Agricultural productivity can be supported by well-designed social protection programmes

 

   * In relation to the productive sectors, social protection can enhance resilience in the face of threats, limit disinvestment, and, by reducing perceptions of high risk, promote investment by the poor.

   * Though some of the links between social protection and growth are specific to the agricultural sector, others are more generic.

   * Agriculture can be more socially protecting, and social protection more sensitive to impacts on production, if ministries of finance can leverage joined-up thinking and action.

 New thinking on rural employment is needed to create more and better rural jobs

 

   * Growth in agriculture is essential, and growth in the rural non-farm economy is especially important.

   * Job prospects improve as education, skills, health and early nutrition levels rise.

   * Rural-urban migration (whether temporary or permanent) opens new opportunities and also helps tighten rural labour markets.

   * With rising productivity and wages, it becomes easier to push for better labour standards, to end to child labour and correct gender inequalities.

Participating as speaker in the first panel of the second Brussels Development Briefing, Steve Wiggins, ODI, reflects on current trends in African agriculture and expresses the need for detailed thinking in addressing each particilar situation.

 

Source: Euforic.tv - see www.brusselsbriefings.net

Drawing on work commissioned by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to help its forward planning, this paper asks how the rural poor might benefit more fully from global economic processes. It argues that, whilst the scope for the more entrepreneurial to link into value chains associated with either agriculture or the nonfarm rural economy is present, its relevance for many of the rural poor is questionable. There is, however, substantial scope for labourers to participate in activities influenced by globalisation.

Policies therefore need to support temporary and permanent migration from rural to urban areas. As a prior condition for the design and implementation of such policies, political mindsets need to be changed to give fuller recognition to the value of such labour in supporting economic modernisation.

This brief addresses the question of how to support the livelihoods of rural people who have been affected by conflict. Specifically, it focuses on how international actors might move beyond conventional seeds and tools interventions to address vulnerability and support the agricultural component of rural livelihoods in countries emerging from conflict. It examines, both conceptually and practically, how agricultural rehabilitation can contribute to linking humanitarian assistance, social protection and longer-term development through the provision of effective support in ways that are consistent with core humanitarian principles as well as with livelihoods and rights-based approaches. The paper is based on lessons from Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, and draws its analysis from livelihoods work and social protection

There is increasing agreement that agricultural growth matters for poverty reduction and has a significance extending well beyond the agriculture sector. Examples of successful research and innovation support by DFID show the central role of science and research in technological innovation. Technology cannot be viewed in isolation from innovation in policies and institutions. These provide incentives for farmers to adopt new ideas and ensure that institutional structures enable delivery of technologies. Examples of how DFID is addressing these broader concerns highlight the importance of the public sector and also the role of the private sector and NGOs.

'Interest in African agriculture is being rekindled after two decades of relative neglect by both governments and donors - and corresponding slow growth of the sector. For most countries, agriculture has to grow if the economy is to develop, if rural poverty is be alleviated. It is now clear that getting the 'Washington Consensus' conditions right for business may be necessary, but is certainly not sufficient to get agriculture moving. So what more needs to be done?'.

This chapter argues that, far from 'draining' public funds and so reducing public investment in the productive sectors, initiatives to reduce risk and vulnerability, if managed well, can enhance the engagement of the poor in markets, and so stimulate productive activity. Also, certain types of public investment (e.g. in infrastructure) as well as reducing risk, can stimulate private investment, (and so potentially employment creation) by the better off.

There is growing evidence that in some countries, acute food crisis takes place against a backdrop of increasingly entrenched chronic food insecurity. Malawi, with its high population density, diminishing farm size, decreasing soil fertility, high cost of imported inputs such as fertiliser, weak service delivery systems and weak governance, is one such country. In settings such as these, the policy options are limited. This paper analyses the performance of a highly innovative intervention in Malawi – the Starter Pack programme – which provided free of charge small packs of improved maize and other seed together with appropriate fertiliser. The paper discusses how the objectives of this programme evolved (but remain complex), its cost-effectiveness, and complementary policy objectives that might be pursued. It considers the different expectations raised by Starter Pack with regard to agricultural growth, poverty reduction, social protection and food security. The paper argues that Starter Pack’s main strength is as a tool for combating chronic food insecurity, but there are also important synergies with social protection, growth and poverty reduction.

