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Ninety-four ways to ignore Brandt
Report/Viewpoint
Participants share their experiences and explain why they made certain It often exposes the decisions. participants’ own preconceptions and value systems. And it can be highly emotional; some participants have been completely shaken by the simulated experience of their children starving to death, or become violently angry at the behaviour of some of the other players. The game has already been played extensively in many countries; participants have included school children, undergraduates and postgraduates, extension workers, UN agency officials and business executives. One small criticism: the name of the game is not entirely appropriate. But, on the other hand, it is probably better than the only other title I could think of - ‘Agropoly’. Owing to an initially
small production run, the cost of the game is high (about f200). Any profits from the exercise will be used as research funds in Cambridge and LSHTM. The game has great potential in helping all involved in designing and implementing agricultural projects to appreciate the real context within which farmers have to operate and make decisions about new technology. However, there is really only one way to understand the game, and that is to play it. Similarly, there is probably only one way to understand poverty and hunger. Co/in Blackman Editor, Food Policy The Green Revdution Game is marketed by Marginal Context Ltd, 36 St Andrew’s Road, Cambridge CB4 IDL, UK (Telephone: 0223-355539).
Viewpoint N~inety-four ways to ignore Brandt _ In March 1990, a Commission of 18 senior statesmen, headed by former West German Chancellor, W//y Brandf, published a report, NotIh-South - A Programme for Survival, which recommended 94 ways in which the countries of the North could help rhe South out of hunger and poverty and help itself in the bargain. Although the report was much discussed, the commissioners admitted in fate 1982 that virtually none of its recommendations had been implemented. But during the last three years, the economies of most countries in both North and South have deteriorated, whilst hunger is mom prevalent than ever. In response to this common crisis, the Brandt commissioners have now produced a second report. * If this is ako ignored, then prospects for substantially reducing hunger and ending world recession are grim. Many developing countries are now earning less from their exports, because of plummeting commodity prices, but are having to pay out more for their imports of food, oil and manufactured goods. Many have run into debt trying to balance their books and are having to pay high rates of interest on the debt. For some countries, says the new Brandt report, the balance of payments squeeze is now an ‘impossible burden’. The report urges the North to take more seriously the calls of the South for more aid, trading opportunities and financial reforms to give the South more resources. It stresses too the need for many countries in the South to make reforms in their own institutions.
‘sometimes it seems that even the unheroic step that could considerably improve the situation will not be taken’. There needs to be movement on two fronts, it says, first to ensure adequate incomes and second adequate food supplies. In some developing countries, it goes on, there are food surpluses, but people still go hungry as they lack money. As most hungry people live in rural areas, developing countries need to have, and to devote, more resources to employment creating agricultural development. Whilst the North could help the South to have more resources, many developing countries especially in Africa are devoting only a small proportion of their national budgets to agriculture. Government bodies often do not pay farmers enough to give them incentives. The worst of today’s food problems are in sub-Saharan Africa, says the report, where ‘foreign aid donors have taken a long time to understand how to help small scale farming and have too often supported large scale schemes with limited impact on food production’.
