From Agribusiness to Agroecology and the Transition towards a Sustainable Food System in Panama
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37387/ipc.v12i1.375Keywords:
Agribusiness, agroecology, food systems, Panama, resilienceAbstract
Agriculture plays a primary role in Panama’s economy. The country boasts a variety of farming operations, with cattle (milk and meat), swine, poultry, aquaculture production systems, in addition to rice, coffee, banana, teak and pineapple plantations. Massive land use changes have been occurring in a few decades due also to large expansions of agriculture in Panama. For example, although 25% of the country (1.8 million ha.) is considered suitable for farming, in 2017 it was estimated that 2.9 million ha., were cultivated, legitimizing this agricultural intensification by population growth, which at a rate of 1.4% yearly, has been spurring foods consumption and demand. Agribusiness leads Panama’s agriculture yet, this mode of production has intensified a use of agrichemicals that have deteriorated land and water resources, causing additional pollution, sedimentation, and soil erosion. Climate change and a lack of land-use regulations that should be protective of biodiversity and family farms constitute grave sources of instability that paradoxically, affect domestic food security. This work reviewed changes that have occurred to Panama’s landscape and its natural resources, in the last three decades. The environmental costs for retaining agricultural competitiveness in the global market continue to deteriorate the country’s ecology. However, attempts towards an establishment of agroecology and other models of sustainable farming are notable, in attempting to avert the impacts caused by an intensification of agriculture. Although these efforts remain limited, they demonstrate an increasing interest for agroecology by farmers and an understanding for wanting to achieve a better balance between agriculture, food sovereignty and quality of life. Policies and governmental incentives to assist landowners operating a transition toward agroecology and implications for education reform in the agricultural sciences were considered as well, to highlight the complexity of developing a sustainable food system in Panama.
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