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The risks agriculture faces in developing countries

Synthesis of an online debate

A

A. Two things distinguish food production from all other productive activities: first, every single person needs food each day and has a right to tướng it; and second, it is hugely dependent on nature. These two unique aspects, one political, the other natural, make food production highly vulnerable and different from any other business. At the same time, cultural values are highly entrenched in food and agricultural systems worldwide.

B

B. Farmers everywhere face major risks; including extreme weather, long-term climate change, and price volatility in input and product markets. However, smallholder farmers in developing countries must in addition khuyễn mãi giảm giá with adverse environments, both natural, in terms of soil quality, rainfall, etc. and human, in terms of infrastructure, financial systems, markets, knowledge and technology. Counter-intuitively, hunger is prevalent among many smallholder farmers in the developing world.

C

C. Participants in the online debate argued that our biggest challenge is to tướng address the underlying causes of the agricultural system’s inability to tướng ensure sufficient food for all, and they identified as drivers of this problem our dependency on fossil fuels and unsupportive government policies.

D

D. On the question of mitigating the risks farmers face, most essayists called for greater state intervention. In his essay, Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, argued that governments can significantly reduce risks for farmers by providing basic services lượt thích roads to tướng get produce more efficiently to tướng markets, or water and food storage facilities to tướng reduce losses. Sophia Murphy, senior advisor to tướng the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, suggested that the procurement and holding of stocks by governments can also help mitigate wild swings in food prices by alleviating uncertainties about market supply.

E

E. Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, held up social safety nets and public welfare programmes in Ethiopia, Brazil and Mexico as valuable ways to tướng address poverty among farming families and reduce their vulnerability to tướng agriculture shocks. However, some commentators responded that cash transfers to tướng poor families vì thế not necessarily translate into increased food security, as these programmes vì thế not always strengthen food production or raise incomes. Regarding state subsidies for agriculture, Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha, commented in her essay that these ‘have not compensated for the stranglehold exercised by private traders. In fact, studies show that sixty percent of beneficiaries of subsidies are not poor, but rich landowners and non- farmer traders.

F

F. Nwanze, Murphy and Fan argued that private risk management tools, lượt thích private insurance, commodity futures markets, and rural finance can help small-scale producers mitigate risk and allow for investment in improvements. Kabir warned that financial tư vấn schemes often encourage the adoption of high-input agricultural practices, which in the medium term may raise production costs beyond the value of their harvests. Murphy noted that when futures markets become excessively financialised they can contribute to tướng short-term price volatility, which increases farmers’ food insecurity. Many participants and commentators emphasised that greater transparency in markets is needed to tướng mitigate the impact of volatility, and make evident whether adequate stocks and supplies are available. Others contended that agribusiness companies should be held responsible for paying for negative side effects.

G

G. Many essayists mentioned climate change and its consequences for small-scale agriculture. Fan explained that in addition to tướng reducing crop yields, climate change increases the magnitude and the frequency of extreme weather events, which increase smallholder vulnerability. The growing unpredictability of weather patterns increases farmers’ difficulty in managing weather-related risks. According to tướng this author, one solution would be to tướng develop crop varieties that are more resilient to tướng new climate trends and extreme weather patterns. Accordingly, Pat Mooney, co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group, suggested that ‘if we are to tướng survive climate change, we must adopt policies that let peasants diversify the plant and animal species and varieties/breeds that trang điểm our menus.

H

H. Some participating authors and commentators argued in favour of community- based and autonomous risk management strategies through collective action groups, co-operatives or producers’ groups. Such groups enhance market opportunities for small-scale producers, reduce marketing costs and synchronise buying and selling with seasonal price conditions. According to tướng Murphy, ‘collective action offers an important way for farmers to tướng strengthen their political and economic bargaining power, and to tướng reduce their business risks. One commentator, Giel Ton, warned that collective action does not come as a không lấy phí good. It takes time, effort and money to tướng organise, build trust and to tướng experiment. Others, lượt thích Marcel Vernooij and Marcel Beukeboom, suggested that in order to tướng ‘apply what we already know’, all stakeholders, including business, government, scientists and civil society, must work together, starting at the beginning of the value chain.

