That competition for land use in capitalistic paradigms leads to elitist outcomes is obvious. However, with the advent of environmental problems and the concerns about paucity of resources of different kinds, the allocation of land for different kinds of production becomes a matter of serious concern. In this article, I intend to outline one specific aspect of this land allocation problem, namely, agricultural production and the need for inorganic fertilizers.
As I discussed in another of my articles called " Recalibrating Food Security and Development ", capitalistic resource allocation does not allow for the creation of agricultural production buffers. In other words, since capitalistic resource allocation allocates land use for that production technology and that end use which leads to the maximum profit, there is a real possibility, especially in scenarios of large and rapidly increasing populations, that enough land may not be left to allow sufficient food production for everyone. Already, with billions around the world not in a position to afford food, there is a real possibility that available land may be used up for all kinds of uses other than agricultural production and that the total maximum food production in the world may fall well short of that needed to provide the world population with sufficient nutrition.
Now add to that the problem of fertilizer production. Soil that is used repeatedly for food production without allowing it to lie fallow gets depleted of crucial nutrients. Inorganic fertlizers are often used to replenish the soil with the needed nutrients so that continuous food production become possible on the agricultural land. Organic fertilizers have also come up, but it is not clear how effective they are, how easy it is to manufacture them, how cheaply they can be produced, whether they can compete well with inorganic fertilizers or whether they can serve as a good long-term alternative for replenishing the nutrients in the soil. As for inorganic fertilizers like phosphate fertilizers, we need to consider the serious issue of whether the mineral resources available on earth, and the extraction technology and the energy resources we have, will together enable the production of inorganic fertilizers for long enough time to avoid worse food production scenarios than what we already have.
Genetically modified crops and high-yield varieties may be possible solutions. However, it all depends on whether the increase in yield is sufficient to compensate for paucity of agricultural land. Also, many genetically modified varieties may require even more fertilizer and even more irrigation resources in order to produce the higher-yield crops. So, given the uncertainty about the ability of our technology to produce inorganic fertilizers in a sustainable fashion given possible mineral resource constraints, the future of the world food production may be in serious jeopardy.
Crop rotation, allowing land to lie fallow before reusing it or growing legumes interchangeably with the other crops are possible solutions. However, when there is very little extra agricultural land available, crop rotation and similar techniques can lead to a drastic drop in food production and can lead to mass hunger. An elite that refuses to recognize these dangers and tries to appropriate the food supply for itself can be faced with catacylsmic consequences.
The development, understanding and proper use of renewable fertilizers like organic fertilizers ( including manures ) may well prove crucial for our ability to provide the planet with sufficient nutrition. Since industrial production, service sector production and the development of renewable energy itself are all dependent on an uninterrupted supply of food resources, ending the dependence on inorganic fertilizers may well be the only route to ensuring global food security.
by C. Jayant Praharaj
As I discussed in another of my articles called " Recalibrating Food Security and Development ", capitalistic resource allocation does not allow for the creation of agricultural production buffers. In other words, since capitalistic resource allocation allocates land use for that production technology and that end use which leads to the maximum profit, there is a real possibility, especially in scenarios of large and rapidly increasing populations, that enough land may not be left to allow sufficient food production for everyone. Already, with billions around the world not in a position to afford food, there is a real possibility that available land may be used up for all kinds of uses other than agricultural production and that the total maximum food production in the world may fall well short of that needed to provide the world population with sufficient nutrition.
Now add to that the problem of fertilizer production. Soil that is used repeatedly for food production without allowing it to lie fallow gets depleted of crucial nutrients. Inorganic fertlizers are often used to replenish the soil with the needed nutrients so that continuous food production become possible on the agricultural land. Organic fertilizers have also come up, but it is not clear how effective they are, how easy it is to manufacture them, how cheaply they can be produced, whether they can compete well with inorganic fertilizers or whether they can serve as a good long-term alternative for replenishing the nutrients in the soil. As for inorganic fertilizers like phosphate fertilizers, we need to consider the serious issue of whether the mineral resources available on earth, and the extraction technology and the energy resources we have, will together enable the production of inorganic fertilizers for long enough time to avoid worse food production scenarios than what we already have.
Genetically modified crops and high-yield varieties may be possible solutions. However, it all depends on whether the increase in yield is sufficient to compensate for paucity of agricultural land. Also, many genetically modified varieties may require even more fertilizer and even more irrigation resources in order to produce the higher-yield crops. So, given the uncertainty about the ability of our technology to produce inorganic fertilizers in a sustainable fashion given possible mineral resource constraints, the future of the world food production may be in serious jeopardy.
Crop rotation, allowing land to lie fallow before reusing it or growing legumes interchangeably with the other crops are possible solutions. However, when there is very little extra agricultural land available, crop rotation and similar techniques can lead to a drastic drop in food production and can lead to mass hunger. An elite that refuses to recognize these dangers and tries to appropriate the food supply for itself can be faced with catacylsmic consequences.
The development, understanding and proper use of renewable fertilizers like organic fertilizers ( including manures ) may well prove crucial for our ability to provide the planet with sufficient nutrition. Since industrial production, service sector production and the development of renewable energy itself are all dependent on an uninterrupted supply of food resources, ending the dependence on inorganic fertilizers may well be the only route to ensuring global food security.
by C. Jayant Praharaj