Reality Cheques 39The Radical Challenge of Integration
The substantial external costs of modern agriculture, and the known external ben-
efits of sustainable agricultural systems, pose great challenges for policy makers. A
range of policy reforms could do much to internalize some of these costs and ben-
efits in prices. In practice, as no single solution is likely to suffice, the key issue rests
on how policy makers choose an appropriate mix of solutions, how these are inte-
grated, and how farmers, consumers and other stakeholders are involved in the
process of reform itself. Attention will therefore need to be paid to the social and
institutional processes that both encourage farmers to work and learn together,
and result in integrated cross-sectoral partnerships. Policy integration is vital, yet
most policies seeking to link agriculture with more environmentally-sensitive
management are still highly fragmented.
The problem is that environmental policies have tended only to green the
edges of farming. An essentially modernist agriculture remains much as it ever was,
but is now tinged green. Non-crop habitats have been improved, perhaps some
hedges, woodlands and wetlands. But the food is largely produced in the conven-
tional manner. The bigger challenge is to find ways of substantially greening the
middle of farming – in the field rather than around the edges. A thriving and sus-
tainable agricultural sector requires both integrated action by farmers and com-
munities, and integrated action by policy makers and planners. This implies both
horizontal integration with better linkages between sectors, and vertical integra-
tion with better linkages from the micro- to macro-level. Most policy initiatives are
still piecemeal, affecting only a small part of a individual farmer’s practices, and so
not necessarily leading to substantial shifts towards sustainability.
The 1990s saw considerable global progress towards the recognition of the
need for policies to support sustainable agriculture. In a few countries, this has
been translated into supportive and integrated policy frameworks. In most, how-
ever, sustainability policies remain at the margins. Only two countries – Cuba and
Switzerland, discussed in more detail below – have given explicit national support
for sustainable agriculture, putting it at the centre of agricultural development
policy. Several countries have given sub-regional support, such as the states of
Santa Caterina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sol in southern Brazil supporting zero-
tillage and catchment management, and some states in India supporting watershed
management or participatory irrigation management. A much larger number have
reformed parts of agricultural policies, such as China’s support for integrated eco-
logical demonstration villages, Kenya’s catchment approach to soil conservation,
Indonesia’s ban on pesticides and programme for farmer field schools, India’s sup-
port for soybean processing and marketing, Bolivia’s regional integration of agri-
cultural and rural policies, Sweden’s support for organic agriculture, Burkina Faso’s
land policy, and Sri Lanka and the Philippines’ stipulation that water users’ groups
manage irrigation systems.
One of the best examples of a carefully designed and integrated programme
comes from China. In March 1994, the government published a White Paper to