Cash
Aid for projects concerned with increasing food production is stagnating, and there is a disturbing tendency, the commissioners point out, for aid to go to cash rather than food crops. This might be seen as a criticism of the policies of the World Bank’s International Development Association The urgent need to expand food which has tended to encourage cash production is particularly stressed by rather than food crops. Ensuring that enough food would be the commissioners who say that improved trade and aid policies by the available if incomes were adequate is a task, North could help. The principal major but more manageable condition for an end to hunger and believes the report. But it warns that poverty, they say, is that those who do the shortage of foreign exchange limits not get enough to eat should have the the availability to poor countries of incomes to buy adequate food or the imported fertilizers, pesticides, farm means to produce it. ‘And that implements and spares, fuel for inigaencompasses practically everything in tion pumps and tractors. In these this document’, they say, ‘from the conditions, more aid for agriculture in international measures which would its traditional form is not enough. What provide a more favourable external is needed, says the report, is aid to local costs and recurrent environment for development, to cover expenditure. action by national leaders’. If present production trends do not What has to be done to end hunger is vast, admits the new report, and, change, it warns, then prospects for FooDKwcYMay1983
developing countries are ‘alarming’. Countries will be forced to import more food, provided they could afford it. So there is a ‘new urgency’ to raise food production. Whilst cooperation between North and South on food problems is described by the commiss- Symposium organized by De Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenioners as ‘wholly insufficient’, they schappelijk Onderzoek (TNO) on Polders of the World: The Use of Polders for Increasing Food Supplies, Lelystad, The Netherlands, 4-10 Gcfvber 1982. say that the European Economic Commission’s Plan of Action to Combat Hunger, if adequately This conference was not enthusiastically the Dutch commercial instinct which financed and greatly expanded, ‘could supported by FAO and UNESCO, and pervaded the conference; and contrast form a set of organising principles for a the World Bank declined to be named it with the fact that no British hydrolwider programme of North-South co- at all as a sponsor. It was suspected in ogist attempted to approach the operation’. The EEC plan proposes such quarters that the Dutch were aim- representatives the People’s of that food policies of developing ing to sell hard by soft measures. The Republic of China, who wanted to countries be supported, that there are number of Dutch organizations and make contact with British government projects to assist regions and measures Dutch participants was overwhelming. organizations. to increase external food security. Thus, in some ways, the meeting was a A polder is a piece of land isolated trade fair and an international collo- from the ambient hydrological regime. quium; but its purpose was to discuss This artificial land is often reclaimed Emergency scientifically polders world-wide. from deltas; of which, of course, the Common CnXs says that one particular Since the organizers had sought Netherlands is a large-scale example, need in Africa is for more adaptive international sponsorship, it is strange 60% having been impoldered over the research to discover which crop that they did not concentrate on the centuries. varieties and farming techniques are case for improved food production most suitable for local conditions. It which perhaps would have persuaded emphasizes the need for more resources the World Bank to become a sponsor. Various polders ecological degradation. to halt The problem of increasing the world’s Polders vary with their geographical Growing pressure on land, increasing food supplies is, however, often a position, history, soil and use. River use of chemicals, diversification and problem of ‘cutting down harvest and polders, on the banks of rivers, can deforestation are reducing the produc- storage 10sses’.~ This phrase appeared discharge their surplus water there and tivity of soils so much that the only in the last paper of the last session also draw water during drought. Outer commissioners believe that the of all. Yet if the facts of wastage and polders, beyond the main dykes, disproblem has now assumed emergency spoilage had been integrated with other charge their water directly to the open proportions. parts of the food shortage problem, sea or river. Inner polders, within the The continued pursuit of a new inter- and if that had been made central in the main dykes, discharge directly or via national wheat agreement is urged; original planning, the organizers could another polder into open water. Polders can be reclaimed entirely from they also propose a speedy review of have solicited papers which conformed international agricultural and food more exactly to what is a reasonable submerged land. In all cases, peat, clay agencies. On food aid they recommend case for selling polder projects to the or sand may predominate. As for use, a commitment to meet the agreed Third World. there are arable, grazing and peattarget of 5OOMKl tonnes for the cutting polders. Emergency Food Reserve, and that A polder is a triumph of technology. countries try to correct the past Complacency A dyke or embankment surrounds it; deficiencies of this kind of assistance. From a British standpoint, one must and water can be controlled either byWith both the food and overall world equally regret the fact that no paper being run off through a sluice or by economy so critical, governments may from the UK appeared on the subject being pumped out. Ditches and drains be more inclined to act on Brandt II, of the serious loss of agricultural land2 inside the polder carry the water to the than they did on Brandt I. The lives of and therefore how beneficial might be bigger water courses, and thence to the many could depend on Brandt II’s reclamation station. The groundwater for industry or airport pumping proposals being put quickly into action. siting. Whatever suggestion inheres in level can be so finely controlled that this article of complacency in the Dutch variations of centimetres within one John Madeley is to be seen in the context of the severe polder can be maintained. In urban Reading, UK problems of population and resources areas, the water level must be regulated in the Third World, which have an so that the tops of piles do not rot. crisis: North-soulh - effect on the same problems in the ‘common The pumping stations of the cooperation #br World hcow9fy, the Netherlands, in their unnumbered developed world. second report of the Brand Commis.sion, On the other hand. one must admire thousands, have a mean yearly conPan Woks, London,1983, El .95.
