LESSON 2

INTRODUCTION TO
AGRICULTURE AND THE
ECOSYSTEM

TOPICS
Agriculture and environment
Agriculture and society
Analysis of food production and population growth in developed and
developing countries

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
analyze the relationship between agriculture and the environment, and the
conflict between productivity and environmental issues.
enhance sense of awareness about rural poverty.
 Topic 1: Agriculture and Environment

Integrating environment concerns into agricultural policy

What we want to learn about this topic?

This section of the course examines the relationship between
agricultural production and the environment and the way in which this
impact is influenced and should be influenced by agricultural policies.
This relationship is of particular interest to economists because many of
the environmental impacts of agriculture give rise to various forms of
market and government failure. 

Market failure results from the inadequacy of markets as a

mechanism both in safeguarding and providing environmental goods,
such as unpolluted water or the recreational benefits enjoyed by access
to the countryside. 

Government failure is indicated by the fact that the high levels of

assistance to the agricultural sector distort farming practices to the
detriment of the environment. Of particular interest, therefore, is how
environmental externalities and public goods will be affected by CAP
reforms. Where market failures exist even after the reduction of support,
then specific interventions to limit negative externalities and develop the
supply of public goods by agriculture can be justified.

Interactions between agriculture and the environment

Soil quality (sustainability concerns):

Issues here are contamination, erosion, desertification, nutrient

supply and moisture balance. Soils can be damaged by changes in land
use practices such as deforestation, the removal of hedgerows,
overgrazing, neglect of soil conservation methods or the farming of
uncultivated land. Soil erosion is a particularly acute problem in
Mediterranean countries.

Water quality and quantity (pollution concerns):

Issues here include leaching of nutrients and pesticides, water

extraction and drainage and flooding. Contamination of both ground and
surface waters caused by high levels of production and use of manure
and chemical fertilisers is a serious problem, particularly in areas of
intensive livestock or specialised crop production. Water quantity
problems arise in regions where water consumption exceeds critical
levels in relation to available water resources. A growing area of farmland
in Europe is irrigated, and agriculture is the most significant user of
water in the Mediterranean parts of Europe. How best to allocate limited
supplies of water among competing uses is an urgent issue of concern.
Air quality (pollution concerns):

The issues here are emissions of greenhouse gases and ammonia.

At EU level, agriculture is responsible for about 8% of total greenhouse
gas emissions but is the principal source of methane (from cattle
production) and nitrogen oxide (from grazing livestock) contributing
around 40% of these two gases.

Biodiversity (conservation concerns):

Issues include genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. The

intensification of agriculture has led to widespread reduction of species
and habitats. However, about two-fifths of the EU's agricultural area
remains under low intensity systems - mainly either grazing land under
various systems of livestock management or permanent crops under
traditional management. They support semi-natural habitats and wildlife
species of conservation importance, but may face the threat of
abandonment or of intensification. These threats may be intensified in a
future environment of high food prices in response to growing food and
biofuels demand.

Landscape (amenity concerns):

More an aesthetic and cultural issue. The marginalisation of

agricultural land can lead to its abandonment if farming ceases to be
viable. Alternatively, intensification of agriculture can lead to the loss of
important landscape features such as hedges and ponds, the
enlargement of fields and the replacement of traditional farm buildings
with industrial structures. Rights of access may be restricted in interests
of more efficient farming.

Food safety and animal welfare concerns:

Issue here is the effect of agricultural practices on human health

rather than the physical environment. There is also concern about the
consequences for the quality and safety of the food supply of the
increasing use of pesticides and drugs, leading to encouragement to
organic farming.

Agri-environment indicators and the environmental performance of

agriculture

A common framework is used by OECD to structure the process of

developing agri-environment indicators. The Driving Force-State-
Response (DSR) framework identifies: driving force indicators, focusing
on the causes of change in environmental conditions in agriculture, such
as changes in farm management practices and the use of farm
inputs; state indicators, highlighting the effects of agriculture on the
environment, for example, impacts on soil, water, and biodiversity;
and response indicators covering the actions taken to respond to the
changes in the state of the environment, such as variations in agri-
environmental research expenditure.

