Abstract
In Timor-Leste, rice is a source of livehood and a staple food. However, it presents persistently low yield, quality, price, and value to consumers, which, allied with climate projections and pressure for higher quality and productivity, raised logistics costs, and subsidized imports, creates a need to identify drivers/inhibitors of sustainable development. This chapter investigates rice agri-food chain sustainable development by recording the main actors involved and understanding their perspectives. Interviews, questionnaires, observation, and focus group have been applied to understand how sustainable development can be triggered. Results show that actors are not accurately coordinated to find a future sustainable development. An alignment of activities, innovation, best practices, and cooperation are recommended towards a future sustainability plan as a starting point to agrifood rice development. Each element of this development should be measured and quantified in future research.
TopIntroduction
The depletion of resources, globalization, climate change and their consequent grave environmental consequences (Kopnina, 2017; Hart, 1997), allied with the projections of world population increase, have turned the multidisciplinary concept of sustainability, which emerged in the 1960s (Ahmed, 2017), into a growing object of interest from public, private, governmental, and academic organizations (Giunipero et al., 2012). The issue of optimal and sustainable food supply is among the most important goals and targets of sustainable development (SDGs). Sustainability is, simultaneously, a response to the deterioration of the environment and means of achieving economic growth and development, reducing poverty, income inequality and food security (Chabowski et al., 2011; Marsden & Morley, 2014; Chagomoka et al., 2014). Particularly, in agrifood chains resulting from complex systems of interrelated and interdependent activities, the three dimensions of sustainability -environmental, social and economic - are fundamental (Flynn & Bailey, 2014), to achieve sustainable development and creating value (Ruben et al. 2007; Trienekens 2011).
The sustainability of agrifood has become imperative for all stakeholders, particularly for policy makers and decision makers (Marsden et al., 2000; Hinrichs, 2003; Govindan, 2018), as well as industry players. The latter have displayed several changes, given greater importance to consumption and increased sustainable production (Govindan, 2018). Things have particularly shifted since June 2015, when G7, the group of the most developed countries in the world, which encompasses Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, USA and Canada, met to discuss future environmental management strategies. They set the goal of ending extreme poverty and reducing the number of people who suffer from hunger by 500 million, by 2030. This goal was passed on by promoting ideas, attitudes, sustainable consumption and production behaviors, which contribute to the ODS (Marsden & Morley, 2014; Govindan, 2018). Although the general opinion supports the need to incorporate sustainability principles into rice agri-food chains (Ray et al., 2013; OECD/FAO, 2019; USDA/ERS, 2019), such might not be eased by the configurations of its chain actors and their respective constraints.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Agrifood Chain: A set of activities developed in different stages, in a direct and indirect manner, with the purpose of satisfying the consumer with food and agricultural products, through various productive, financial, informative, and analytical functions.
Economic Efficiency: Results from the optimization of resource-use to best serve an economy.
Sustainability: It focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It is composed of three pillars: economic, environmental, and social—also known informally as profits, planet, and people.
Sustainable Development: The development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Globalisation: Is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.