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Figure 5-3. Research Budgets of the CGIAR International Agricultural Research Centers, Monsanto Corporation, and Syngenta.

Figure 5-3 illustrates the asymmetry in the agricultural research budgets of the Monsanto Corporation, the CGIAR international agricultural research centers, and national research programs in South America.

It is time to evaluate the private networks that have sought to replace the public sector in agricultural extension work. Agricultural extension services need to be adapted to changes in agriculture: the preponderant role of peasant women, part-time farmers who combine farming with other work, temporary migrations, and nonfarm rural jobs. Yet there is a certain contradiction between the holistic vision,

which insists that agriculture extension must take account of all producers, in particular small-scale producers and all the activities of peasant families, and the fact that funding targeted at these groups is declining.

The solutions must be found in coordinating public efforts with private networks, under contracts that involve competition for public funding. The effectiveness of these private networks and their long-term impacts should be assessed, in light of their ambition to replace the public sector in agricultural extension work (See Chapter 2).

These problems explain why some local products are overlooked and do not receive sufficient support to penetrate national, regional or international markets. A portion of agricultural extension services is paid for by organizations of producers, when their crops serve as feedstocks for a pro-

 

cessing industry: soybeans, sugarcane, cotton, coffee and to some extent milk. The problem arises in farming-livestock or multi-crop units. A better understanding of peasant organizations would help bring them into the networks that now exist or are being constituted. What the mono-crop associations are now doing through the organization of their productive chain should be extended to diversified producers including small farmers, but with government incentives.

5.4.4 Climate change
The global climate change that is affecting the planet is due to the release of greenhouse gases, which have increased significantly through massive use of fossil fuels. The root causes of this problem are the generation and consumption of energy in the form of coal or oil, automotive transport, and energy-intensive industrial processes. The burning of biomass in the forests is also harmful, not only because it releases carbon dioxide but also because it reduces the “carbon sink” that photosynthesis represents.

In 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) sounded the warning about rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from human activities, leading to higher annual average temperatures accompanied by a changing climate. The greenhouse effect will be felt primarily in higher average world temperatures. This will affect all the processes that take place in the biosphere. The oceans will expand under the impact of warming, and the polar ice caps will melt, raising sea levels. Many low-lying coastal areas are at risk of disappearing under the sea. Preventing such occurrences will involve huge engineering costs (CONAM, 2006).

In general terms, the three broad issues that climate change management can and must address are the reduction of poverty and hunger, the improvement of competitiveness, and the achievement of sustainability. In order to do so effectively, climate change management must respond to the following challenges:

  • How to reduce vulnerability to climate change (especially for the poorest population groups), the impact onproduction systems and infrastructure, and how to reap the potential benefits that climate change may offer;
  • How to achieve energy and food security throughout the LAC region, through policies to mitigate the greenhouse effect and adapt to climate change;
  • How to control emissions from deforestation, industry, and energy production;
  • How to bring the LAC region into global policy, taking account of the benefits and impacts of climate change.

These challenges imply broadening the front against climate change to include all polluting countries (with mutual but differentiated responsibilities) and all the sectors involved (transportation in general, deforestation, etc.) (CONAM, 2006), through:

  • Fostering innovation, which includes the application of existing technologies, and developing new technologies (in particular, active policies that take advantage of the normal replacement of equipment).
  • Use and strengthening of market instruments (such as the trading in emission rights introduced by the EU).