Driving forces include:

 nutrient use
 pesticide use and risks
  water use

State indicators include:

 soil quality
 water quality
 land conservation
 greenhouse gases
 biodiversity
 wildlife habitats
 landscape

Response indicators

 number of farmers enrolled in agri-environment programmes

 budget expenditure on agri-environment programmes

Topic 2: Agriculture and Society

Agrarian society

An agrarian society focuses its economy primarily on

agriculture and the cultivation of large fields. This distinguishes it from
the hunter-gatherer society, which produces none of its own food, and
the horticultural society, which produces food in small gardens rather
than fields.

Development of Agrarian Societies

The transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agrarian societies
is called the Neolithic Revolution and has happened at various times in
various parts of the world. The earliest known Neolithic Revolution
happened between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent —
the area of the Middle East stretching from present-day Iraq to Egypt.
Other areas of agrarian societal development include Central and South
America, East Asia (India), China, and Southeast Asia.

How hunter-gatherer societies transitioned to agrarian societies is

unclear. There are many theories, including ones based on climate
change and social pressures. But at some point, these societies
deliberately planted crops and changed their life cycles to accommodate
the life cycles of their agriculture.

Hallmarks of Agrarian Societies

Agrarian Societies allow for more complex social structures.

Hunter-gatherers spend an inordinate amount of time seeking food. The
farmer’s labor creates surplus food, which can be stored over periods of
time, and thus frees other members of society from the quest for
foodstuffs. This allows for greater specialization among members of
agrarian societies.

The Future of Agrarian Societies 

As hunter-gatherer societies evolve into agrarian societies, so do

agrarian societies evolve into industrial ones. When less than half the
members of an agrarian society are actively engaged in agriculture, that
society has become industrial. These societies import food, and their
cities are centers of trade and manufacturing.

Industrial societies are also innovators in technology. Today, the

Industrial Revolution is still being applied to agrarian societies. While it
is still the most common kind of human economic activity, agriculture
accounts for less and less of the world’s output. Technology applied to
agriculture has created increases in the output of farms while requiring
fewer actual farmers.

The role of agriculture in modern society

Agriculture provides the basis of subsistence for the population by

production of food and raw materials. Traditionally, the inhabitants of
each country or region depended on the bread-basket filled by the
farmers, i.e., everybody depended on agriculture and was interested in
its fate. In recent times, regional and international trade have reduced
the dependence on home agriculture, and the quantity of available food
is less a function of the harvest than of the political decision on the
amount of food imports.

To meet the requirements of the ever increasing population with its

higher purchasing power, and this despite less and less manpower
because of the high outmigration from rural areas, agriculture increased
its outputs and productivity, a process which had consequences for the
price of agricultural products. The more people live in the cities and have
to buy food at the market, the more agricultural prices became a political
issue. The interest of urban society in agriculture is an interest in low
prices, and the request of the primary sector for price increases is a
regular nuisance for the urban population.

The increase in output and productivity of agriculture could only

be achieved by division of work and specialization. Today only part of the
production process takes place on the farm, while, in addition,
agriculture uses industrial products like fertilizer, pesticides, machinery
and equipment, the services of the tertiary sector like banking, insurance
etc. and hands its products over to other sectors for packing, processing,
or distribution. Today, agriculture is deeply interwoven with other
sectors of the economy. It cannot produce anymore without their inputs
and services, and acts itself as a customer to these other sectors, thus
providing work and income outside of agriculture.

