ROA Environmental Module Workhop FAO International Conference on The Roles of Agriculture in Developing Countries Workshop on Agriculture and Environmental

ROA Environmental Module Workhop

FAO International Conference on

The Roles of Agriculture in Developing Countries

Workshop on Agriculture and Environmental Externalities

21 October 2003


What are the objectives of the environmental module

case studies?The aims of National level

assessments:– to provide an overview of the major

agricultural-related environmental issues;– to present a policy landscape describing

what policy models and tools are being used;

– to explain the pressures driving changes in agricultural practices that induce positive or negative externalities.


What are the objectives of the environmental module

case studies?

The aims of the site specific study are:– to examine how markets, institutions and

policies interact to produce ‘sub-optimal’ social outcomes

– to quantify the value of the agricultural externalities, including measuring the non-market values;

– the emphasis is placed on the economic and environmental impacts at the local, regional, national and global levels.


What are the pressures driving changes in

agricultural externalities?• International development

community pressures to integrate environmental objectives with agricultural objectives;

• Treaty pressures (MEAs), the ROA case study countries participate in various international bodies to harmonize criteria and codes of conduct for farming practices.


What are the pressures driving changes in

agricultural externalities?• Trade pressures:

i. the increased demand for safe and uncontaminated foods and

ii. increased demand for sustainable production practices.

• Poverty pressures, as the poor:i. live in fragile areas;ii. lack the capital necessary to invest in

natural resource protection;iii. tend to have high rates of time preference;iv. are unable even to avoid the impacts of

environmental degradation on their existing production base.


How are the countries managing agricultural

externalities?i. integrating environmental concerns

into policy decision making?;ii. modifying existing practices to

reduce negative environmental consequences;

iii. promoting local, national, regional and global initiatives;

iv. examples of countries actively promoting positive externalities?


Common characteristicsacross counties

• Common types of interventions include:– extension and advisory measures, conservation

etc;– regulatory measures, eg, bans, standards, or

labeling requirements.

• Economic instruments such as taxes, subsidies or tradable quotas are rare in the cases presented. (Chile and Mexico have enacted tradable water rights systems).

• The extension programmes include promotion of alternative agriculture production systems and integrated pest management


Common characteristicsacross counties

1) most environmental programmes and policies aimed at the agriculture are recent;

2) technical difficulties associated with evaluating one particular policy when it forms part of a larger policy package;

3) a lack of data and/or evaluation culture and practice;

4) choosing appropriate alternatives with which to compare policy performance;

5) the non-point source/nonmarket nature of agricultural externalities;

6) incompatible division of responsibilities among government and donor agencies?


What are we learning from

the site studies? • See matrix of examples• One group measures positive

externalities;• A second group measures

reduction in negative;• A third group measures

perceptions and basic economic assessments


What are we learning from

the site studies?• Inadequate information on damages

and thresholds;• Incomplete set of values (under

counting?)• Benefits and Costs need valuing (over

counting?)• Assigning benefits• Better understanding of linkages-

macro, economy-wide and cross sectoral


Future Research Agenda?

Environmental Servicesa) Water, watersheds, water and

health;b) Soil conservation; c) Carbon sequestration;d) Biological diversity management;e) Seed genetic stock maintenance;f) Agricultural heritage systems.


Environmental Services and Poverty Alleviation

• Develop policies and strategies to promote positive environmental outcomes and poverty outcomes;

• Develop policies to enhance resource availability for environmental services provided by the poor;

• Develop a better understanding of the economics of environmental services.


Empirical Studies

• What is available on existing studies and performance (ROA countries);

• Develop conceptual paper and summary of cases to use for analysis;

• Case studies:– The type of environmental service– Who pays, and what criteria


Case studies

– The type of environmental service• What, how much, distribution, who

benefits

– How to maintain or enhance-• Policy reforms• Institutional reforms• Market reforms• Cash or in-kind payments

– Monitoring/enforcement mechanisms


Low High

Productivity Potential

High

Low policy intervention

Incentives for environmental

benefits

Low environmental research priority

Environmental research

Low

Yield promoting policies and

Payments for environmental

services

Yield promoting research

Sustainabilityresearch

Environmental Benefit


Case Study Outcomes

• Benefit/cost analysis of various options;

• Develop targeting criteria to account for poverty outcomes and environmental outcomes;

• Analyze distributional effect within and between sectors;

• Target results to policy community.

Documents

ROA Environmental Module Workhop FAO International Conference on The Roles of Agriculture in Developing Countries Workshop on Agriculture and Environmental