Opportunities and challenges of large-scale agriculture

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Opportunities and challenges of large-scale agriculture

More than 160 international experts from research, business, politics and international institutions discussed issues of large-scale agriculture at the IAMO Forum 2018

Markus Scholz © IAMO
The worldwide increase in very large agricultural enterprises is setting new standards in farming and leading to a range of debates. For instance, the 100 largest companies in the agricultural sector in Russia, often called agroholdings, farm in total more than 12 million hectares, with four of these companies managing over 600,000 hectares each. The entrepreneurial challenges, opportunities and social effects that accompany the emergence of such enterprises were discussed at the IAMO Forum 2018, entitled "Large-scale agriculture – for profit and society?". From 27 to 29 of June 2018, more than 160 participants from 19 countries exchanged on scientific findings and agricultural practices at IAMO in Halle (Germany). Recognized speakers from the fields of research, the agricultural sector and international institutions participated in three plenary sessions, 15 parallel meetings and two moderated panel discussions. The geographical focus was laid on the transition economies of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and East Asia, as well as on emerging and developed market economies in Europe, America and Australasia.

A debate moderated by Professor Ingo Pies of Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) was titled "Moral challenges of modern agriculture". In the debate it was firstly unanimously agreed that all discussion participants pursue the same goal of ensuring long-term food security. Silvia Bender, Team Leader Biodiversity at BUND – Friends of the Earth Germany, saw the best means of achieving this in helping the many millions of small farmers worldwide to increase their productivity. Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DLG e.V. (Germany), countered that size and sustainable farming do not correlate. The idea of primarily looking to support smallholders in developing and emerging countries by enabling small gains in productivity would contradict the development successes in economically developed regions, in which the migration of the rural population was primarily the result of economic developments, whilst remaining enterprises were able to subsequently benefit from growth and access to innovations. Referring to international trade, Bartmer spoke strongly in favour of free trade. Trade would be a prerequisite of a collaborative international agriculture and multilateral international trade agreements are indispensable. Despite being essentially in favour of free trade, Bender assessed the current process of developing trade agreements as too undemocratic. Regarding biodiversity protection and conservation, Bender pointed out that it would not be sufficient to secure biodiversity in one part of the world in order to increase the intensity of monocultures in another area. Instead, it would be important to promote biodiversity worldwide. Bartmer highlighted that state programmes to promote biodiversity should utilise the existing creativity and local knowledge of individual farmers to a greater extent. Biological diversity would be of decisive importance for agricultural production and farmers would therefore have strong incentives to help securing biological diversity.

The IAMO Forum 2018 was jointly organized by the Department of Structural Development of Farms and Rural Areas of IAMO, DLG e.V. and the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB). The conference was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal German State Saxony-Anhalt, the Rentenbank, the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Eastern Europe – Global Area" (EEGA) and the city of Halle (Saale). Please find further conference information at: www.iamo.de/forum/2018.

Next year the IAMO Forum will take place from 26 - 28 June 2019 in Halle (Saale). It will address the subject "Small farms in transition: How to stimulate inclusive growth?".

Source: www.iamo.de/en/press/press-releases/article/opportunities-and-challenges-of-large-scale-agriculture/
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