RECLAIM OUR WATER RIGHTS, RECLAIM OUR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Written by webmaster
Friday, 28 August 2009
RECLAIM OUR WATER RIGHTS, RECLAIM OUR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
The dramatic rise of global food prices in the first
half of 2008 to as high as 75% to 85% from their 2006 levels, severely affected not
only the more than 800 million alreadyhungry and impoverished people in the world but also sent 50 million
more into poverty. The devastating social impact of the crisis also underscores
the vulnerability of poorer countries to food price and supply volatilities - a
phenomenon that has been recurring within the present context of globalization
and increased economic integration among countries.
But more significantly,
the global food price explosion of 2008 revealed the reduced capacity of
developing countries to secure their food supply, particularly their staple
grains, as a consequence of decades of neo-liberal policy making that have made
them increasingly dependent on the international food market for their food
security. The reason why global rice stocks were at their 30-year low in 2008
isnot merely attributable to weather
disturbances in food exporting countries nor to short-term factors such as the
boom in agrofuels use but to a more fundamental restructuring of the economies
in the Third World that reoriented their agriculture production to exports, to
the detriment of domestic food production. Farmlands were converted to plantations
of high value crops for exports and to industrial estates, further reducing
food crop outputs. In consequence, while population steadily grew, domestic
rice production has failed to meet rising consumption, leading to sharp gaps in
supply and thus to dramatic increases in rice imports.
The international
financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank
and the Asian Development Bank clearly are as much to be blamed as the national
governments in weakening the productive capacities as well as undermining national
food self-sufficiency of many developing countries. The economic and trade
policies imposed by the IFIs through loan conditionalities to client countries more
known as the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) of the 1980s’ and 90’s contributed
significantly to eroding food self-sufficiency of these countries.
This policy brief
however will focus on the role of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in bringing
about this state of food insecurity among many poorer countries. It will
specifically look into how the ADB’s policy of privatization especially in
water development, distribution and management in agriculture may have
contributed to weakening client government’s support to irrigation delivery and
consequently to undermining food sovereignty of their countries. This paper attempts
to provide a brief overview of the implications of ADB’s water policy on
agriculture development and food sovereignty of client countries. It is
intended as a briefer and thus may serve also as basis for further research in
the governance of irrigation sector, which is one of the most seriously
neglected sectors in countries that are experiencing the worst impacts of the
global food crisis.
To download the whole document please click the image.