Global experience demonstrates the importance of agricultural growth for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, but also identifies the limitations of agriculture in delivering poverty reduction, and the need for complementary growth in the nonfarm sector. Contrary to the thinking that dominates much of current development policy, subsidies need to play a crucial part in 'kick starting' food grain supply chains if increased smallholder productivity is to drive rural non-farm growth. Establishing the base conditions for such subsidies to work, designing and implementing them to be effective, and then phasing them out as soon as they have done their task, are major challenges facing policy makers concerned with reducing poverty in rural areas where most of the world’s poorest people live.

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness will be reviewed at the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra in September 2008. The Paris Declaration establishes operating principles for donors and recipient governments to improve the effectiveness of aid. These include government leadership of the development process, a focus on policy results, greater alignment by donors with national policies and management systems, harmonisation between donors with division of labour, and mutual accountability for development results. These principles are broadly sound for guiding development cooperation with national governments. However, they do not help in addressing the challenges arising in certain areas of assistance. In agriculture, the overwhelmingly private nature of agricultural activities, the roles of non-governmental service providers, the significance of context and the cross-sectoral dimension of policy challenges are some of the reasons why development cooperation in that sector struggles to comply with the Paris principles. The paper sets out areas requiring focused attention in the run-up to Accra 2008.

Richard Moberly of DFID, Patrick Mulvany of Practical Action, Duncan Green of Oxfam GB and Steve Wiggins of ODI consider whether biofuels, climate change and rapid economic growth in China and India have changed the agricultural context so much that the policy agenda needs to be re-thought.

'Before calling for an increase in the volume of funding to agriculture, we need a better understanding of how resources are being used.'

The study analyses the challenges facing agricultural producers, politicians and aid programmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as they move from modalities reminiscent of the agricultural rehabilitation programming supported in the past through the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP1 phase), to now preparing for future EU membership and increasing integration into markets steered by the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP2 phase). EU Foreign Minister Designate Javier Solana has referred to the dichotomy between past and future approaches to development in BiH as a move from the ‘era of Dayton’ to the ‘era of Brussels’ (2004). These points of reference for agricultural policies and programming have little in common, but both have a profound impact on the prospects for effective, pro-poor support to agricultural development in the past, the present and the future.

How do international agencies concerned with agricultural development see the role of agriculture? What is the role for the market and the state? This briefing examines four recent statements from major aid agencies, asking how they see the role of agriculture in development.

Proponents of the Millennium Villages Project argue that the complex problems facing rural development in Africa require a ‘big push’ if substantive progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to be made – and propose the simultaneous introduction of improvements in agriculture, health, transport, energy, technology, telecommunications and internet connectivity, costing US$110 per person per year over 5 years, and funded mainly from aid flows. This paper examines the challenges this initiative faces, and the questions it raises, in its search for ‘quick wins’ to reach the MDGs.

Do the physical impacts of climate change affect the prospects for achieving the first target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to halve world poverty? With the official mid-point of the MDGs on 7 July 2007, this is an important question

 to consider as we assess challenges to meeting

 these goals, and look beyond them.

Projections suggest that, by the end of the 21st century, climate change could have had substantial impact on agricultural production and thence on the scope for reducing poverty. This paper seeks to trace the likely impacts through changes in the quality of the physical asset base, access to assets, and impacts on grain production and on agricultural growth more generally. At moderate degrees of warming, impacts are likely to be negative in some regions, but positive in others, making it important to understand the possible implications for trade between the regions. The short term impacts of climate change, particularly changes in the frequency and severity of adverse weather events, remain uncertain, but their impacts on many developing countries are likely to be negative. There is likely to be time to make appropriate policy responses to some of the longer-term impacts.

