A new vision for agriculture
momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Pierre Pagesse, President
of Limagrain. It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external
perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulation
of agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,
and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.
Editorial

AGRICULTURE: STILL THE POOR RELATIVE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
By Bastien Gibert,
Expert, momagri


“The world is engaged in a race between population growth and economic growth. As of now, the second is winning. The consequence: the number of poor people is declining but poverty is increasing and getting stronger in absolute number.” These are the words used in 2006 by Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobelist for Economics, to call attention to the impetuous need to initiate a more humane globalization.

The outcome of this race is vital and the stakes have never been higher, as shown by the fact that the ominous figure of one billion people suffering from hunger across the world has been over passed, in a period of confirmed global economic turmoil.

What must be done to durably shrink the number of poor people throughout the world, while encouraging global economic growth?

This is the issue we must urgently address, especially since the recent economic and food crises brought into focus the massive vulnerability of our societies and the genuine threats of a global and irreversible collapse.

The international community will only lastingly reverse this trend if it works, in priority and collectively, on three levers: health, education and agriculture.

Indeed, treating, educating and feeding represent the three levers of any region’s economic development. One cannot adequately treat a person if he/she is not properly fed. This is especially true for nations that are severely affected by the AIDS virus, as explained by Professor Marc Gentilini, the former President of the French Red Cross.

As a result, these three sectors should logically experience continued increases of their budgets and of public spending, because their scope is not only universal but also strategic for all nations in the world.

Yet, comparing public spending earmarked for each sector reveals quite a different and worrisome reality regarding future stakes, especially food issues.

If a dichotomy rationally stands out between spending in each of these three sectors by wealthy and poor countries, we observe a deep-rooted trend common to all nations: the negative evolution of expenditures for agriculture in terms of GNP compared with the positive development of outlays in the field of health or education.

In fact, while health spending in France escalated to 11.1 percent of GNP in 2006 against 3.8 percent in 1960, 10.6 from 6 percent in Germany, to 15.3 from 5.1 percent in the U.S., education spending grew far and wide and reached 6 percent of GNP in France in 2006, 5 percent in Germany or 7.5 percent in the U.S. Yet, during the same period, we are observing a marked decline of agriculture in GNP percentages: down to 2.9 percent from 3.4 percent in 1990 for the European Union, to 4.4 percent from 6.1 percent for the U.S. and to 28 percent from 32 percent for African countries.

Two observations can be drawn from such situation.

First, just as the cumulative underinvestment in agriculture did not permit to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in terms of halving the world’s proportion of underfed people between 1990 and 2005, the current underinvestment will worsen the situation as well as undermine the fixed objectives in terms of public health and education.

Secondly, this variation in agricultural spending––which is contrary to any economic rationale––confirms not only the secondary value granted to agriculture compared with health and education, but also the lack of any strategic consideration. Consequently, a genuine threat weighs on the future, and especially on agriculture, because of its ability to feed the world in quantity as well as quality.

Let’s not sacrifice the future of the world in the name of ideological and political thoughts, which turn unfettered markets into the sole driving force of development, when recent times demonstrated their deficiencies and faults. On the contrary, let’s encourage more stable and durable growth by banking on genuine and long-term assets––such as agriculture––which we recognize as permanent preconditions to our future development.
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Advocating for
agricultural market
regulation and global
food governance
Paris, 08 February 2012