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Hunger is an extreme sign of deprivation. Failures to
eliminate hunger, and past errors of belief, are reason for
humility and reappraisal. Hunger in the modern world is a
problem not of production but of poverty, not of the total food
available but of who produces it and who can command it.
Normal professionalism is also part of the problem. To
alleviate deprivation and hunger, professionals need to learn
from and with those who are last - the poor - and to put their
priorities first, including livelihoods and personal food
security.
Irrigation's benefits to the land-poor - the landless and those
with little land - are easily underestimated. They can include
higher production, employment on more days, higher daily wages,
less need to migrate, and reduced risks. From canal irrigation
benefits to the land-poor can be realised through
redistribution of canal water; sliding scales of water
entitlements; raising cropping intensities; more predictability
and less hassle in water supply; and equitable land
distribution. From groundwater, benefits to the land-poor can
water; public policy with power tarrifs, spacing wells and
tubewells; and trees as poor people's solar pumps. Last-first
approaches can also be applied to drinking water, water for
pastoralism, common property land, watershed development,
energy, and agricultural research. Normal professionalism
points away from these opportunities; to realise them, and
enable the poor to overcome hunger and deprivation, demands
new professionalism which puts the last first. |
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