The development of biofuels has generated vigorous debate on economic and environmental grounds. Our attention here is on its potential impacts on poverty reduction. The potential is large, whether through employment, wider growth multipliers and energy price effects. But it is also fragile: it will be reduced where feedstock production tends to be large scale, or causes pressure on land access, and its success can be undermined by many of the same policy, regulatory or investment shortcomings as impede agriculture. Whilst some of the factors facilitating, and impacts of, biofuels can be tracked at global level, its distributional impacts are complex, and point to the need for country-by-country analysis of potential poverty impacts.

One of a series of five outputs produced under a small project for the Renewable Natural Resources and Agriculture Team of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The objective of the project was to identify the implications of climate change for key areas of DFID’s Agricultural Policy and the Renewable Natural Resources and Agriculture (RNRA) Team portfolio and to produce a  series of practical outputs to assist the RNRA team in programme implementation and communication.This report reviews current knowledge about the relationships between agriculture andclimate change and outlines the main areas of certainty.

One of four briefing papers on key issues in food security, produced by a team of food security and rural development specialists coordinated by ODI. They aimed to brief DFID on key recent debates and international best practice in advance of the Committee on World Food Security, held at FAO, Rome, May 2001. This paper looks at how to deliver the sustainable increases in food production that are critical for achieving food security for growing populations in many developing countries.

'A greater focus on strengthening market-orientated producer organisations and dispute-resolution mechanisms between farmers and firms may increase the chances of win-win outcomes from this form of institutional innovation.'

This paper addresses the question: Do small farms have a future in the developing world? The case for rural development is easy to make: the large majority of the poor live in the rural areas of the developing world. Even with urbanisation, this will not change for at least another 20 years. Although some of the rural poor may be helped by transfers from cities, for most any improvement in their incomes will depend on generating more and better jobs in rural areas.

This book examines the contributions and limitations of low external input technology (LEIT) for addressing the needs of resource-poor farmers. For the first time a balanced analysis of LEIT is provided, making sense of the debates, giving an extensive review of the literature and offering practical suggestions about the management and integration of low external input agriculture in rural development programmes.

Despite their mixed record in the past, Farmer Organisations (FOs) are being asked to play an increasing role in supporting commercial agricultural development among smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa. As NGOs, donors and governments encourage both scaling up and diversifi cation of FOs’ activities and membership, this paper draws on research on FOs in Malawi to suggest principles for policy and practice in support to FOs. With limited resources and facing a very challenging environment, these FOs generally need external support for start-up, but getting the balance right between external and internal resources, between accountability and leadership, between flexible and effective structures, and between over- and under-ambition means that FOs and their supporters walk a difficult set of tightropes. External support needs to be skilled, sensitive, consistent and patient if FOs are not to be another development disappointment at the start of the 21st century.

The results of a study in Sri Lanka combined with a review of the literature provvide evidence that Farmer field Schools (FFS) can contribute to increasing farmers' skills and lowering insecticide use in rice. However, there are questions about their capacity to reach the majority of farmers and little evidence that skills learned are passed to nonparticipants or that FFS is a likely basis for sustained group activity. The results draw attention to the problems of relying on simple formulas in agricultural programs and point to inadequacies in the assessment of donor projects.

In Andhra Pradesh, horticultural expansion is expected to create employment, increase farmer incomes, feed agro-industrial ventures and generate export revenue. Some have benefited from moving into vegetable production but others have been excluded. In this film, new forms of contractual and sharecropping relationships are identified that can benefit small and marginal farms.

The establishment of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for plant varieties has caused considerable controversy, but there is relatively little empirical evidence on performance and options in developing countries. This paper summarizes the results of a recent five-country study, concentrating on the conduct of plant variety protection (PVP) regimes. It examines PVP in the context of other mechanisms that provide incentives for plant breeding. It discusses the principal options available to developing countries and examines the ability of PVP to offer protection from competing firms and from on-farm seed saving. It also looks at the administrative and management requirements of PVP regimes. Although the paper does not discuss patent protection for biotechnology it examines the IPR requirements for the introduction of transgenic varieties. Developing countries need to establish an appropriate PVP system, but PVP should be seen as part of a broader strategy for seed system development.

