Posts Tagged ‘agriculture’
The value of agriculture is not just the crops and livestock products it yields. It has other functions, such as maintaining the countryside and rural communities
Traditionally, agriculture has been seen as a means of production. In the past, its value has been assessed in terms of the value of the farm products. However, there is a growing realization that agriculture has a greater value than this, in terms of the externalities it provides. These include food security, environmental protection, and the maintenance of rural traditions and communities.
With global free trade, Asian countries are under pressure to remove all barriers to food imports, and open their domestic markets to cheap imported food. Industrialized countries such as Japan have already done this to a great extent, and are importing more than half their food. If the externalities of agriculture are not taken fully into consideration, Asian countries may be forced to open up their domestic markets on grounds of `price’ or economic efficiency criteria alone, while other important considerations are overlooked.
Imported food may be cheaper and more varied than food which is produced domestically, and equal in terms of nutrition. However, it is not equal in other ways. Domestic food production helps conserve the local environment, while imported food does not. Domestic food production provides jobs in rural areas and supports rural communities, while imported food damages them.
If agriculture is seen in this light, then free trade in agricultural products may be very costly to food importers, since a decline in domestic agriculture will mean a loss of these other functions. This international seminar served as a venue at which the various externalities of agriculture were discussed and their economic value assessed.
The conservation role of paddy fields is not taken into account by policy makers and farmers when they decide to convert paddy fields to residential and industrial uses. Instead, decisions are made according to the current market value of each type of land use. A better understanding of the multifunctionality of agriculture might change our ideas about the net profits from different kinds of land use, and from paddy fields in particular.
Biodiversity
Traditional agricultural land use often fostered biodiversity. Many of these features would benefit the environment if they could be incorporated into modern farming. For example, the traditional paddy system in Japan was an inter-connected aquatic network, which allowed aquatic creatures to move with the flow of water through paddy fields and aquatic waterways. Since rice paddies were originally built in wetlands, many paddy fields remained wet throughout the year. This allowed many aquatic species to overwinter in paddy fields, and also provided feeding grounds for many birds.
Modern society cannot return to the past. However, traditional agriculture, while different from natural ecosystems, still allowed a wide range of species to thrive. Whether these species continue to survive into the future will largely depend on modern agricultural management practices, and the extent to which these support biodiversity.
Farmers do not usually profit directly from biodiversity, and may even suffer some crop losses from it (for example, some wild species may damage crops). If society wants farmers to protect biodiversity, it must give them some kind of incentive.
Our perspective of future food security is significantly affected by changes in sustainability and the global environment, including resource degradation. Analytical dynamic models which predict food security must therefore include both qualitative and quantitative information. Food security cannot be achieved simply by increasing agricultural production. It also requires an improvement in income distribution and social welfare. New analytical frameworks are needed to improve our understanding of food security, including cost-benefit analyses that can handle the externality of the roles of agriculture.
For food security to exist at a global level, there is a need for more efficient food production. This is the only way to solve the problem of food shortages in future. There is also a need to consider sustainability, a concept closely related to multifunctionality. Agricultural resources must be conserved to ensure the food security of future generations.
The Environment
The value of agriculture in terms of its environmental protection has been studied in detail in a number of Asian countries. Rice paddies make an important contribution to flood prevention and water storage. Paddy fields receive and store heavy seasonal rains, which filter slowly through the soil to replenish groundwater supplies. Paddy fields also purify water of excess nitrogen and phosphate brought in from polluted water upstream. Instead of contaminating water supplies, these nutrients serve as a nutrient source for rice plants. In Korea, it has been observed that levels of nitrogen and potassium are lower in outlet water than in intake water.
The role of paddy fields in creating a beautiful traditional landscape is difficult to quantify economically, but is certainly very important to most Asian people. In some countries, consumers are beginning to prefer domestic products, in spite of their higher price, in order to preserve the environment, and the beauty and peace of the traditional rural landscape.
However, not all externalities are positive. Some agriculture has a negative effect on the environment, particularly upland cultivation of annual crops. The replacement of forest by agriculture in upland areas is usually accompanied by some negative externalities, in terms of erosion, faster run-off of surface water, loss of biodiversity, and impact on watersheds and downstream areas. The externalities should be carefully considered if land use is changing from forest to agriculture, or from agriculture to residential use.
Much of Asia’s industrial and residential development has taken place in the lowlands, on what used to be productive, well-irrigated paddy land. This means the permanent loss of a valuable agricultural resource, and the waste of large investments made into irrigation systems.
Condition at the end of 2008 is still better because mamin producers can still get around rising commodity prices with efficiency. “This year the price increase could not be avoided anymore. So, the possibility of food and beverage prices could rise about 10 percent.
Besides wheat, other commodities that affect the price mamin is crude palm oil (CPO), sugar, and plastic packaging. Rise gradually
But Franky sure, this mamin product price increases will occur gradually. “Until the first quarter of this year manufacturers will make adjustments,” he explained. Other steps to be taken by the producers mamin is the size of the product.
The increase in wheat prices is practical will boost wheat prices. Some time ago, Executive Director of Wheat Flour Producers Association of Indonesia (APTINDO), Ratna Sari Loppies said, rising wheat prices could reach 2 oerseb per month.
Based on data from the Ministry of Commerce, the average price of wheat during January 2011
Consumers must be prepared to face the rising prices of food products and beverages (mamin) at the beginning of the year. One of the winches mamin price this year is to increase the price of corn.
Since mid last year, the price of corn has skyrocketed due to the brakes on exports of Russian grain. Then, extreme weather that occurred last year also made the world wheat production sag. In fact, demand for wheat continues to rise.
Thus, last weekend (01/14/2011) the price of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) for delivery in March 2011 was at the level of 7.73245 U.S. dollars per bushel. Compared to the average price in mid-2010 which amounted to 6.2371 U.S. dollars per bushel, the price is now 23.97 percent terkerek.
Secretary General of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverages (GAPMMI), Franky Sibarani reveals, this is not the first time wheat prices shot. At the end of 2008, wheat prices are also rising due to crop failure in Australia.
Then I would like to continue talking about the economy. This is something that I have proposed this week to finally understand with all who read this blog, the basic concepts related to the economy. This is an exercise of collective understanding, an exercise we dive into the language of the economy.
In another article I tried to explain things over on the tertiary economic activity, and why I started in the Tertiary? the truth is I do not know. Always and tended to start all the way around, I guess this contradictory tendency to affect my way of dealing with the posts, I guess.
As I was saying, if you look in any dictionary of economics tell us that the tertiary economic activity consists of those who are dedicated purely to the extraction of natural resources, whether for consumption or for marketing. We have several examples including: agriculture, livestock, timber and commercial fishing, mining, etc.
In this modern world we live in, we went from having a balance between production and consumption have different economic policies that directly influence the production of goods rather than services. The first world Read the rest of this entry »