Scaling up the fight against poverty and hunger in Africa #globalag

By José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) 

Agriculture is a powerful tool for reducing poverty and hunger. Events of recent years – such as food price increases, droughts, growing climate change impacts and other emergencies – have put agriculture high on the international agenda. We should be clear that agriculture is the solution. Economic growth generated by agriculture is more than twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. Agricultural development is also an effective means of assisting developing countries in building capacity and infrastructure as well as introducing innovation and technology.

Future food and nutrition security and the eradication of poverty will be profoundly influenced by the steps we take today to support the 2 billion people in developing countries who depend on small-scale farms, herding, fishing and other forms of agriculture.

The past year has seen a food security crisis in the Horn of Africa and a developing emergency in the Sahel region of West Africa, where we are just entering the peak hunger season. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme have responded in a variety of ways, from immediate humanitarian relief to building the capacity of smallholders to grow more food, increase their livelihoods and feed their families and communities.

But it is clear that much more needs to be done at every level. Far-reaching partnerships, broader consultation in the formulation and implementation of country-led development processes, as well as long-term commitments, must be made and maintained. In order for development efforts to be successful, is essential to have the participation of civil society, farmers’ organizations and the private sector at every stage.

Beginning with the L’Aquila summit three years ago, the G8 has led a serious and sustained process to mobilize support for greater aid to food and nutrition security. At the L’Aquila Summit, US$22 billion was pledged over three years. The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) trust fund that emerged from the L’Aquila commitments is a new vehicle to ensure accountability in the implementation process for aid for food security and agriculture to some of the poorest countries in the world.

This financial commitment to support country-owned plans can help to make a big difference, but official development assistance alone has not and will not solve the problem. A favourable climate for investment must be created to attract other resources and partners in the framework of established development plans.
For example, in Africa, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), with its national compacts and investment plans, provides a key platform for public and private efforts  to converge towards agricultural development and food security.

Governments are primarily responsible for providing public goods and services that underpin and facilitate private investment, as well as the governance mechanisms that ensure socially and environmentally sustainable benefits from private investment. Farmers and their organizations must also be supported to benefit from increased investments, and they must be engaged from the outset in real, meaningful partnerships from public policy and programme design onward through evaluation.

Private sector investment, particularly through small- and medium-sized enterprises, is a critical factor for reaching the goal of a hunger-free Africa. However, the quality of this investment is of key importance. In this regard, Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, in the Context of National Food Security were endorsed earlier this month by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Implementing these guidelines, which have been agreed upon by governments, civil society and the private sector, will help ensure that responsible governance of tenure contributes to responsible investment, enabling sustainable social, economic and environmental development around agriculture and towards food security.

The United Nations Rome-based agencies welcome the G8’s renewed commitment to keep food security high on the global agenda and the creation of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.
The New Alliance complements ongoing activities and processes, starting from the CAADP itself, and is a tool that can accelerate progress in eradicating hunger and poverty in Africa. These efforts can and will succeed if they support smallholder production and market integration. This includes ensuring that technologies and inputs are adapted to local conditions, and promoting environmentally and socially sustainable farming practices to boost local economies. Stakeholders at the national and local level must drive and own the process from the start.

The New Alliance should avail itself of the opportunities to build upon, and further foster, truly participatory processes involving the G8, African countries, and the private sector, including first and foremost agricultural producers. In this way, it will respond to the needs of rural families and communities, and to the broader needs of African societies.

At the same time, we need to ensure that environmental sustainability is squarely addressed in the type of agricultural investments that are promoted, and that safety nets are in place and emergency preparedness is sustained to protect vulnerable people from the consequences of drought and other shocks.

Together, our agencies have been working with national governments, non-governmental organisations and civil society to help build resilience in developing countries. This includes targeted productive safety nets, such as school meal programmes, and other efforts that ensure that when the next disaster occurs, poor people are better equipped to feed themselves and protect assets such as livestock and property.

We welcome that the New Alliance is promoting a set of enabling tools related to markets and finance, risk and insurance, and science and technology, that can address gaps and strengthen smallholders’ position in the value chain.

We would, however, like to draw particular attention to the need to support women’s empowerment. Women make up nearly half of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa but face disproportionate barriers in access to resources and markets. The New Alliance must also address the aspirations of rural youth, who are key to long-term sustainability and the viability of rural agricultural communities.