Low external input technology (LEIT) is a prominent feature of many discussions about the role of agricultural technology in rural poverty reduction. There is a widespread conviction the LEIT is more accessible to resource-poor households and can be the basis for human and social capital formation. This paper summarises a recent review of the subject, presents findings on the outcomes of LEIT, and draws more general implications for donor strategies in agricultural technology generation.

There is increasing agreement that agricultural growth matters for poverty reduction and has a significance extending well beyond the agriculture sector. Examples of successful research and innovation support by DFID show the central role of science and research in technological innovation. Technology cannot be viewed in isolation from innovation in policies and institutions. These provide incentives for farmers to adopt new ideas and ensure that institutional structures enable delivery of technologies. Examples of how DFID is addressing these broader concerns highlight the importance of the public sector and also the role of the private sector and NGOs.

This book examines the contributions and limitations of low external input technology (LEIT) for addressing the needs of resource-poor farmers. For the first time a balanced analysis of LEIT is provided, making sense of the debates, giving an extensive review of the literature and offering practical suggestions about the management and integration of low external input agriculture in rural development programmes.

This book analyses the relevance of agricultural extension to poverty and how far the system facilitates economic and social development among small and marginal farmers. The analytical framework is supported by empirical material - primary data in Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Uganda; secondary data in a range of countries including India. This makes for authoritative conclusions on the scope for action by governments and donors and will be of interest to policy-makers, technocrats, and NGOs concerned with the design and delivery of assistance programmes, researchers, agricultural universities, and students concerned with extension issues.

To improve agricultural technology development in Africa requires strengthening of the enabling environment, including policies, public institutions and regulations. Various types of market failure imply that markets, by themselves, will not elicit the optimum amount of technology for Africa’s farmers. Priorities include more responsive regulations for input supply, support for emerging enterprises, strengthening input marketing, establishing adequate intellectual property protection, and addressing the challenges of biotechnology. Donors can play an important role, but short-term project interventions must give way to longer-term strategies for support to institutions including formal policies and regulations and informal rules and procedures that encourage indigenous organisational innovation.

Many of the current controversies over globalisation, intellectual property protection, biotechnology and the future of farming are played out in seed provision. This book provides a detailed look at the strengths and weaknesses of seed management in traditional farming systems, reviews the history of formal plant breeding and the origins of seed trade, and examines contemporary seed systems of industrialised and developing countries. The book also describes the major types of aid interventions in developing country seed systems and explains why many of these have not been successful. Examples are drawn from original research in Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as from an extensive review of the literature. The result is a comprehensive picture of seed provision that allows the reader to go beyond the oversimplified views that dominate debates about agricultural development.

One of four briefing papers on key issues in food security, produced by a team of food security and rural development specialists coordinated by ODI. They aimed to brief DFID on key recent debates and international best practice in advance of the Committee on World Food Security, held at FAO, Rome, May 2001. This paper looks at the technological challenges thrown up by the need to feed and improve nutritional standards for a growing world population.

This paper examines the adequacy of information flow and the performance of seed markets. Many of the biotechnology innovations propsed for use by smallholder farmers feature qualities that may not be immediately obvious to farmers; implications are drawn for the potential demand for these transgenic varieties. The adequacy of seed systems is also examined, including the characteristics of local seed diffusion and the experience of commercial seed enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is not to arrive at conclusions about biotechnology’s relevance for agricultural development, but rather to point out certain implications and weaknesses in the arguments on both sides. Although the presentation attempts to be even-handed, it must be acknowledged that the paper is motivated by unease over the nature of the NGO case. The paper begins by looking at some of the major arguments that motivate the debate on biotechnology. It then turns to examine how the debate is conducted in the North and the South. The paper concludes by drawing implications for NGOs engaged in agricultural development in the South.