I

I. Some participants explained that market price volatility is often worsened by the presence of intermediary purchasers who, taking advantage of farmers’ vulnerability, dictate prices. One commentator suggested farmers can gain greater control over prices and minimise price volatility by selling directly to tướng consumers. Similarly, Sonali Bisht, founder and advisor to tướng the Institute of Himalayan Environmental Research and Education (INHERE), India, wrote that copipunity-supported agriculture, where consumers invest in local farmers by subscription and guarantee producers a fair price, is a risk-sharing model worth more attention. Direct food distribution systems not only encourage small-scale agriculture but also give consumers more control over the food they consume, she wrote.

Giải mến chi tiết

The Lost City

An explorer’s encounter with the ruined đô thị of Machu Picchu, the most famous icon of the Inca civilisation

A

A. When the US explorer and academic Hiram Bingham arrived in South America in 1911, he was ready for what was to tướng be the greatest achievement of his life: the exploration of the remote hinterland to tướng the west of Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire in the Andes mountains of Peru. His goal was to tướng locate the remains of a đô thị called Vitcos, the last capital of the Inca civilisation. Cusco lies on a high plateau at an elevation of more phàn nàn 3,000 metres, and Bingham’s plan was to tướng descend from this plateau along the valley of the Urubamba river, which takes a circuitous route down to tướng the Amazon and passes through an area of dramatic canyons and mountain ranges.

B

B. When Bingham and his team phối off down the Urubamba in late July, they had an advantage over travellers who had preceded them: a track had recently been blasted down the valley canyon to tướng enable rubber to tướng be brought up by mules from the jungle. Almost all previous travellers had left the river at Ollantaytambo and taken a high pass across the mountains to tướng rejoin the river lower down, thereby cutting a substantial corner, but also therefore never passing through the area around Machu Picchu.

C

C. On 24 July they were a few days into their descent of the valley. The day began slowly, with Bingham trying to tướng arrange sufficient mules for the next stage of the trek. His companions showed no interest in accompanying him up the nearby hill to tướng see some ruins that a local farmer, Melchor Arteaga, had told them about the night before. The morning was dull and damp, and Bingham also seems to tướng have been less phàn nàn keen on the prospect of climbing the hill. In his book Lost City of the Incas, he relates that he made the ascent without having the least expectation that he would find anything at the top.

D

D. Bingham writes about the approach in vivid style in his book. First, as he climbs up the hill, he describes the ever-present possibility of deadly snakes, ‘capable of making considerable springs when in pursuit of their prey’; not that he sees any. Then there’s a sense of mounting discovery as he comes across great sweeps of terraces, then a mausoleum, followed by monumental staircases and, finally, the grand ceremonial buildings of Machu Picchu. 'It seemed lượt thích an unbelievable dream the sight held bầm spellbound ’, he wrote.

E

E. We should remember, however, that Lost City of the Incas is a work of hindsight, not written until 1948, many years after his journey. His journal entries of the time reveal a much more gradual appreciation of his achievement. He spent the afternoon at the ruins noting down the dimensions of some of the buildings, then descended and rejoined his companions, to tướng whom he seems to tướng have said little about his discovery. At this stage, Bingham didn’t realise the extent or the importance of the site, nor did he realise what use he could make of the discovery.

F

F. However, soon after returning it occurred to tướng him that he could make a name for himself from this discovery. When he came to tướng write the National Geographic magazine article that broke the story to tướng the world in April 1913, he knew he had to tướng produce a big idea. He wondered whether it could have been the birthplace of the very first Inca, Manco the Great, and whether it could also have been what chroniclers described as ‘the last đô thị of the Incas’. This term refers to tướng Vilcabamba the settlement where the Incas had fled from Spanish invaders in the 1530s. Bingham made desperate attempts to tướng prove this belief for nearly 40 years. Sadly, his vision of the site as both the beginning and over of the Inca civilisation, while a magnificent one, is inaccurate. We now know, that Vilcabamba actually lies 65 kilometres away in the depths of the jungle.