Ending hunger and achieving food and nutrition security for the people of Africa is a pressing issue that cannot wait. Smallholders and rural people, who face the daily threat of food insecurity, urgently require access to science, technology and the most basic tools and services that would allow them to invest in their farms and businesses. With these benefits and a renewed commitment across all sectors we have an opportunity to reduce poverty, solve hunger and strengthen food security.

Cross-posted on Food for Thought blog

President Obama keynote address

G8 Summit: Putting food on the table through investing in small farmers #globalag

by Prof. Andrea Riccardi, Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Policies of the Italian Republic and Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD

Italy has long stressed the importance of tackling poverty and hunger and today it is host to the three major U.N .food agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

It was in Italy, at the L'Aquila G8 summit in 2009, that food security and agricultural development were finally put back at the top of the international agenda after decades of neglect during which governments and the international community turned their attention away from agriculture. Now we must make sure that they now stay at the top of the agenda, and that the commitments made at L'Aquila are fulfilled.

Investing in agriculture in developing countries is the single most effective method of improving food security for the world's poorest people while also stimulating economic growth. Growth generated by agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. And there is evidence that every dollar spent on agricultural research produces $9 worth of additional food in developing countries.

More than 95 percent of agricultural holdings in developing countries are less than 10 hectares, and in sub-Saharan Africa about 80 per cent of farmland belongs to, or is cultivated by, smallholders. And experience in developing countries repeatedly shows -- in Burkina Faso, China, Ethiopia, India, Thailand, Viet Nam and elsewhere -- that smallholders can lead agricultural growth.

In many countries we have seen how successful small and medium-sized farms can transform rural landscapes into vibrant economies, resulting in local demand for locally produced goods and services that also spur non-farm employment in services, agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing. This demand, in turn, leads to a dynamic flow of economic benefits, and the cultivation of new relationships between rural and urban areas.

In order for these small farms to thrive -- and to help lead the way to a more successful, profitable agricultural sector -- smallholder farmers need better linkages and access to markets, technology and information. They need mechanisms to manage the inherent risks of farming, particularly at a time of exceptionally volatile weather and prices. They need domestic and international investment in rural areas that is sustainable -- economically, environmentally and socially. This includes significant improvements in basic infrastructure and services, access to water, and better governance. They need legal empowerment and protection of their rights to the land they farm. And they need support in forming farmers' organizations and co-operatives to give them more bargaining power.

When rural small farmers are connected to markets they can sell more and better-quality food at higher prices, eat a more diversified diet, and improve household food and nutrition security. With increased income they can pay for essential medicines, send their children to school and improve their lives. Gender equality is important here as well: we know that giving women equal access to agricultural resources and inputs is one of the most powerful ways of reducing poverty and hunger.

Recognizing small farmers and their organizations as primary stakeholders in development means more than paying lip service to them in global meetings. Truly acting upon this recognition requires genuine collaboration and inclusive processes, which cannot be an afterthought but need to start from the very design of responsible investments in agriculture.

We have high hopes that this year's G8 meeting will lead to tangible support for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. As the current crisis of hunger and malnutrition in the Sahel shows, we cannot wait. We must act decisively and we must act now. It is our responsibility to make this investment now, for the sake of future generations.

Originally posted on Huffington Post and Italian version in Il Sole 24 Ore

Watch an interview with Minister Riccardi on the occasion of IFAD's 2012 Governing Council (In Italian)




What can G8 leaders do differently to ensure food security: An interview with IFAD President

by Prof. Andrea Riccardi is Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Policies of the Italian Republic and Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze is President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome.

Why the farmer should be put first

by Kanayo F Nwanze, IFAD President

Sustainable investment in agriculture is the most effective way to reduce rural poverty, improve food security and stimulate economic growth

Planting maize seeds in Mswagini village,
Arusha Region, Tanzania.

In recent years, agriculture has gone from obscurity to having a central spot on the G8 agenda. For those  working in rural development, this revival of international attention is very welcome, as is the recognition of an increased role for private sector investment.

Private investment in agriculture usually suggests the involvement of large organisations. But, cumulatively, smallholders are significant investors in this sector. There are around 500 million small farms in the world. More than 95 per cent of agricultural holdings in developing countries are less than 10 hectares. In Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa, about 80 per cent of farmland belongs to, or is cultivated by, smallholders. Around two billion people depend on these farms for their livelihood.

