| Summary, etc |
"Modern conventional agriculture uses large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. When the Center was first established 21 years ago, the technology of chemical fertilizers and improved varieties had not yet reached most of the farmers in the Asian and Pacific region. One of the Center's primary tasks was to disseminate information to farmers about this new technology, to help them raise their productivity and farm incomes. Now, two decades later, modern conventional farming has achieved huge increases in production, but there is a growing concern about its viability in the long term. This is partly because the large amounts of chemicals being used are a danger to human health and the environment. They are also costly for the farmer, and farmers in Asia, like farmers everywhere, are trying to reduce their production costs. In any case, the high energy cost of these chemical inputs, based on non-renewable resources, can probably not be sustained in the long term. There is a new emphasis on sustainable agriculture, and this topic was therefore selected for the Center's 11th Meeting of its Technical Advisory Committee in May 1992.<br/>Sustainable agriculture is ecologically stable, conserving the natural resource base to provide for the needs of future generations. Instead of depending on purchased inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the sustainable farm makes maximum use of renewable resources produced on the farm itself. However, sustainable agriculture does not mean a return to traditional farming. Traditional Asian rice farming in the past was completely organic, and often included the sophisticated recycling of plant nutrients and maintenance of soil fertility. Even with the smaller populations of the past, this type of farming did not give a high enough yield to feed all the population. Some people suffered regularly from food shortage, and there was no surplus to buffer the population when a climatic disaster such as drought occurred. Modern sustainable farming achieves a high level of production using natural processes and resources, such as new breeds of crop and integrated pest management. It tends to require a high level of information from the farmer, and to operate in a more sophisticated way than conventional agriculture.<br/>The Center's 11th TAC Meeting emphasized sustainable agriculture under Asian conditions, and particularly those of tropical Asia. So far, most discussion about sustainable agriculture has taken place in the United States, European countries and Japan, all of which are temperate countries with an industrial economy and a food surplus. This has biased the concept of sustainable agriculture towards systems such as organic farming which use no chemicals at all. Such systems appear to be less suitable for a tropical country, because of the very rapid breakdown of organic matter in the humid tropics. A tropical environment also promotes the build-up of pest populations and pathogens, making disease and pest control much more difficult. Furthermore, many tropical countries still have a food deficit, and need to increase production as their primary concern. Sustainability must be a secondary consideration. The economics are also different. Organic produce can command a very high price in industrialized countries, where there are a large number of affluent urban consumers. In less industrialized countries with lower incomes, the need is for an adequate supply of cheap food which the consumer can afford.<br/>The concept of sustainable agriculture in tropical Asia is therefore rather different from that of the temperate zone, although many of the problems and concepts are the same. In this book, which presents papers from the meeting, the opening section discusses the concept of sustainable agriculture, including economic returns and long-term soil conservation. The second section is concerned with soil management for sustainable agriculture, emphasizing the use of organic matter whether or not chemical fertilizers are also used. Two papers deal with recent research into developing tropical uplands for agriculture without causing soil erosion. Agroforestry is emphasized rather than annual crops, creating an environment of perennial tree crops which is ecologically rather similar to the original tropical forest. The third section presents advanced methods of sustainable agriculture developed in the subtropical island of Taiwan, including non-chemical plant protection using natural pesticides such as chili extract. The basis of modern sustainable agriculture is the sophisticated use of biological materials, and the fourth section is concerned with the use of biological resources, such as improved breeds of rice and various species of microorganism. Finally, there is a summary of the Panel Discussion which took place at the final session of the meeting.<br/>This 11th TAC Meeting was co-sponsored by the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of Korea, which graciously provided the venue. The Center is based in Taipei, ROC on Taiwan, and this was the first time the Center's TAC Meeting was held in another country. I deeply appreciate the generosity and efficiency of RDA in its role of co-sponsoring this important meeting. I should like to thank the dedicated staff of RDA who worked so hard to make the meeting a success. Their energetic and efficient work in preparing the meeting, and their warm hospitality during the time of the meeting, has made this a milestone in the two decades of close cooperation and friendship between our two organizations. We hope this book will be of value to all those who share our concern that the agriculture of Asia, which has supported its ancient civilizations for so many centuries, will continue to provide a healthy and productive basis for the Asia of the future."<br/>December 1992<br/>- Chin-Chao Koh<br/>Director, FFTC |
