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DISCUSSION No. 148 • FSN Forum digest No. 1337
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Eradicating extreme poverty: what is the role of agriculture?
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until 24 April 2018
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Dear Members,
The discussion on
Eradicating extreme poverty: what is the role of agriculture? attracted many new comments which we share below together with the feedback of the co-facilitator
Ana Paula de la O Campos from FAO.
With this discussion, we invite you to reflect on how agriculture could be better integrated in poverty reduction strategies
to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor.
Your views will be part of a broader reflection to refine and improve FAO's approach towards the eradication of extreme
poverty by using its experience in supporting agriculture and the livelihoods of rural dwellers towards the realization of SDG1.
Please read more on the
discussion webpage, also available in
French and Spanish.
We thank you very much for your enthusiastic participation so far and look forward to coming two weeks of exchange.
Your FSN Forum team
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Ana Paula de la O Campos, facilitator of the discussion
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Dear members of the forum,
Thank you very much for so many contributions! They will be very helpful as we continue to develop the framework for our
work on extreme poverty.
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You have highlighted a number of important aspects that we will need to take into account for FAO's work to also reach
the poorest of the poor and prevent that more rural people fall deeper in poverty:
- The need to develop more effective strategies and programmes on mitigation and adaptation that are sensitive to the
roles of small scale producers and their needs. "Think global but act local", maximizing local resources, knowledge.
As a follow up, I would like to ask the members of the forum to discuss on how we could move this forwards more effectively, in ways that are scalable and sustainable, particularly, on how to bring the environmental
and social sectors together.
- Strengthening the agriculture and nutrition linkage. Good nutrition is fundamental for productivity, in any sector,
but it also fosters better education and higher incomes for younger generations. It is important to look at the effectiveness of our current food systems to foster good nutrition, particularly that of the poor and the poorest. Where agroclimatic conditions
allow, year-round vegetable production is a good option for bringing more micronutrients to the table.
- We are not fostering the agriculture sector for poverty reduction enough. Investments in agriculture continue to be
below what is needed in order to tap on opportunities that exist in the sector, including organic agriculture (as demand for healthier foods from cities arise) as well as for sustainable production to foster climate change mitigation (CSA, agroecology). Resources
are needed to foster and disseminate local technologies, including farmer to farmer exchanges.
- The importance of revitalizing rural areas and making the agricultural sector more attractive to the youth. Using technologies
to disseminate information and knowledge (example of YouTube videos) that are more specific to local needs. Creating market linkages while also helping develop territorial markets for more high quality food availability at territorial level.
As a follow up to the discussion, I would like to invite the members to further discuss and express their opinions on
the following points:
- I would like to know more about the potential impact of preventing food loss and waste in poverty reduction:
do you have any examples?
- Overall, while eradicating extreme poverty will require multisectoral approaches, how could agriculture be better
integrated in poverty reduction strategies? Often these strategies have a weak rural focus, while most of the poor live in rural areas. How can the role of agriculture be more focused on poverty reduction and reach the poorest? Any suggestions?
- And the other way around, how can agricultural strategies be more inclusive of the poorest? What mechanisms
do we have in the sector to better identify and understand the needs of this population and increase their lack of productive assets?
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CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
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John
Ede, Ohaha Family Foundation, Nigeria
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John discusses the situation of rural poverty in Northern Nigeria, where urgent steps to save the people and the region
from extreme poverty need to be taken. The main concern is that policies to support agriculture practices have been designed by experts with limited input of local stakeholders and therefore do not respond to real needs.
Read the contribution
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Frank
van Kesteren, INCLUDE knowledge platform, Netherlands
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Frank shares the article "Social
protection does not make African farmers lazy, but more productive" recently published
in de Volkskrant newspaper.
Read the article
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Joseph
Bagyaraj, CNBRCD, India
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Joseph responds to the questions proposed and suggests actions to support the income of small farmers.
Read the contribution
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Peterson
Kato Kikomeko, Kyambogo University, Uganda
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Peterson lists some agriculture interventions that can be effective in reducing rural poverty in the context of limited
access to productive resources.
Read the contribution
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Deborah
Muricho, University of Nairobi, Kenya
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Elaborating on the situation in Sub-Saharan African and Kenya in particular, Deborah claims the decisive role of agriculture
in supporting the livelihoods of the rural people. Policy measures should focus on reducing risks and uncertainties of agriculture, along with land reform. The case of pastoralists in West Pokot County illustrates this approach, as indigenous practices were
incorporated in external interventions and institutional support helped them overcome shocks.
Read the contribution
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Mahtab
S. Bamji, Dangoria Charitable Trust, India
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According to Mahtab, it is necessary to provide more support to farmers so that they can increase their productivity
and income, and at the same time rural people should develop skills for off-farm livelihoods. It is also important to strengthen the linkage between agriculture and nutrition.
Read the contribution
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David
Odili, Square Impact Nigeria, Nigeria
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David highlights the problem of land ownership as central to the development of a modern and productive agriculture sector
in Africa. He also suggests the idea of a Conditional Land Transfer (CLT) scheme to support the extreme poor.
Read the contribution
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Ikenna
Ejiba, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
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Ikenna draws attention to the impacts of conflict and of climate change, which are often interrelated as in Northern
Nigeria, with rural dwellers being increasingly pushed into extreme poverty.
Read the contribution
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Marc
van der Sterren, Farming Africa, Netherlands
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At the core of rural poverty is the lack of access to land and empowerment of farmers: providing farmers with specific
advice and information about increasing yields in the most appropriate way can go a long way in lifting communities out of poverty. Marc’s essay available at
http://smarterfarmers.org advocates for this approach providing examples of successful interventions.
Read the contribution
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Mou
Rani Sarker, International Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh
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Mou laments the fact that the larger share of agriculture production goes to middleman preventing small farmers from
improving their livelihoods. In the case of Bangladesh this also affects migration to urban areas and disincentives youth from being engaged in agriculture.
Read the contribution
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Deepak
Sharma, VAAGDHARA, India
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Deepak's experience in working with small and marginal farmers in indigenous tribal communities in Banswara district
of Rajasthan, India, shows the benefit of introducing a nutrition sensitive farming approach. The project used a "participatory learning and action" process to engage about 600 family farms.
Read the contribution
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Lindsay
Campbell, University of Sydney, Australia
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Lindsay argues that in the cases where the poor have access to land, microcredit schemes to purchase seeds, fertilizers
and other inputs can be very useful. Some form of food distribution should complement such a measure so that these people can work productively until crops, pastures for livestock, poultry, fish ponds have started producing.
Read
the contribution
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Bill
Butterworth, Land Research Ltd, United Kingdom
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Bill suggests supporting the production of fertilizer from urban waste. In addition to providing nutrients, such a production
would also provide a chargeable service to the urban economy that the rural poor could take up with the necessary support.
Read
the contribution
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Herbert
Iko Afe, Université d'Abomey Calavi, Benin
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Herbert stresses the importance of cooperatives and associations for allowing deprived households to access credit. He
also mentions the beneficial effect that sustainable natural resource management can have for example in the case of fisheries, where the high percentage of bycatch puts great strain on the fish stock.
Wage labour along the value chain of agricultural products can constitute another strategy to allow the poorest to benefit from agriculture.
Policies, especially those geared toward the most vulnerable are however necessary to facilitate such processes and to allow agriculture to contribute favourably to the eradication of poverty.
Read
the contribution
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