Smallholders invest not only their own money, but also their time and labour in their farms. Therefore, it is fair to say that they are the primary on-farm investors in agriculture in developing countries. New investments in agriculture must be sensitive to the requirements of smallholders if they are to achieve the desired result of improving global food security and reducing poverty.

The power of smallholdersInvesting in agriculture in developing countries is the single most effective method of improving food security for the world’s poorest people, while also stimulating economic growth. Growth generated by agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. Experience repeatedly shows – in countries such as Burkina Faso, China, Ghana, India, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere – that smallholders can lead agricultural growth.

Successful small farms can transform destitute rural landscapes into vibrant economies, resulting in local demand for locally produced goods and services that also spur non-farm employment in services, agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing. This demand, in turn, leads to a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural and urban areas so that countries have balanced and sustained growth.

There are sound economic reasons for supporting smallholder farming. Farming production systems have few economies of scale. Small farms are often more productive, per hectare, than large farms when agro-ecological conditions and access to technology are comparable. In India, for example, smallholders contribute more than 50 per cent of total farm output, even though they cultivate only 44 per cent of the land.

New investments must be sustainable – economically, environmentally and socially

One reason for this high productivity rate is that small farmers have a strong personal incentive to get the most out of their land and from their own family labour. Another reason is that family farms have
very low management costs and are labour intensive, while larger farms are often heavily
mechanised or have high costs involved in managing the workforce.

Nevertheless, in many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, poor farmers do not produce enough to feed themselves and their families. Instead, they are net buyers of food
and, with incomes of less than $1.25 per day, they cannot afford to buy much.


If the goals in investing in agriculture are to improve the food security of those who are hungry and to improve the economies of developing countries, then the aim should be to transform smallholder agriculture into successful businesses that are profitable and generate surpluses, and that can help provide
career opportunities and a potential pathway out of poverty and hunger.

Targeting the investment
When one talks about farmers in developing countries, one is often talking about women. On average, women make up 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. In East and Southeast Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa, this figure rises to almost 50 per cent. In investing in rural areas, the capacity of women farmers to invest more effectively and with less risk must be supported, given that women in rural societies face greater constraints. Rural women usually have more limited land tenure, less access to credit and equipment, and fewer market opportunities than have men.

New investments must also be sustainable – economically, environmentally and socially – so that the benefits last, through the years and the generations. Anyone who has travelled into the rural areas of developing countries will have seen the aftermath of unsustainable development: broken tractors abandoned in fields, withered and untended trees, forsaken hillside terraces. This is the residue of development efforts that did not respect and respond to local conditions, whether cultural or environmental, and that did not work with the local community from the start.

Similarly, the Green Revolution that transformed Asian agriculture in the 1970s focused on reducing the number of crops and increasing reliance on improved seeds, fertilisers and better irrigation. It produced
remarkable short-term gains, but came at a cost to the environment and to local species.

In the years since the Asian Green Revolution it has become clear that agricultural growth must be ecologically sustainable and that a diverse range of species, genetic variation and ecosystems is necessary
in order for the land to be able to provide for future generations of farmers.

Indeed, in many developing countries, simply optimising conventional approaches, such as the simple use of fertilisers and micro-irrigation, could yield dramatic results. Only about six per cent of the total cultivated
land in Africa is irrigated, compared to 37 per cent in Asia. Irrigation alone could increase output by up to 50 per cent in Africa. Small increases in fertiliser use could also yield dramatic improvements in yields
without risk to the environment, since farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use, on average, less than 13kg of fertiliser per hectare. This compares with 73kg in the Middle East and North Africa, and 190kg in East Asia and the Pacific.

There is also a critical need to develop national and regional markets, to ensure that productivity gains from new investments have the intended economic impact on developing-country economies. Similarly, there is an urgent need to invest in basic rural infrastructure. Today, about 30 per cent of the food produced is wasted, largely as a result of the absence of such basic necessities as markets, warehouses and paved roads.

Community-driven development
At IFAD, we see time and time again the transformation that occurs when development is sustainable and when local people are involved from the start. Last year, I visited Zongbega, a village in a drought-prone region of Burkina Faso, where smallholders are using simple water-harvesting techniques such as planting pits and permeable rock dams, along with crop-livestock integration. As a result, they have restored land that was once degraded and have increased their productivity. In Niger, a water-harvesting project in the Illela department is still going, more than 15 years after the funding ended – a fine example of the benefits of community-driven development.

