Organic agriculture and rural poverty alleviation: potential and best practices in Asia

This document studies the rapidly developing organic farming sector in Asia. It looks at concepts and practices, export potential, market developments and, first and foremost, success cases where small and marginal farmers in the rural areas were able to increase their livelihood through organic agriculture. It includes country reports on China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.Findings include:organic agriculture can help raise the productivity of low-input agricultural systemsorganic agriculture provides new market opportunities, offers the prospect to discover, through the blending of traditional knowledge and modern science, new and innovative production technologies in rural areas, and it can contribute to environmentally sustainable social and economic development in rural areasthere seems to be a strong indication that the proliferation of organic agriculture could be a viable strategy to improve livelihoods in Asia’s rural areapro-poor organic agricultural policies appear to have the potential to improve local food security, particularly in marginal land areasthe major constraints to increased exports of organic products from developing countries include lack of political support, lack of infrastructure, insufficient export facilitation, complex procedures, and tariff and non-tariff protection in import marketsRecommendations include:organic agriculture should be an integral part of the national agricultural and rural development policyin the conversion period from conventional to organic agriculture, some form of economic incentive is necessary to sustain the conversion process economicallytraining and education in organic agricultural management is an essential step to promote organic agriculturefor organic agriculture to be successful, appropriate forms of organisations for farmers should be promotedgovernments should explore an appropriate framework for certification and regulation and evaluate all options available and functioning in the current market place that facilitate the participation of small farmers in the sectorin order to gain access to all markets governments should provide up-to-date market information for the target groupsappropriate tax policies and credit schemes (for example, low-interest rate credits) for organic agriculture and secure land tenure should be supported and strengthenedpublic support should be extended for appropriate infrastructure for organic agriculture, both physical and institutional[adapted from author]