Agricultural Diversification and Sustainable Systems Development

Food self-sufficiency is the primary objective  for agricultural productivity.   However, it gives consideration to agricultural diversification to meet the other demands  for domestic and international market for increased income.  It seeks to optimize the use of locally available resources by integrating the diverse components of the farming systems  (i.e. crops, animals, soil, water, climate, and people) and attain the greatest synergetic effects.  

It strongly promotes the adoption of sustainable farming practices and technologies, gives consideration to the complementation of the agricultural practices and ecological preservation.  It does away with high-external input agriculture (HEIA) that entails long term resource depletion, espoused by the government.  Sustainability would also mean the active participation and cooperation of the community in  the protection, rehabilitation,  and management of local resource base i.e. watershed, rivers and lakes, coastal, agro-forestry, etc.    

Integrating Environmental Concerns in Area Development Work

Integrating environmental concerns with our area development work is important and necessary to attain a sustainable development. Sustainable development in essence is that the utilization, management of resources to meet the basic needs of the present generation and as well as the needs of future generation. We say that we are advocating a sustainable development when it answers the problem of poverty and use of resources that can answer the needs of the present generation without compromising the future generations.

The state of our environment is very dismal and our resources are continually being degraded and it is imperative that we address the problems of environmental degradation and the issues associated with it such as widespread poverty, development strategies of the government is environmentally unsound, and ineffective environmental protection laws and policies are some of the causes.

Concern for a sustainable development has brought about different models or proposals such as natural resource accounting, ecological economics, resource management, technological efficiency are some of them.

Integrating ecological concerns with our area development work also entails certain modifications on how we view it. There are already several advocates on this, one is to view environment as a source of natural capital  and a sink for by-products generated during the production of managed capital and other human activities *. This means that development and its tools of measuring development or its indicators should also include the effects of the development interventions on the environment.

The following are some on the concepts and approaches that could be applied for integrating  environmental concerns in area development.

1.    Carrying capacity

Development activities usually are resource driven and it is crucial to consider the carrying capacity of a certain ecosystem to make such development sustainable. One example is determining the carrying capacity of a particular ecosystem like the coastal ecosystem to consider the effects of such development activity on a particular ecosystem.

Using the natural growth rate of the fish (biological standpoint) and its relation to fish stock and fishing effort, one can determine the sustainable yield. Sustainable yield is extracting only the growth rate without lessening existing fish stock.

Extraction of that fish resource has its maximum sustainable yield which can be determined and when that point is reached, additional efforts would lead to decreasing yield.
For other ecosystem like the forestry or agro-ecosystem, measuring their carrying capacities will be through the use of biological and technical methods. What is also to be considered here is determining the needs of the people in terms of the resources and matching it on the resources available.

2.    Ecological Economics (from the article of Dave Batker)

The  four areas in ecological economics and sustainable development  are:

• Scale - setting of the economy within the ecological system or the ecological boundaries of the economy. The scale of human activity in these areas and relationship of these activities to the natural ecosystems can be defined  if the area is moving toward or away from sustainable development. The development interventions or programs that should be implemented should consider the ecological boundaries and the need to rebuild ecological capital.
• Equity - with limited ecological resources, distribution of resources is critical. Monopolies, economic privileges and political advantages of a few  have resulted to inequitable distribution of wealth and income. Thus it is important to empower the marginalized sectors of society through organizing and capability building  to enhance their capabilities in carving out economic opportunities and gaining control over their resources. Local resource management helps insure that the community both maintain the resource and reap benefits of well-managed resource areas.
• Efficiency - is reducing inefficiencies and wastes in the production of goods and services. One way of reducing inefficiency is to reduce monopoly power in the economy. In the local level, the coops play an important role for they strengthen local economy by distributing benefits more widely.
• Broader participation in decision-making - It is important for stakeholders and shareholders in decision-making in development projects. The requirement of Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECC) and conduct of EIA for proposed projects have strengthened community participation. ECC requires that there be “social acceptance” to proposed projects.

3.    Community-Based Natural Resource Management

The participation of the community in managing their resources and access and control over their resources lie on the whole community. Individuals who are part of the community can utilize the resources but they also have responsibilities in protecting and managing their resources.

The guiding principles of a community-based natural resource management are:

1)    empowerment;
2)    equity;
3)    sustainability; and,
4)    system-oriented.

Here natural resources are viewed as natural capital. This is a system of accounts that attempts to reflect pollution, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources in the national income accounts. This means that in the measurement of development, the environmental impact is also considered and subtracted against the over-all income or development.

This was introduced because of the many experiences of countries that have improved in terms of the over-all products and services it has produced but at the expense of the environment.

This kind of approach can be applied locally but this also needs a comprehensive database on the existing natural resources in a particular area.