In recent years, we have been scaling up what we know works, strengthening value chains, extending rural finance and creating new market opportunities for smallholders and other poor rural people. This year, as
world leaders meet for the G8 in May and the G20 and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June, there is an unprecedented opportunity to solidify the role of public-private partnerships in support of agriculture. I hope their deliberations will take into account the biggest on-farm agriculture investors in developing countries: smallholder farmers.

Originally published by Munk School of Global Affairs

Reaching food security means reaching out to smallholders

By Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President

Agriculture is at the centre of a nexus of pressing issues - poverty, hunger, climate change, environmental degradation, conflict - and the smallholder farmer is at the centre of agricultural development. As we work towards a consensus on a new agricultural agenda, we must not lose sight of this fact. Coming in swift
succession, the meetings of the G8, G20 and the Rio +20 conference offer a unique opportunity to capitalise on the growing recognition that agricultural development is the key to a sustainable future. Small farmers not only need to be a focus of any new agreements; they need to have a role in framing them.


Agriculture is essential both to food security and to poverty reduction. Consider that growth generated by agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. And with at least 70
percent of the world’s poorest people living in the rural areas of developing countries, whether we succeed or fail in our efforts to feed the world and rid it of poverty will largely depend on reaching the people who work the world’s 500 million small farms, many of whom are women.

No new agricultural agenda can ignore the importance of empowering women. In developing countries, 43% of the farmers are women, yet their performance is hampered by deeply unequal access to services and resources - such as credit, extension and improved seeds and fertiliser. And more importantly, they often do not have title rights to the land they farm. It has been estimated that if women had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30%. Closing this gender gap would lift 150 million people out of hunger.

To transform our lives we need modern equipment, water, electricity, telephone… and why not internet?

A new vision
It has long been apparent that there needs to be a second Green Revolution for the 21st century, with a more modulated approach. Today’s world is very different from the one in which the original Green Revolution was launched. Confronting climate change, an environment that is in many places seriously
degraded, and a population that is expected to top 9 billion people by 2050, what we need now is not ‘more of the same’. In moving ahead, we have to make sure we are not looking backward.

An approach relying heavily on inputs and energy will not succeed in the long run. We need to think differently if we are to achieve both environmental sustainability and sustainability over time. We need a
sustainable agricultural intensification agenda that can deliver not only greater productivity but also greater sustainability, resilience to shocks, decent incomes and jobs - particularly for rural youth - and greater nutritional value.

Smallholder agriculture is central to the success of this agenda on all fronts. In addition to increasing agricultural investment, we need to improve such investment. That means bringing together public and private investors in pursuit of the same goals, and making sure that the centrality of smallholders as the main
providers of on-farm private investment is recognised and supported first and foremost.


We will also need to ensure that interventions reach deep into rural areas. The benefits of research, such as improved seeds and drought-tolerant varieties, as well as market information and technologies, will need to be available on the most modest farm in the most remote location.

Farmers are not just recipients of assistance; they are our most important partners, whose involvement and
perspective is critical. During a recent visit to Cameroon, one young farmer, Susanne Nke, told me that “The rural women of our villages must really reach full autonomy. The arduous nature of their work must be reduced. We want to move from the hoe to the tractor.

If we want to engage the youth of today in agricultural development - which is critical to food security tomorrow - we need to listen to them. We should take note of how Susanne cogently articulates the links between equality and social justice, technological innovation, free exchange of information, and
social transformation. And clearly, agricultural development means building strong communities as well as livelihoods.

Connecting smallholder farmers to markets
Private sector partnerships are now widely seen as crucial to agricultural growth and the reduction of rural poverty. We should remember that smallholder farmers are already part of the private sector. Every farm,
no matter how small, is a business. And smallholder farmers are themselves the biggest investors in agriculture in developing countries.

However, these farmers face a number of hurdles in improving their efficiency, productivity and livelihoods. Many of these centre around access - access to markets, to technology, to credit, to the benefits of
innovation and research, to land, to water, and to information. Gender inequalities make access all the more challenging for women farmers, though they make up a large percentage of smallholder farmers and
are typically the most direct providers of food security at the household level.