Conferences Pondering
FooDFoLlcYMay1963
on polders
157
Participants share their experiences and explain why they made certain It often exposes the decisions. participants’ own preconceptions and value systems. And it can be highly emotional; some participants have been completely shaken by the simulated experience of their children starving to death, or become violently angry at the behaviour of some of the other players. The game has already been played extensively in many countries; participants have included school children, undergraduates and postgraduates, extension workers, UN agency officials and business executives. One small criticism: the name of the game is not entirely appropriate. But, on the other hand, it is probably better than the only other title I could think of - ‘Agropoly’. Owing to an initially
small production run, the cost of the game is high (about f200). Any profits from the exercise will be used as research funds in Cambridge and LSHTM. The game has great potential in helping all involved in designing and implementing agricultural projects to appreciate the real context within which farmers have to operate and make decisions about new technology. However, there is really only one way to understand the game, and that is to play it. Similarly, there is probably only one way to understand poverty and hunger. Co/in Blackman Editor, Food Policy The Green Revdution Game is marketed by Marginal Context Ltd, 36 St Andrew’s Road, Cambridge CB4 IDL, UK (Telephone: 0223-355539).
Viewpoint N~inety-four ways to ignore Brandt _ In March 1990, a Commission of 18 senior statesmen, headed by former West German Chancellor, W//y Brandf, published a report, NotIh-South - A Programme for Survival, which recommended 94 ways in which the countries of the North could help rhe South out of hunger and poverty and help itself in the bargain. Although the report was much discussed, the commissioners admitted in fate 1982 that virtually none of its recommendations had been implemented. But during the last three years, the economies of most countries in both North and South have deteriorated, whilst hunger is mom prevalent than ever. In response to this common crisis, the Brandt commissioners have now produced a second report. * If this is ako ignored, then prospects for substantially reducing hunger and ending world recession are grim. Many developing countries are now earning less from their exports, because of plummeting commodity prices, but are having to pay out more for their imports of food, oil and manufactured goods. Many have run into debt trying to balance their books and are having to pay high rates of interest on the debt. For some countries, says the new Brandt report, the balance of payments squeeze is now an ‘impossible burden’. The report urges the North to take more seriously the calls of the South for more aid, trading opportunities and financial reforms to give the South more resources. It stresses too the need for many countries in the South to make reforms in their own institutions.
‘sometimes it seems that even the unheroic step that could considerably improve the situation will not be taken’. There needs to be movement on two fronts, it says, first to ensure adequate incomes and second adequate food supplies. In some developing countries, it goes on, there are food surpluses, but people still go hungry as they lack money. As most hungry people live in rural areas, developing countries need to have, and to devote, more resources to employment creating agricultural development. Whilst the North could help the South to have more resources, many developing countries especially in Africa are devoting only a small proportion of their national budgets to agriculture. Government bodies often do not pay farmers enough to give them incentives. The worst of today’s food problems are in sub-Saharan Africa, says the report, where ‘foreign aid donors have taken a long time to understand how to help small scale farming and have too often supported large scale schemes with limited impact on food production’.
