Policies and Institutions

Abstract

Unprecedented challenges to agriculture — including population growth, climate change, energy scarcity, natural resources degradation and market globalization — underscore the need to rethink policies and institutions for crop production intensification. Models used for intensification in the past have often led to costly environmental damage, and need to be revised in order to achieve greater sustainability. While “business as usual” is clearly not an option, what alternatives are available?

The focus here is on defining the conditions, policies and institutions that will enable smallholder farmers — in low-income developing economies in particular — to adopt sustainable crop production intensification. It also considers overarching issues that affect not only SCPI, but are important for the development of an agricultural sector in which SCPI is facilitated and supported. It recognizes that programmes to promote SCPI may need to go beyond “agricultural” institutions and involve other centres of policymaking.