These changes in agriculture had consequences for the

agricultural population. Many people from rural areas migrated to the
cities and filled the ranks of workers in the secondary and tertiary
sectors. For the remaining rural population, agriculture changed from a
way of life to a profession in which technical know-how plays an ever
increasing role. Frequently, the structure and organization of the farm
changed. New forms like part-time farming arose. In areas with very tiny
holdings and poor soil, rural-urban migration reached the stage, where
only the aged live in the village. Particularly under such conditions, the
responsibility of agriculture for the preservation of nature adds to the
roles it plays today.

The changes in agriculture — briefly outlined here — bring with

them new tasks in training and research for colleges of agriculture. The
process of agricultural production has become increasingly complex and
requires therefore scientific help in research and extension. The need for
optimizing the allocation of inputs has given agricultural economics
importance, especially in the field of farm management. Necessary
changes in the agrarian structure require special studies. The
applications of inputs in agriculture have created new tasks in fields like
agricultural chemistry and engineering, and the processing of food has
become a new area of specialization. Such a highly differentiated
organization of agriculture requires professional associations. Finally, the
provision of food for the population with so many contributors and
interest-groups can be achieved only with a functioning marketing and
distribution system as well as a sound agricultural policy.

Analysis of Food Production and Population Growth

Philippine population- 83.7 million (2006) 91, 077, 287

Age structure- 0-14 years: 34.5% (male 16, 043, 257/ female 15, 415,
334)
15-64 years: 61.3% (male 27, 849, 584/ female 28, 008, 293)
65 years and over: 4.1% (male 1,631,866/female 2, 128, 953)
Population growth rate-2.36% annually (highest in Asia) the country’s
population is projected to reach 11.84M in 2025 and 147.3.M in 2050.
Birth rate- 24.48 births/1000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate-5.36 deaths/1000 population (2007 est.)
Net migration rate- -1.48 migrants/ 1000 population (2007 est)
Sex ratio- at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.041 male(s)/female
5-64 years: 0.994 male(s)/ female
65 years and over: 0.767 male(s)/ female
Total population- 0.999 male(s)/ female ((2007 est.)
Population below poverty line- 32.9% (2006 est.)
Labor force- 40 million (2011 est.)
Labor force by occupation:
agriculture-33%
industry-15%
services-52%(2010 est.)
Unemployment rate- 7% (2011 est.) and 7.3% (2010 est.)
Unemployment, youth ages 15-24
Total-17.4%
Male-16.2%
Female-19.3% (2009)
Malthus Principle of Population
The essential element was that population grew geometrically while
food increased arithmetically.
Figure 3. Malthus Principle of Population

Moral restraint -According to Malthus, the only acceptable means of

preventing a birth: postpone marriage, remaining chaste in the
meantime.

Means of subsistence-Ultimate check to growth.

Figure 4. Projected Population Growth

10 Largest Countries (millions)

2011 2050
1. China 1,346 India 1,692
2. India 1,241 China 1,313
3. United States 312 Nigeria 433
4. Indonesia 238 United States 423
5. Brazil 197 Pakistan 314
6. Pakistan 177 Indonesia 309
7. Nigeria 162 Bangladesh 226
8. Bangladesh 151 Brazil 223
9. Russia 143 Ethiopia 174
10. Japan 128 Philippines 150

Competing Stands on Population in the Philippines

The Catholic Church

-Encourage families to have as many children as they raise and educate

well.

-Approves only natural family-planning methods.

-Would not support any form of artificial contraception.

-Any form of artificial birth control is anti-life.

Competing Stands on Population in the Philippines

The State

In educating teenagers, this would expose them to the use of

artificial contraceptives like condoms and pills.

We will orient teenagers about the responsibility of not having

children at an early age but we will not tell them that they are free to use
condoms and contraceptives.

Why a Birth Control Policy?

Government’s Response

-Such a population policy is urgently needed to stop the worsening

maternal and child deaths brought by unplanned pregnancies in the
country.

-The United Nations Populations Fund has estimated that more than
400, 000 women put their lives at risk each year by having abortions,
which are still illegal in the Philippines.

