Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Overview to Four Volumes: Sustainable Agriculture and Food xxxvii

increased self-esteem in formerly marginalized groups, increased status of

women, better child health and nutrition, especially in dry seasons, and

reversed migration and more local employment.

What we do not know, however, is the full economic benefits of these spin-offs. In
many industrialized countries, agriculture is now assumed to contribute very little
to GDP, leading many commentators to assume that agriculture is not important
for modernized economies (NRC, 2000). But such a conclusion is a function of
the fact that too few measures are being made of the positive side effects of agricul-
ture (MEA, 2005). In poor countries, where financial support is limited and mar-
kets weak, then people rely even more on the value they can derive from the
natural environment and from working together to achieve collective outcomes.

Note: Only field crops with n > 9 are shown.

Figure 3 Relationship between relative changes in crop yield after (or with project)

to yield before (or without project)