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I think that at a forum like this there always tends to be someone standing up and saying you forgot my issue. I think my issue, as an NGO, is rather important: it is the issue of women. And I am sure that most of the people here have a serious sensitivity to women's role vis-à-vis the environment. Especially in Africa, I think it has been clearly stated over and again that women are responsible for between 60 to 90 per cent of the food production, processing, and marketing. No one can really address the food crisis in Africa or many of the other crises that seem to exist here without addressing the question of women, and really seeing that women are participants in decision-making processes at the very basic all the way through up the highest level.
Mrs, King
The Greenbelt Movement
WCED Public Hearing
Nairobi, 23 Sept 1986
methods developed for large stands of a single crop.
18. Many herders are nomadic and difficult to reach with education, advice, and equipment. They, like subsistence farmers, depend on certain traditional rights, which are threatened by commercial developments. They herd traditional breads, which are hardy but rarely highly productive.
19. Women farmers, though they play a critical role in food production, are often ignored by programmes meant to improve production. In Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia they form a large agricultural labour force, while most of sub-Saharan Africa's food is grown by women. Yet almost all agricultural programmes tend to neglect the special needs of women farmers.
3. Degradation of the Resource Base
20. Short-sighted policies are leading to degradation of the agricultural resource base on almost every continent: soil erosion in North America: soil acidification in Europe; deforestation and desertification in Asia, Africa, and Latin America: and waste and pollution of water almost everywhere. Within 40-70 years, global warming may cause the flooding of important coastal production areas. Some of these effects arise from trends in energy use and industrial production. Some arise from the pressure of population on limited resources. But agricultural policies emphasizing increased production at the expense of environmental considerations have also contributed greatly to this deterioration.
3.1 Loss of Soil Resources
21. Increases in cropped areas in recent decades have often extended cultivation onto marginal lands prone to erosion. By the late 1970s, soil erosion exceeded soil formation on about a third of U.S. cropland, much of it in the midwestern agricultural
