Keynote Speech at the Open Forum On Rural and Agricultural Finance to meet the Challenges of Environmental Change, Bank Keshavarzi, Tehran, Iran, June 12-17, 2011-06-11. The Role of Rural & Agricultural Finance in Counter-Measuring Climate Change By Sung-Hoon Kim, Ph.D Professor Emeritus, Chung Ang University, Korea Appropriate Crop Insurance programs: As FAO/APRACA-member banks have
Keynote Speech at the Open Forum On Rural and Agricultural Finance to meet the Challenges of Environmental Change, Bank Keshavarzi, Tehran, Iran, June 12-17, 2011-06-11.
The Role of Rural & Agricultural Finance in Counter-Measuring Climate Change
By
Sung-Hoon Kim, Ph.D
Professor Emeritus, Chung Ang University, Korea
- Appropriate Crop Insurance programs:
As FAO/APRACA-member banks have long been enthusiastic for securing farmer’s stable income, the crop insurance programs are at present widely adopted in many countries on paddy, wheat, fruits & vegetables, livestock in case of severe damages due to abnormal production conditions and abrupt weather change. The government’s support for the successful implementation of CIP is essential. - Rural Savings Mobilization Programs:
To strengthen the stamina of vulnerable small farmers in the adverse situation and to help themselves stand on their own footing, various ways and means of savings mobilization including indigenous methods have been continuously encouraged. Governmental incentive system needs to be supplemented to the self-help movement. - Package Deals in Lending Agri-Loan:
Agricultural lending to farmers is recommendable to combine loans with easy access to needy inputs, technology, marketing exit and field guidance/training programs as a package. Typical examples could be found in such climate-change related projects as climate smart technologies, irrigation, greenhouse heating and cooling devices utilizing renewable energy sources. - Through-Loan System for the entire Process of Sexangular(six dimensional) Agriculture
New concept of agriculture as 1st+2nd+3rd=6th industry, seen through as an integral process of Sexangular industry (production → processing → marketing → amenities),, has been introduced in Korean and Japan’s small-scale family farm economies to maximize the use of limited resources for greater farm income.Accordingly, new concept of lending system tailored to the new concept of Sexangular agriculture should be conceived.
- Common Environmental Improvement Project Loan:
Such common environmental improvement projects as water management, pest & insect control, ecological conservation of wetland, forest and habitat, and preventive works for soil erosion, land degradation and desertification should be financed as an integral part of the common village/rural development project undertaken jointly by the government, agricultural banks and farmer-villagers together. - Improvement of Banking Services for Small Farmers and the Rural Poor:
Along with the overall governmental scheme for small farmer development, such banking services as lending/guidance systems specifically geared to small farmers should be provided in most peasant economies, who are most vulnerable to weather change. - Finally, but not of least importance, Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture should be strongly Supported:
To promote health, justice, and sustainability, with a special emphasis on local-based practical solutions to the energy and climate crisis, environmentally friendly agriculture, i.e., organic farming has been vigorously practiced all over the world for the last decades. - Organic farming and ranching not only uses less fossil fuel and emits fewer climate-disrupting gases, but can actually clean greenhouse gas pollution from the atmosphere, while at the same time feeding the world, improving public health and restoring biodiversity. If people can move the world’s 12 billion acres of farm and ranch lands into a transition to organic and preserve the 10 billion acres of forests, at least 50 ppm of CO2 can be drawn down from the atmosphere and stored naturally and safely in the soil. This is literally the difference between present and future climate stability or climate hell. (quoted from Organic Bytes, OCA Dec. 31, 2010)