When rural small farmers are connected to markets, they can sell more and better quality food at higher prices, eat a more diversified diet, and improve household food security and nutrition. With increased income they can pay for essential medicines, send their children to school and improve their lives. Belonging to an organised farmers’ group allows smallholder farmers to bulk produce, reduce costs through economies
of scale and, perhaps most importantly, to strengthen their bargaining power in the value chain, often dominated by powerful private-sector actors. Gender equality is important here as well, in the composition of farmers’ organisations and women farmers’ own ability to organise effectively.

Recognising small farmers and their organizations as primary stakeholders in development means more than paying lip service to them in global meetings. Truly acting upon this recognition requires genuine collaboration and inclusive processes, which cannot be an afterthought but need to start from the very design of programmes and continue through to evaluation.

In Guatemala, an IFAD supported project has helped a producers’ association in El Quiché buy irrigation equipment, build a new storage facility and work with the private sector to bring their produce to new markets. By engaging with private sector partners, they have seen a three-fold increase in productivity, and today these farmers sell to some of the biggest retailers in the world, including retailers in the United States.

There is no single solution that will allow small farmers to respond to the various challenges they face. But our experience has shown that targeted interventions that address the particular spectrum of issues faced by rural communities and that give smallholders a stake in the process are the most practical and cost-effective way to further agricultural development and improve the lives of rural people. The power of smallholders in ensuring food security and eradicating poverty is a reality that world leaders in Camp David, Mexico City and Rio cannot afford to ignore.

Originally published by Intrinsic Communications

Climate-smart agriculture: Not just for big farms anymore

by President Paul Kagame and Kanayo F. Nwanze

Without the support of the world's small farmers, climate talks such as those set for the Rio+20 Summit can never translate fully into climate action, This is why, as the focus shifts to building a global green economy, Governments, other policymakers and the business community from developed as well as emerging economies must recognize the inextricable linkages between climate change, the environment and food security – and, critically, bring smallholder agriculture into discussion.

Every day, smallholder farmers in developing countries confront the real world consequences of climate change and are often first to fall prey to fickle global markets or increasingly extreme weather events.

Yet smallholders cannot be ignored when it comes to climate change solutions:  the world’s half billion small farms  provide up to 80 percent of the food in  in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

Can we really count on these farmers, many of them desperately poor, to take a leading role in addressing the twin challenges of food security and environmental sustainability?  Can they produce more food while protecting the natural environment?

We believe the answer is a resounding yes.  Real world experience shows that they can.

Critical to success is adopting environmentally sustainable techniques that preserve and enhance the soil and ground water.

Examples include terracing to prevent soil loss and degradation through erosion and flooding; minimal or zero tillage, crop rotation and the application of manure, compost or mulching, to improve soil structure and fertility; and agro forestry systems that integrate trees with crops and livestock to produce more in sustainable ways.

The recent experience in Rwanda signals hope that increased agricultural output and environmental protection really can go hand-in-hand.

In Ngororero district in the country's southwest, for  example, an IFAD-backed project has seen Rwandan farmers increase crop yields by up to 300 per cent through improved methods, including using better seeds, good planting technologies and applying fertilizer at the optimal time.

On a larger scale, farmers across Rwanda are increasing the use of manure instead of chemical fertilizers that produce greenhouse gases. In some areas of the country, smallholders are now terracing their land and using other natural techniques to improve the water-holding potential of the soil, improving soil quality and increasing their output.

And while these approaches have proliferated during the past five years, Rwanda has quadrupled its agricultural production.  Today it is now a food-secure nation – remarkable progress in just a few years.

Importantly, Rwanda’s efforts to promote climate-smart agriculture are supported by a wider policy and investment framework that seeks to ensure that every farmer, however small, has access to improved seeds, technical know-how and, crucially, a market opportunity for their farm output. This is an important lesson for every developing country.  If we are to ensure that smallholders can produce more food in sustainable ways their farming should be profitable.

Accordingly, scaling up environmentally sustainable farming among smallholders throughout the world will require a reshaping of national policies and the architecture of public and private investment so as to ensure that farmers can learn these techniques, see their value and employ them profitably.

The lesson is simple.  Identify the climate-smart farming practices and techniques that can boost agricultural production, get the relevant know-how to smallholders, support them as they make the transition, and create an enabling policy environment.

