Critiques and evaluations
The World Bank’s WDR 2008 agriculture for development: response from a slow trade-sound farming perspective
What are the shortcomings of the World Development Report on agriculture?
Authors:
S. Murphy; T. Santarius; Misereor - IHR Hilfswerk
Publisher:
Heinrich Boell Foundation, 2008
For the first time in 25 years, the World Bank’s annual Development Report (WDR 2008) is dedicated to agriculture. This review of the WDR 2008 is written from the perspective of a recent report, 'Slow trade - sound farming: a multilateral framework for sustainable markets in agriculture', which was produced as an outcome of the EcoFair Trade Dialogue project. The review explores synergies between these two reports and critiques the WDR based on the thinking of the EcoFair Trade Dialogue. While the authors welcome the WDR on agriculture, they argue that the WDR lacks historical perspective and does not recognise the wider contribution of agriculture to the environment and society.
The report provides an overview of the thinking and assumptions underlying the WDR 2008. It then takes a more in-depth look at a handful of the issues that the EcoFair Trade Dialogue focused on, including international trade, corporate concentration and market power, the role of science and technology, environmental constraints, and governance.
The paper argues that the WDR:
- lacks historical perspective, particularly related to past structural adjustment policies
- fails to map out a bold vision for the role of agriculture and its contribution to rural economies
- treats agriculture as instrumental, as a means to achieve industrialisation and reduce poverty
- ignores the corporate concentration in the agriculture and agri-foods sectors
- assumes trade reform means trade liberalisation
- negates the unequal power relationship between transnational corporations and smallholders
- relies on high-cost, capital intensive technologies, particularly genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
- ignores the detrimental impact of agribusiness on the environment
- highlights the importance of good governance but disregards the role of politics and government regulation
The report concludes that mainstream agriculture which dominates the developed world and is promoted in the WDR is not a good example. It argues that the World Bank has not set out an agenda for agriculture which is both sustainable and fair.
