Peanuts intercropped with cassava
By various sources
The UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the numbers who are undernourished has been met in Venezuela, five years ahead of schedule. Venezuela’s representative in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Alfredo Missair, spoke on October 18 about Venezuela’s achievements in food access, also noting that half its population of 28 million now has access to fair priced food.
Missair blames high food prices on financial speculation in stock markets, government subsidies in the global North, and unsustainable agricultural policies promoted for decades around the world which badly affected productivity and the environment.
Above from Venezuelan FAO Representative: Malnutrition Reduced by Half to 3.7%.
President Hugo Chavez’s land reforms have reduced hunger and poverty, allowing field hands to own the land they work. Chavez called for the acceleration of nationalizing agricultural assets across the country in coming months, including land and property owned by Venezuelan farming technology company Agroislena and British meat products company Vestey.
Since 1999, when Chavez took office, the government has taken over some 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of land, in line with his Agrarian Revolution.
Above from Chavez orders land takeover of British food giant
While in the United States and Europe the only recent government interventions in the economy are “the nationalization of capitalist bankruptcy” (in reference to government bailouts after financial capital’s recent collapse), in Venezuela the state is playing an increasingly active role in the restructuring of the economy for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. And unlike the U.S. and Europe, Venezuela has no intention of returning these firms back to private interests – neither in the short or long term.
Also this month the government announced the takeover of two more firms: Fertinitro and Venoco. The former is a producer of agricultural fertilizers, while the latter a producer of lubricants and other petroleum-derived inputs that can be used for agricultural mechanization. Chavez promised 50% reductions in the price of agrochemical inputs such as glyphosate, the basis of Monsanto’s infamous RoundUp herbicide, arguing smallholder farmers would finally find fair prices for said inputs.
Campesino leader Orlando Zambrano, was not pleased with the decision to continue using such chemicals. “AgroPatria should combat the negative effects of agrotoxins in the environment and on human health. This new company should make agroecology its banner so as to overcome capitalism in agriculture… We, campesino leaders, believe that as these two models confront one another, the capitalist and the socialist models, this decision [to nationalize] is a necessity for the advance and consolidation of food sovereignty.”
Other leaders agreed. “The creation of AgroPatria should not just be a change in owners, it should be the beginning of a great national agrarian mobilization to achieve the third step in food sovereignty – the conversion of the model, starting with what we’ve got and advancing firmly towards a socialist, agroecological model.”
Research shows that small farms are much more productive than large farms if total output is considered rather than yield from a single crop. Productivity in terms of harvestable products per unit area of polycultures developed by smallholders is higher than under a single crop with the same level of management. Yield advantages can range from 20 percent to 60 percent, because polycultures reduce losses due to weeds (by occupying space that weeds might otherwise occupy), insects, and diseases (because of the presence of multiple species), and make more efficient use of the available resources of water, light, and nutrients.
Properly managed farms have no need for toxic chemicals. If the contradictory statements coming from government representatives (celebrating chemical inputs while calling for environmental conservation) are to be rectified, it will take the efforts of agroecology and food sovereignty advocates on the ground.
From Agribusiness to Agroecology? An Analysis of Venezuela’s Nationalization of AgroIsleña
Food Freedom 