World Agricultural Report

The World Agricultural Report (also: World Agriculture Report ) with the title Agriculture at a Crossroads ("Landwirtschaft am Scheideweg") was published in 2008 by the World Agricultural Council ( International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development , IAASTD ), a body comparable to the " Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change " ( IPCC). In particular, the report calls for an expansion of organic agriculture or agro-ecological methods and the promotion of smallholders . The green genetic engineering , agrochemicals and intellectual property of seed are critically examined.

World Agriculture Council (IAASTD)

The World Agriculture Council was initiated in 2002/2003 by the World Bank and the United Nations (UN) with the aim of reducing malnutrition and poverty worldwide . 185 groups were represented at the first meeting in 2004: 45 governments, 86 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 29 sponsors (including the World Health Organization and the FAO ) and several international biotechnology companies . The Secretary General was the then chief scientist of the World Bank Robert T. Watson , who in the 1980s co-founded the groundbreaking report on the depletion of the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere ( -> ozone hole ) and in the 1990s the IPCC and until 2001 Held chair.

The IAASTD is to investigate how the world population can be fed sustainably . The relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, agricultural research and technology for the reduction of hunger and poverty among the rural population worldwide are to be evaluated, taking into account the aspects of climate compatibility, conservation of biodiversity and social and health aspects.

Content of the report

According to the report, the world is characterized by uneven development, unsustainable use of natural resources , the negative effects of global warming, and continued world hunger and poverty. In order to counter these problems effectively, the report's authors suggest strengthening smallholders who produce for their local environment.

central message

In order to meet the challenges of the future, a radical and systematic change is required in agricultural research, development and practice.
The decisive factor in fighting hunger is not increasing productivity at any cost, but the availability of food and the means of production on site.
The best guarantors of local food security and national and regional food sovereignty are smallholder structures. Their multifunctionality with their ecological and social achievements must be recognized and specifically promoted.
The conversion of cultivation areas for food into fuel areas is not justifiable. More efficient, integrated and decentralized forms of bio-energy generation are to be promoted.
Green genetic engineering has so far brought more problems than solutions and unilaterally directs research interest to patentable products.
The freedom of research and the dissemination of knowledge is significantly negatively influenced by intellectual property rights and claims (e.g. to seeds).
Public agricultural research and development must become more practical, answer farmers' questions and involve them in developments.
In order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions per generated physiological calorific value , technological revolutions and drastic cuts are required.

Recommended investments

Improvement of agro-ecological methods and cultivation methods with little external input
Plant breeding for better temperature and pest resistance
financial and non-financial compensation for environmental services
biological replacement of agrochemicals
Reducing the dependence of agriculture on fossil fuels

controversy

Parts of the agricultural economy and research accuse the World Agriculture Report of being strongly ideologically influenced. In particular, the demand for increased support for organic agriculture and the rejection of green genetic engineering can be traced back to the lobbying of various interest groups, not to science. For example, the IAASTD ignored a report published by the International Science Council in 2003, according to which there has so far been no evidence of negative environmental and health effects of green genetic engineering. A FAO report published in 2000 on the opportunities of green genetic engineering was also ignored. The Public Research and Regulations Initiative, an advocacy group for public biotechnology research, stated, “We believe that the biotechnology chapter was written from a perspective so fundamentally different from ours that it is pointless to comment on the many shortcomings and errors . "

The Institute for Farm Management at the University of Hohenheim analyzed the World Agriculture Report and came to the conclusion that there was no reason to question the scientific quality of the publication.

Reactions of individual actors and countries

The agricultural companies Monsanto , Syngenta and BASF , which were involved in the preparation of the report, withdrew prematurely from their cooperation.

The USA , Canada and Australia did not sign the final report because of its criticism of the market opening too quickly . The three states also expressed reservations about some of the conclusions and recommendations of the World Agriculture Report.

The German federal government has not signed the World Agriculture Report. The then Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD) supported the report and asked for it to be signed. However, the Ministry of Agriculture was of a different opinion: Most of the facts that were already known had been collected and were already anchored in the principles of German development policy. A signature is therefore "unnecessary".

At the beginning of 2011 the parliamentary group of the party Die Linke again suggested the signing in a request. However, the federal government saw “currently no need”. The CDU / CSU parliamentary group has spoken out "very clearly in favor of intensive agriculture" and against signing it. The SPD parliamentary group has spoken out in favor of the World Agriculture Report being updated and abstaining. The FDP parliamentary group said that the “report with its ideologically oriented conclusions [overall] falls short”. The Bundestag faction Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen supported the left's motion.

literature

2008: Agriculture at a Crossroads
2009, Stephan Albrecht, Albert Engel (ed.): World Agricultural Report. Synthesis report . Hamburg University Press, ISBN 978-3-937816-68-5
2009, Eva Schmidtner, Stephan Dabbert: Sustainable agriculture and organic farming in the report of the World Agriculture Council. University of Hohenheim, ISBN 978-3-933403-97-1

Web links

agassessment-watch.org: Agriculture at a Crossroads (Eng., "Landwirtschaft am Scheideweg", international NGO page on the WAB)

blogs.sub.uni-hamburg.de: Weltagrarbericht: Synthesis report , with download options
globalagriculture.org Site with word search in various documents
weltagrarbericht.de: Ways out of the hunger crisis To the world grass report from the perspective of the Agriculture Foundation

Individual evidence

↑ Ways out of the hunger crisis , Ed. GLS Treuhand , Future Foundation Agriculture , April 2010, p. 3

^ ^A ^b Robert Wager (2009): Comment on "The future of agriculture. EMBO reports, Vol. 10, pp. 104-105.

↑ Sabine Tenta: What helps against hunger in the world? (PDF; 38 kB) Discussion on the report of the WeltagrarratsWDR.de, accessed on April 25, 2012

↑ Eva Schmidtner and Stephan Dabbert: Sustainable agriculture and organic farming in the report of the Weltagrarrates Verlag - Prof. Dr. Stephan Dabbert, University of Hohenheim, Institute for Farm Management, 2009

↑ World Agriculture Report. Reservations on Synthesis Report.