If we do this, – and national policies and international development initiatives support a transition to a climate-smart agriculture – we have no doubt that smallholders throughout the world will step up and do their part.

Paul Kagame is President of the Republic of Rwanda. Kanayo F. Nwanze is President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an international financial institution (IFI) and a specialized agency of the United Nations


Originally appeared in Project Syndicate

Farmers’ Forum panel: Livestock keepers cope with environmental and social challenges

By Ilaria Firmian and Sundeep Vaid

This side event, held yesterday as part of the Farmers’ Forum at IFAD, was proposed by four members of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Europa. VSF is a network of nine non-governmental organizations dealing with animal health, livestock production and development.

The room was packed to capacity with representatives of farmers’ organizations and NGOs debating the role of these organizations in supporting their members – especially small-scale livestock keepers. Participants also discussed how they could ensure sustainable production whilst coping with climate change, thus contributing to food security.

Antonio Rota, IFAD Senior Technical Advisor, Farming Systems and Livestock, opened the session. He reminded the participants that, to date, much has been said about the effects of climate change on livestock, but added that he wished to hear more about tangible actions that were being taken to address the issue.

Alessandro Broglia, President of VSF Europa, said his organization believes strongly in food sovereignty and briefly presented their experience with small-scale livestock in the context of climate change. Reflecting on the demand side of the world’s food problems, he described the alarming levels of obesity prevalent today. “We choose the food that we eat and how much we eat,” he said. “What we need are not only small-scale livestock keepers but also small-scale thinking consumers who can drive changes in the market.”

During the discussions, a shared view of the impact of climate change on small-scale livestock keepers started to take shape.

Marta Guadalupe Rivera Ferre of Centro de Investigación en Economía y Desarrollo Agroalimentario, based in Barcelona, spoke of adaptation strategies and future scenarios. One the one hand, livestock contributes to greenhouse gas emission, she said, but on the other, climate change causes serious problems for smallholders: reduced water availability, extreme weather events and increased pests, just to name a few.

Climate change also causes loss of local vegetation. As medicinal herbs that livestock keepers use to treat their animals start vanishing, traditional knowledge is lost.

In the debate that followed, some examples of good practices in livestock production came up.

Oumou Khairy Diallo of the Senegalese development organization CNCR outlined the benefits of biogas to women in cooking. Antonio Rota said similar results are witnessed in our projects and noted that he would like to see IFAD become a champion of biogas.

Taghi Farvar, of CENESTA in Iran, gave the indigenous and mobile pastoralists’ perspective, saying that some strategies’, such as biogas, are not easily applicable to mobile nomadic pastoralists – who, however, play a key role in maintaining natural resources and biodiversity, and help fight climate change.

Andrea Ferrante of Via Campesina chose to speak on a different tack. He emphasized that small-scale livestock farming is not the problem but the solution to climate change. As highlighted many times during the Farmers’ Forum, farmers have sustainable solutions. The challenge is how to scale up such solutions.

A set of key policy recommendations came out as a result of this session, as seen in the picture at left.

At one point in the session, the participant from Cambodia offered this anecdote: “Before, when we weren’t using biogas, a husband comes home hungry and if the wife hadn’t had the time to collect firewood for cooking, this would lead to a fight in the family. Now we don’t have this problem with biogas. In this way, biogas is tackling domestic violence!”

Smallholders critical to reigniting rural development in Asia #globaldev

By Thomas Rath, Country Programme Manager, Asia and the Pacific Division 

Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. But we need to take smallholder agriculture to the next level to make sure rural communities can play an important role in producing enough food for a growing population.

A good opportunity for Asian smallholders to boost their productivity and increase their incomes coincides with an important change in the Asian food retailing market. Supermarkets with global links have emerged, particularly in South East Asia, responding to changes in life styles, the liberalization of retail trade and the entry of foreign direct investment in Asia-Pacific countries. By 2015, supermarkets in China are expected to reach 62 per cent market share, while Malaysia is expected to reach 61 per cent, Thailand 48 per cent, and the Philippines 36 per cent.

Supermarket chains can offer farmers better deals – higher prices and greater certainty of selling the product than traditional supply chains. But in return farmers are obliged to meet stringent quality requirements and adhere to food safety standards. Also supermarkets usually prefer dealing with few large farmers rather than many small farmers.

