A/42/427
English
Page 141
Thus at the root of this environmental problem is a land problem that has to be solved if any serious ecological policy is to be taken - and reorientation of the agricultural policy has to be undertaken. I believe that any conservationist policy has to be followed by a coherent agricultural policy that will meet the need not only of preservation as such but also meet the needs of the Brazilian population.
Julio M.G. Gaiger
President,
National Indian Support
Association
WCED Public Hearing
Sao Paulo, 28/29 Oct 1985
better suited to stable, uniform, resource-rich conditions with good soils and ample water supplies. New technologies are most urgently needed in sub-Saharan Africa and the remoter areas of Asia and Latin America, which typically have unreliable rainfall, uneven topography, and poorer soils, and hence are unsuited to Green Revolution technologies.
81. To serve agriculture in these areas, research has to be less centralized and more sensitive to farmers' conditions and priorities. Scientists will need to start talking to poor farmers and basing research priorities on growers' priorities. Researchers must learn from and develop the innovations of farmers and not just the reverse. More adaptive research should be done right on the farm, using research stations for referral and with farmers eventually evaluatinq the results.
82. Commercial enterprises can help develop and diffuse technology, but public institutions must provide the essential framework for agricultural research and extension. Few academic and research institutions in developing regions are adequately funded. The problem is most acute in the low-income countries, where expenditure on agricultural research and extension amounts to 0.9 per cent of total agricultural income, as against 1.5 per cent in the middle-income countries.[1] Research and extension efforts must be greatly expanded, especially in areas where climate, soils, and terrain pose special problems.
83. These areas particularly will need new seed varieties, but so will much developing-country agriculture. At present, 55 per cent of the world's scientifically stored plant genetic resources is controlled by institutions in industrial countries, 31 per cent by institutions in developing countries, and 14 per cent by International Agricultural Research Centres.[2] Much of this genetic material originated in developing countries. These gene banks must increase their inventories of material, improve their storage techniques, and ensure that the resources are readily accessible to research centres in developing countries.
84. Private companies increasingly seek proprietary rights to improved seed varieties, often without recognizing the rights of
