Connecting agriculture, development and peace

Agricultural and development failure is a key cause of food insecurity, which may lead to conflict. Conversely, agricultural development can contribute to peace and reconstruction by raising incomes and employment and reducing the social frustrations that give rise to violence.

Agriculture, particularly in poor countries, often determines the overall success or failure of development. This in turn influences social peace and conflict. A paper from the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) in Finland examines the connections between agriculture, development and social peace.

Agriculture not only provides rural populations with food and income, but it also brings in revenue for governments. This can be used for the benefit of the poorer parts of the population, thereby smoothing out inequalities that might exist. Agriculture is critical for countries rebuilding from war, especially in making recovery work for the poor. By raising per capita incomes, agricultural development supports new democracies. Agricultural development therefore supports political strategies for peace-building and democratisation.

However, though agriculture is linked to development, its role in creating social peace is overlooked. Most developing countries under-invest in small-scale agriculture and rural micro-enterprises, and public spending budgets do not reflect the needs of rural people. Foreign aid to poor countries has stagnated and the effectiveness of this aid is reduced by rich-country protectionism (through subsidies and tariffs) in agricultural markets. Such short-sighted trade policy not only hinders development and poverty reduction in the poor world, it also undermines their peace and security.

The author finds that agricultural or developmental failure can lead to conflict in the following ways:

• When agriculture fails, the resulting frustration can be more easily exploited by those who want to provoke religious and ethnic hatred; development failure is therefore a key cause of conflict, as seems to be the case in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Access to productive assets such as land, water and forests is vital for rural households: inequality of access may lead to conflict, as in north-east Brazil where a landless class works for wealthy commercial farmers.
• Development failure often combines with unequal access to political power (for example across regions, as in Sudan) to produce conflict.
• While global agricultural trade can offer development opportunities, price collapses that may be caused by rich country protectionism can lead to economic and even state failure.
• Drought and flood can undermine the stability of agricultural societies: climate change will probably damage the world’s agricultural systems, causing extreme instability and potential conflict.

The international community is urged to:

• realise that income inequality in agricultural societies is at the root of many conflicts and must be addressed for sustainable peace
• substantially increase aid but realise that effective public expenditure management is needed so aid reaches the intended communities
• increase support for agricultural research to assist small farmers, especially in environmentally-stressed areas
• encourage investment in telecommunications and road infrastructure for remote areas
• reduce agricultural subsidies in developed countries, but coordinate this to avoid raising world prices in a way that might increase food insecurity in developing countries that import food
• ensure that humanitarian assistance goes beyond food aid to transfer skills and education to displaced people, especially women, to enable them to improve their post-conflict prospects.

Since conflicts in poor countries have global effects, rich countries undermine their own security by neglecting the lives and livelihoods of the poor.

Source(s):
‘Agricultural development for peace’, UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), Research Paper No. 2005/07, by Tony Addison, January 2005 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 10 March 2006

Further Information:
Tony Addison
UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER)
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B
00160 Helsinki
Finland

Tel: +358 9 6159 9214
Fax: +358 9 6159 9333
Contact the contributor: addison@wider.unu.edu; publications@wider.unu.edu

WIDER

Other related links:
'Land access in conflict situations: can sustainable livelihoods play a role?'

'New approaches to land management and security in Africa'

'Agriculture heals the wounds of conflict'

'Land disputes in Afghanistan – is enough being done to end the conflict?'

Agriculture for peace - Research at the Institute of Advanced Studies, United Nations University