Producers’ associations or cooperatives can help small producers gain a footing in international food retailing. Belonging to an organized group allows them to bulk produce, reduce costs through economies of scale and, perhaps most importantly, to strengthen their bargaining power with private-sector actors. Membership can also bring access to financial, processing and business service. All of which are key to empowering farmers to deal with the private sector on a more level playing field.

One of the most well-known producer organizations in Asia is the Indian dairy cooperative. It comprises 12 million members, including landless labourers and women, and produces 22 per cent of India’s milk supply. In China, a group of small scale growers, aided by the local government, formed the Ruoheng watermelon cooperative, which then sold directly to wholesalers, retailers and supermarkets. Due to its timely delivery, quality, and marketing success, the cooperative’s membership increased from 29 to 152, and its farmed area increased from 0.2 hectare in 1992 to thousands of hectares in 2005.

The ability of smallholder farmers to increase their production in a sustainable way is enormously important. Not only to further reducing rural poverty in Asia, but also to feeding the world’s growing population and resolving pressing environmental and climate challenges. Enabling smallholder farmers to benefit from the proliferation of supermarkets and export opportunities in the region can set the stage for new progress in overcoming rural poverty and hunger in Asia. Our focus should be on helping them develop the knowledge and the other tools they will need to do precisely that.

Originally posted on Business fights poverty blog

ZNFU4455: An SMS service offering smallholder producers in Zambia a brighter future #ict4d

Once a luxury item, mobile telephony is now a catalyst to bring about economic development and social inclusion in developing countries, especially in Africa. For economist Jeffry Sachs “mobile telephony is the single most transformative technology for development”.

Mobile phone numbers talk for themselves. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion.  ITU estimates show that in sub-Saharan Africa there is 60% mobile coverage and one-third of the population has a mobile subscription.

Over the last decades we’ve seen the socio-economic benefits of mobile telephony on the lives of many poor rural people. We’ve seen how thanks to mobile phones those who previously were both socially and economically excluded are now actively participating in the economy and are able to connect with their families and friends. We’ve seen how mobile phone supports bottom-up economic development, provides entrepreneurship opportunities and gives voice to poor rural people and the voiceless.

Experts categorize the benefits of the mobile telephony in three categories:

• incremental: improving the speed and efficiency of what people already do
• transformational: offering something new such as comprehensive agricultural services (what to plant when, where to buy inputs, access to price information, potential buyers, transport, pest control and more)
• productive: offering employment and income opportunity

Next time you are in Zambia,  ask a smallholder producer, what is your lucky number. And do not be surprised if they say: “ZNFU4455”.

ZUFU4455 is a market information service open to all smallholder producers and traders, a service that encapsulates and touches on all three categories of benefits of mobile phone listed above.

Designed in 2006 with the assistance of IFAD-funded smallholder enterprise marketing programme and in cooperation with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), ZNFU4455 provides accurate and up-to-date agriculture and market information covering the entire value chain. It allows smallholder producers to make informed decision about what to grow, volumes required, storage, processing, marketing and investment opportunities.

ZNFU4455’s prime objective is to make markets functional for smallholder producers and traders. The service provides a list of 180 traders - 50% of whom are active -  and their offer for 15 commodities. To find the best price on offer, smallholder producers and traders send an SMS message to 4455 containing the first four letters of the commodity and the district or province. They immediately receive a text message listing the best prices and codes designating the buyers offering them. After selecting the buyer that best responds to their needs, farmers send a second SMS with the buyer’s code. A text message is returned with the contact name and phone number. Farmers are then able to phone the buyer and start trading. Each message costs around US$0.15.

This demand-driven service responds to the evolving needs of the Zambia smallholder farmers and traders. It has helped reverse the trend of smallholder producers being exploited and passive players to becoming successful entrepeneurs by addressing challenges such as:

• limited access to credit
• limited access to price information
• limited access to appropriate technology
• limited business and negotiating skills
• weak organizations
• weak bargaining power
• poor access to transport networks
• little or no knowledge of market trends

The success of this service is manifold. To start with, it benefitted from an excellent marketing campaign.  It’s business model is based on making revenue through advertisement and sponsorships.

It is one of those few IT applications that has little bells and whistles, it is easy to understand and use. It is a service that provides information upon request, as opposed to indiscriminately pushing content. It does so through different means such as  cellphone (SMS), internet and radio. The radio programme is broadcast in seven local languages and in English.