-To curb population growth, this is a major cause of poverty.

Woman’s Groups:
-Promote, defend and uphold the rights of women.
-Supports artificial contraception and other methods.
-Supports sex education.
-Pushes for increased government support in improving access to family
planning services.
-Pushes for access to modern contraceptives and its distribution, even in
rural areas, as part of the rights of woman.
A Survey Conducted by the Polling Group Social Weather Station
last year found out the following:
20% (percent) of Filipino women aged between 18-24 admitted taking
contraceptive pills.
2% (percent) used condoms.
70% (percent) of Filipinos were not using any family planning methods.
-Substantial societal changes have improved Filipino women’s lives and
influenced their family-size goals.
-Fertility has fallen considerably, and woman wants even fewer children
than they typically have.
-Almost half of recent births were either not wanted at all or not wanted
at the time.
-At the national level, this situation has not improved over the last
decade; in some regions, unplanned childbearing has increased.
-Non-use of contraception and increasing use of traditional methods
contribute to the high level of unplanned pregnancy.

-Half of married women do not want a child soon, or want no more

children, but are not using a modern contraceptive.

-An estimated 400, 000 women from all regions and backgrounds have
illegal abortions each year; approximately 100,000 are hospitalized for
related complications.

-Poor access to modern contraceptives, a reflection of a lack of social and

political support, is a major obstacle to wider use.

-Increased government support and resources are needed at all levels to

improve access to family planning services.

Hunger and Food Insecurity Widespread

-About 1 billion people (1 out of every 7 people in the world suffer

hunger)

 1.4 billion People live on less than $1.25 per day.

 2.6 billion (Almost 40% of the world’s population) live on less than
$2.00 per day.

-Hunger is due mainly to poverty.

 The rich in no country go hungry except in times of war, natural

disaster or politically imposed famine.

-To solve the worlds hunger problem, the world poverty problem must be
solved.

-70% of the extreme poor live in rural areas.

 Most are farmers, and most are net food buyers.

Figure 5. Number of People Living in Extreme Poverty

Higher Food Prices Increase the Incidence of Hunger

-Low income people spend a large faction of their incomes on food, so

higher food prices reduce the purchasing power of their meagre incomes.
-The 2007-2008 price spike increased number of people suffering hunger
from 925 million to over 1 billion and aggravated by political crises in
many countries.

Figure 6. Share of food expenditures in total expenditures

Squatting Trends in the Philippines

Population Growth and Urbanization

-The Philippines is the world’s 12 th most populous country, with a

population of over 85 million as of 2005.

-The Philippines has one of the highest population growth rates in the
world at an average of 2. 36% observed in the last eight years.

-Of the total population of 76 million (2003), 40 million (52%) live in

urban areas. By 2010, urban population is projected to increase to 56
million (60%).

Squatting Trends in the Philippines

Metro manila (Capital)- is now the 17 th among the world’s population

urban agglomerations and will rise to the 15 th by 2015 (Philippines
Population Commission).

o At least one third of the Philippines population concentrated

in its four towns and 13 cities.
o Where 2/3 of the total population reside and more than 50%
of its 11 million populations live in slums or depressed
areas.

Food vs. Population

Aggregate food production has grown dramatically in past 100 years.

Two main sources of increases in food production:

1. Area expansion
2. Technical progress

Indicator of growth in food production:

-long term trend in food prices has been downward, but concerns about
a slowdown in food production have been raised.

Figure 7. Huge Growth in Food Consumption Expected from Economic

Growth

Projected World Food Demand

World food demand to grow 70-80% by 2050

-40% increase from world population growth-from 7.0 to 9.6 billion-
almost all in developing countries.

-30-40% increase from broad-based economic growth in low income

countries.