G

G. One question that has perplexed visitors, historians and archaeologists alike ever since Bingham, is why the site seems to tướng have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest. There are no references to tướng it by any of the Spanish chroniclers - and if they had known of its existence ví close to tướng Cusco they would certainly have come in tìm kiếm of gold. An idea which has gained wide acceptance over the past few years is that Machu Picchu was a moya, a country estate built by an Inca emperor to tướng escape the cold winters of Cusco, where the elite could enjoy monumental architecture and spectacular views. Furthermore, the particular architecture of Machu Picchu suggests that it was constructed at the time of the greatest of all the Incas, the emperor Pachacuti (1438-71). By custom, Pachacuti’s descendants built other similar estates for their own use, and ví Machu Picchu would have been abandoned after his death, some 50 years before the Spanish Conquest.

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The Benefits of Being Bilingual

A

A. According to tướng the latest figures, the majority of the world’s population is now bilingual or multilingual, having grown up speaking two or more languages. In the past, such children were considered to tướng be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. Over the past few decades, however, technological advances have allowed researchers to tướng look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.

B

B. Research shows that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other is active at the same time. When we hear a word, we don’t hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the word is finished, the brain’s language system begins to tướng guess what that word might be. If you hear ‘can’, you will likely activate words lượt thích ‘candy’ and ‘candle’ as well, at least during the earlier stages of word recognition. For bilingual people, this activation is not limited to tướng a single language; auditory input activates corresponding words regardless of the language to tướng which they belong. Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon, called ‘language co-activation’, comes from studying eye movements. A Russian-English bilingual asked to tướng ‘pick up a marker’ from a phối of objects would look more at a stamp phàn nàn someone who doesn’t know Russian, because the Russian word for ‘stamp’, marka, sounds lượt thích the English word he or she heard, ‘marker’. In cases lượt thích this, language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language.

C

C. Having to tướng khuyễn mãi giảm giá with this persistent linguistic competition can result in difficulties, however. For instance, knowing more phàn nàn one language can cause speakers to tướng name pictures more slowly, and can increase ‘tip-of-the-tongue states’, when you can almost, but not quite, bring a word to tướng mind. As a result, the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to tướng control how much a person accesses a language at any given time. For this reason, bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management. In the classic Stroop Task, people see a word and are asked to tướng name the colour of the word’s fonts. When the colour and the word match (i., the word ‘red’ printed in red), people correctly name the colour more quickly phàn nàn when the colour and the word don’t match (i., the word ‘red’ printed in blue). This occurs because the word itself (‘red’) and its fonts colour (blue) conflict. Bilingual people often excel at tasks such as this, which tap into the ability to tướng ignore competing perceptual information and focus on the relevant aspects of the input. Bilinguals are also better at switching between two tasks; for example, when bilinguals have to tướng switch from categorizing objects by colour (red or green) to tướng categorizing them by shape (circle or triangle), they vì thế ví more quickly phàn nàn monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when having to tướng make rapid changes of strategy.

D

D. It also seems that the neurological roots of the bilingual advantage extend to tướng brain areas more traditionally associated with sensory processing. When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to tướng simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses. When researchers play the same sound to tướng both groups in the presence of background noise, however, the bilingual listeners’ neural response is considerably larger, reflecting better encoding of the sound’s fundamental frequency, a feature of sound closely related to tướng pitch perception.

E

E. Such improvements in cognitive and sensory processing may help a bilingual person to tướng process information in the environment, and help explain why bilingual adults acquire a third language better phàn nàn monolingual adults master a second language. This advantage may be rooted in the skill of focussing on information about the new language while reducing interference from the languages they already know.

F

F. Research also indicates that bilingual experience may help to tướng keep the cognitive mechanisms sharp by recruiting alternate brain networks to tướng compensate for those that become damaged during aging. Older bilinguals enjoy improved memory relative to tướng monolingual people, which can lead to tướng real-world health benefits. In a study of over 200 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain disease, bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease an average of five years later phàn nàn monolingual patients. In a follow-up study, researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients matched on the severity of Alzheimer’s symptoms. Surprisingly, the bilinguals’ brains had more physical signs of disease phàn nàn their monolingual counterparts, even though their outward behaviour and abilities were the same. If the brain is an engine, bilingualism may help it to tướng go farther on the same amount of fuel.

G

G. Furthermore, the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to tướng start very early. In one study, researchers taught seven-month-old babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen. Halfway through the study, the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen. In order to tướng get a reward, the infants had to tướng adjust the rule they’d learned; only the bilingual babies were able to tướng successfully learn the new rule. This suggests that for very young children, as well as for older people, navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer far beyond language.

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