The Environmental and Social Costs of Improvement 49weeding and paddy transplantation, were formerly segregated, they are now car-
ried out by both women and men.
This is in fact a successful case of agricultural regeneration based on a judicial
mix of local and external resources. Where it differs from the bulk of agricultural
modernization efforts is in the formation of local institutions necessary for sustaining
the changes. Once the migration cycle had been broken, people could stay in the
village and were able to be fully involved in local decision making. These local insti-
tutions are a critical part of any effort for sustainable and self-reliant agriculture.
Summary
The pursuit of increased productivity and conserved natural resources in the course
of rural modernization has produced benefits in the form of improved food pro-
duction and some improvements in resource conservation. But these improve-
ments look so good that it is easy to forget there have been losers as well as winners.
All sectors of economies have been affected by modernization. The drive for agri-
cultural efficiency has drastically cut the numbers of people engaged in agriculture
in industrialized countries. External inputs of machines, fossil fuels, pesticides and
fertilizers have displaced workers in Green Revolution lands. Rural cultures have
been put under pressure, as more and more people have been forced to migrate in
search of work. Local institutions, once strong, have become co-opted by the state
or have simply withered away.
Many environmental and health impacts have increased in recent years; others
have continued to persist despite all efforts to reduce them. These costs of environ-
mental damage are growing, and are dispersed throughout many environments
and sectors of national economies. A largely hidden cost of modern agriculture is
the fossil fuel it must consume to keep outputs high. Modern agriculture has
tended to substitute external energy sources for locally available ones. For each
kilogramme of cereal from modernized high input conditions, 3–10MJ of energy
are consumed in its production; but for each kilogramme of cereal from sustaina-
ble, low input farming, only 0.5–1MJ are consumed. A shift to low input systems
could, therefore, have an impact on the process of global warming.
Pesticides have caused problems by inducing resistance in pests and damaging
the health of farmers, farmworkers and consumers. The hazards are greater in
developing countries and emerging evidence is producing a bleaker picture than
appeared to be the case in the 1980s. According to the latest estimates from the
WHO, a minimum of 3 million and perhaps as many as 25 million agricultural
workers are poisoned each year, with perhaps 20,000 deaths. Studies in the Philip-
pines, in particular, are showing how costly these problems are to national econo-
mies as well as to the affected individuals.
Despite the fact that indigenous systems of soil and water conservation are wide-
spread, well adapted to local conditions, persist for long periods and are capable of