The Land Constraints

-There is at most 12% more arable land available worldwide that isn’t
presently forested or subject to erosion or desertification, and loss and
degradation of many soils continues:

o Urbanization and infrastructure construction

o Nutrient mining
o Erosion
o Desertification
o Natural reserves
o Reforestation

-The area of land in farm production could be doubled.

o But only by massive destruction of forests and loss of wildlife

habitat, biodiversity and carbon sequestration capacity.

-The only environmentally sustainable alternative is to double

productivity on the fertile, non-erodible soils already in crop production.

Water Growing Constraints

-Farmers use 70% of the fresh water used in the world.

-With rapid urbanization, cities are likely to outbid agriculture for

available water.

-The world farmers need to double food production using less water than
today.

Agriculturally Important Effects of Climate Change

-Warming greater over land than over water and greatest at higher
latitudes.

-Increases spatial distribution of precipitation

o Largest reduction in subtropics (especially on their poleward

edges)
o Largest increases in higher latitudes
o Increase under monsoons

-Increased frequency of extreme events, such as drought and flooding

Need Large Increase in Food System Productivity

-Make presently unusable soil productive

-Increase genetic potential (of individual crops and/or farming system)

(ditto for arm animals).

-Achieve as much of that potential as possible by:

o Improving nutrition of that crop

o Increasing water availability and control
 o Reducing competition from weeds for water, nutrients and
sunlight
o Reducing losses from disease and insects

-Reduce post-harvest losses

Topic 3: Analysis of Food Production and

Population Growth in Developed and
Developing Countries

The challenge of food production

Until the second half of this century, agricultural research focused

largely on the needs of industrialized countries; where it reached the
developing countries, it was directed for the most part towards crops that
were important to the developed world. After the Second World War - and
particularly after the food crisis of the 1960s - the focus began to change.
International research centres were founded and local scientists trained.
Sub-Saharan Africa now has four times more scientists than it did in
1961, although expenditure on research has fallen.

Research in Mexico and the Philippines in the 1950s and 1960s

led to the development of the high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice
that launched the Green Revolution. Between 1950 and 1980,
production of food in the developing world rose by an average of 3
percent a year, outstripping population growth. India's wheat production
trebled between 1967 and 1982; rice production in the Philippines
doubled between 1960 and 1980. Today, high-yielding varieties cover
half the world's wheat lands and most of its rice paddies. The extra rice
produced, alone, feeds 700 million people.

The success of the first high-yielding varieties depended on the

availability of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides and on the use of
machinery - favouring prosperous farmers and those with access to
water and transport. The revolution was mostly confined to Asia and
parts of Latin America, but Africa was hardly touched.

As each new variety usually lasted for only three to four years
before adaptation of pests and diseases caused its resistance to break
down, scientists had to keep breeding new strains. Over 1 000 new
varieties of rice have been launched since 1966.

There is now a new concentration on development of crops to suit

less favourable soils and climates: new varieties of wheat which will grow
in drought-prone climates are being developed as are strains of rice
suited to the acid soils of Latin America's savannahs and the poor
lowland soils of South and Southeast Asia. A hybrid rice developed in
China has raised hopes of a new miracle rice which will help to boost
harvests by the 74 percent that will be needed by 2020. Such
breakthroughs are urgently needed: rice yields in Asia seem to have
levelled out even though the population continues to increase.
 Meanwhile other international research centres, set up in the
1960s and 1970s, have focused on other crops. Recent successes include
new strains of faba bean the "poor man's food" - which have transformed
Egypt from an importer to an exporter of the crop; a sweet sorghum,
developed in China, which is used as animal feed and for the production
of alcohol for fuel; high-yielding varieties of cassava - Africa's most widely
grown staple food - which doubled yields in the 1980s and are set to do
so again; and a hybrid pigeon pea which offers the hope of a "green
revolution" in pulses. Research has also improved methods of growing
crops, such as the discovery of ways of applying fertilizer more efficiently
to Chinese cabbage crops.

In all this, scientists are increasingly aware that progress depends

on listening to the farmers and drawing on their own knowledge and
experience.