412 Modern Agricultural Reforms
and engineering, agricultural science should capitalize on the analogous and even
more powerful principle of biological advantage.
Four Equations in Need of Revision
Efforts to raise agricultural productivity have been guided for many decades by
four presumptions. These have produced some impressive results, so our objection
is not that they are wrong. Rather, they have become too dominant in our think-
ing, with too hegemonic an influence on policy and practice. It has been taken for
granted that they represent superior ways to boost production. This thinking can
be stated in four tacit equations that have shaped contemporary agricultural
research, extension and investment.
1 Control of pests and diseases = application of pesticides or other agrochemicals.
2 Overcoming soil fertility constraints = application of chemical fertilizers.
3 Solving water problems = construction of irrigation systems.
4 Raising productivity beyond these three methods = genetic modification.
Equating certain kinds of solutions with broad categories of problems limits the
search for other methods to solve those problems, even when alternative practices
might have a lower cost and be more beneficial in environmental and social terms.
More progress in agriculture will be made if the above propositions are broadened.
Fortunately, there is a good precedent in the way that the first equation has been
substantially modified over the past 15 years.
Crops and animals can be protected by non-chemical means
The modern-input paradigm for raising production has been most directly chal-
lenged with regard to pest and disease control through what is called integrated pest
management (IPM). Adverse effects on human health as well as on the environ-
ment caused some scientists to explore ways to produce crops and animals with
little and even no use of chemicals. Biological controls as well as alternative crop
management practices have often turned out to be more cost-effective, and some-
times simply more effective. The chemical-based strategy of ‘zero tolerance’ for
pests and diseases, rather than being a solution, exacerbates the problem, killing
beneficial insects that are predators of crop pests. The widespread use of agro-
chemicals, particularly broad-spectrum ones, has had the consequence of making
pest attacks worse.^13 Routine use of antibiotics to treat diseases and promote the
growth of livestock has, unfortunately, increased the antibiotic resistance of patho-
gens that can infect humans and/or animals.
An IPM strategy does not preclude the use of chemicals. But the first lines of
defence against pests and diseases are biological, trying to utilize the defensive and