small farmers go out of
business and sell their land to large, foreign agricultural businesses
or to local elites. They often end up seeking employment on plantations
where they are exposed to toxic pesticides and atrocious working
conditions. Many cannot afford to buy imported foods, which are sold
cheaply in urban centers but are marked up at stores in rural areas. 

Environmental Fraud.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) claim that
structural adjustment of the agricultural sector can have a positive
environmental impact, for instance by reducing pesticide use. It is true
that the removal of subsidies and the devaluation of currency usually
has the net effect of increasing the price of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides, putting them far out of reach of small farmers. However,
larger growers and foreign investors can purchase these inputs without
difficulty and their use of toxic chemicals generally goes up. 


Adapted from a fact sheet prepared by the Pesticide Action Network North
America (PANNA), http://www.bicusa.org/ptoc/htm/panna_adj.htm PANNA
Contact information: Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), 49
Powell St #500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA, tel: 1-415-981-1771, fax:
1-415-981-1991, email: panna@panna.org, web: www.panna.org.


-- SEE WWW.GLOBALIZETHIS.ORG FOR PROTEST DETAILS --