The Use of GM Crops in Developing Countries
Appendix 2: The importance of labour intensive agriculture
In parts of rural Africa, the incomes of small-scale farmers and farm workers are constrained by lack of labour. This can be a result of mortality due to HIV/AIDS, or because many young people have abandoned farming. However, even in these areas, higher demand for labour pushes up wages, which improves the well-being of poor people. In addition, few areas remain in Africa, or even Latin America, where farm land can be expanded without:
- significantly lower returns than are obtained on existing land, or
- intensification of fragile lands (for example, converting grazing to maize in parts of Southern Africa; shortening fallows in shifting cultivation in parts of West Africa). The development of sustainable methods of enhancing yields on farmed land which increase the demand for labour therefore remains a crucial priority. Income from agriculture is the best way to enable the poor in rural areas of developing countries to afford food. Agricultural research should therefore seek outcomes that are labour-intensive.
If farmers are to be encouraged to employ more labour, and workers to supply it, farm labourproductivity (i.e. the output per unit of labour) also has to rise. With land and water in increasingly short supply, how can both conditions be met? When new crop varieties are assessed in the field, it is important to examine their effect on raising:
i) labour productivity (sufficient to offset any fall in output prices and rise in input costs), and also
ii)land and water productivity (i.e. output per hectare and per litre), normally at a faster rate.
Total employment on farms can then continue to rise despite constraints of land and water, and rising labour productivity.
Modern plant breeding in the Green Revolution generally met both conditions (i) and (ii). The same can be expected in many cases where genetic modification is introduced, provided there is a careful choice of crop, trait and user. However, care is needed. For example, if land is scarce, the introduction of GM or other varieties with herbicide tolerance might merely lead to the replacement of farm labour by herbicides without raising yield. This would reduce the demand for labour, and hence the wages and/or employment.