Cash
Aid for projects concerned with increasing food production is stagnating, and there is a disturbing tendency, the commissioners point out, for aid to go to cash rather than food crops. This might be seen as a criticism of the policies of the World Bank’s International Development Association The urgent need to expand food which has tended to encourage cash production is particularly stressed by rather than food crops. Ensuring that enough food would be the commissioners who say that improved trade and aid policies by the available if incomes were adequate is a task, North could help. The principal major but more manageable condition for an end to hunger and believes the report. But it warns that poverty, they say, is that those who do the shortage of foreign exchange limits not get enough to eat should have the the availability to poor countries of incomes to buy adequate food or the imported fertilizers, pesticides, farm means to produce it. ‘And that implements and spares, fuel for inigaencompasses practically everything in tion pumps and tractors. In these this document’, they say, ‘from the conditions, more aid for agriculture in international measures which would its traditional form is not enough. What provide a more favourable external is needed, says the report, is aid to local costs and recurrent environment for development, to cover expenditure. action by national leaders’. If present production trends do not What has to be done to end hunger is vast, admits the new report, and, change, it warns, then prospects for FooDKwcYMay1983
developing countries are ‘alarming’. Countries will be forced to import more food, provided they could afford it. So there is a ‘new urgency’ to raise food production. Whilst cooperation between North and South on food problems is described by the commiss- Symposium organized by De Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenioners as ‘wholly insufficient’, they schappelijk Onderzoek (TNO) on Polders of the World: The Use of Polders for Increasing Food Supplies, Lelystad, The Netherlands, 4-10 Gcfvber 1982. say that the European Economic Commission’s Plan of Action to Combat Hunger, if adequately This conference was not enthusiastically the Dutch commercial instinct which financed and greatly expanded, ‘could supported by FAO and UNESCO, and pervaded the conference; and contrast form a set of organising principles for a the World Bank declined to be named it with the fact that no British hydrolwider programme of North-South co- at all as a sponsor. It was suspected in ogist attempted to approach the operation’. The EEC plan proposes such quarters that the Dutch were aim- representatives the People’s of that food policies of developing ing to sell hard by soft measures. The Republic of China, who wanted to countries be supported, that there are number of Dutch organizations and make contact with British government projects to assist regions and measures Dutch participants was overwhelming. organizations. to increase external food security. Thus, in some ways, the meeting was a A polder is a piece of land isolated trade fair and an international collo- from the ambient hydrological regime. quium; but its purpose was to discuss This artificial land is often reclaimed Emergency scientifically polders world-wide. from deltas; of which, of course, the Common CnXs says that one particular Since the organizers had sought Netherlands is a large-scale example, need in Africa is for more adaptive international sponsorship, it is strange 60% having been impoldered over the research to discover which crop that they did not concentrate on the centuries. varieties and farming techniques are case for improved food production most suitable for local conditions. It which perhaps would have persuaded emphasizes the need for more resources the World Bank to become a sponsor. Various polders ecological degradation. to halt The problem of increasing the world’s Polders vary with their geographical Growing pressure on land, increasing food supplies is, however, often a position, history, soil and use. River use of chemicals, diversification and problem of ‘cutting down harvest and polders, on the banks of rivers, can deforestation are reducing the produc- storage 10sses’.~ This phrase appeared discharge their surplus water there and tivity of soils so much that the only in the last paper of the last session also draw water during drought. Outer commissioners believe that the of all. Yet if the facts of wastage and polders, beyond the main dykes, disproblem has now assumed emergency spoilage had been integrated with other charge their water directly to the open proportions. parts of the food shortage problem, sea or river. Inner polders, within the The continued pursuit of a new inter- and if that had been made central in the main dykes, discharge directly or via national wheat agreement is urged; original planning, the organizers could another polder into open water. Polders can be reclaimed entirely from they also propose a speedy review of have solicited papers which conformed international agricultural and food more exactly to what is a reasonable submerged land. In all cases, peat, clay agencies. On food aid they recommend case for selling polder projects to the or sand may predominate. As for use, a commitment to meet the agreed Third World. there are arable, grazing and peattarget of 5OOMKl tonnes for the cutting polders. Emergency Food Reserve, and that A polder is a triumph of technology. countries try to correct the past Complacency A dyke or embankment surrounds it; deficiencies of this kind of assistance. From a British standpoint, one must and water can be controlled either byWith both the food and overall world equally regret the fact that no paper being run off through a sluice or by economy so critical, governments may from the UK appeared on the subject being pumped out. Ditches and drains be more inclined to act on Brandt II, of the serious loss of agricultural land2 inside the polder carry the water to the than they did on Brandt I. The lives of and therefore how beneficial might be bigger water courses, and thence to the many could depend on Brandt II’s reclamation station. The groundwater for industry or airport pumping proposals being put quickly into action. siting. Whatever suggestion inheres in level can be so finely controlled that this article of complacency in the Dutch variations of centimetres within one John Madeley is to be seen in the context of the severe polder can be maintained. In urban Reading, UK problems of population and resources areas, the water level must be regulated in the Third World, which have an so that the tops of piles do not rot. crisis: North-soulh - effect on the same problems in the ‘common The pumping stations of the cooperation #br World hcow9fy, the Netherlands, in their unnumbered developed world. second report of the Brand Commis.sion, On the other hand. one must admire thousands, have a mean yearly conPan Woks, London,1983, El .95.
Conferences Pondering
FooDFoLlcYMay1963
on polders
157