Most importantly, it got the government’s full support and is an integral part of the national agricultural policy. Zambia’s good rural coverage of mobile phones and the fact that it is hosted in a credible institution, such as Zambia National Farmers Union, with a strong management team have contributed to its impressive success.

Between its launch in August 2006 and August 2009, ZNFU4455 managed to improve the bargaining power of smallholder producers, by providing them better access to markets and allowing them to deal with traders on an equal footing. Farmers have managed to reduce their transaction costs, are now producing more high value produces and targeting different markets. Thanks to the weekly updates, they are no longer overproducing, thus eliminating storage challenges.

Policy makers are using ZNFU4455 up-to-date information to identify trends in price fluctuations and to flag emergent and imminent food security challenges.

To date, 90 percent of traders and 60 per cent of the Zambian farmers have benefitted from ZNFU4455. Forty percent have managed to negotiate better prices, 52 per cent have sold their products to different traders and buyers, 23 per cent managed to build new trading relationships, more than 50 per cent increased their income, 15 per cent of initial SMS messages to the system led directly to farmers selling their produce, and over 90 per cent of the calls to buyers led to transactions.

ZNFU4455 and many other similar initiative and services highlight the fact that developing countries see and want mobile phones as the preferred information delivery system. At the same time, there is enough evidence that poor rural people are willing to spend part of their income on such services. The challenge now is to move beyond pilots and make sure that we systematically embed and mainstream ICT4D activities and projects in rural development projects and programmes so that we can have many more successful experiences such as ZNFU4455.

For more information visit http://farmprices.co.zm/

Global food crisis: Smallholder agriculture can be good for the poor and for the planet

by Elwyn Grainger-Jone

Agriculture needs to be seen as an interaction with wider ecosystems – so that farming becomes a renewable rather than an extractive activity

Want to fly more? Face more climate change. Want lower taxes? Receive less public services. Because economists can provide logical, bottom line figures for returns on investments, this "trade-off" thinking permeates public policy-making.

This is why most policy-makers think they have to choose between feeding the world and protecting the environment – a straight choice. Does it have to be this way? No. To the contrary – we can and must achieve both, or we will fail on both.

In the long run, continued agricultural production cannot be sustained at the cost of undermining natural assets. In most parts of the world, we are seeing the environmental costs of unsustainable agriculture: 15 out of the world's 24 main ecosystem services are being used unsustainably; agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater use and of that 15%-35% is used unsustainably; 75% of crop diversity has been lost since 1900; 70% of fish stocks are being harvested unsustainably; about 5.2m hectares of forest are lost every year; and agriculture and land use change account for 14% and 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions respectively.

While large-scale agriculture is a major driver of environmental degradation, 500m smallholder farms are an important part of the equation. They account for 60% of global agriculture, manage vast areas of land, and through ingenuity and sweat manage to feed about one-third of humanity (providing up to 80% of food in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). They also make up the largest share of the developing world's undernourished. Large numbers of smallholders are women heads of households or indigenous peoples – they live in the most ecologically and climatically vulnerable landscapes, such as hillsides, drylands and floodplains, and rely directly on weather-dependent natural resources.

For some years now, a combination of enlightened government officials, community groups, civil society organisations, thinktanks and international aid agencies such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) have been developing a more sustainable approach to agriculture, with great success and huge potential to include smallholders. Examples (often overlapping) include sustainable land management and conservation agriculture, agroforestry, sustainable forest management, watershed management, integrated pest management, and organic agriculture.

Baffled? In essence, these typically create or maintain healthy landscapes with maintained groundcover, diverse production systems and fertile soil that can retain moisture and nutrients.

Back to trade-offs. As much by lucky coincidence as design, these techniques typically increase yields, reduce poverty, increase resilience to climate change, enhance biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These are the "multiple-benefit", or "multiple-win" approaches that poor rural people need. Take the example of agroforestry – planting "fertiliser trees" in the smallholder maize fields of Malawi has doubled yields, increased the resilience of the soil to land degradation (by improving its organic and nitrogen content, water retention capacity and moderation of micro-climate), reduced soil carbon emissions, and increased biodiversity by being a source of food for insects and animals.

Such techniques are already being successfully scaled up. For example, agroforestry is now practised on between 12.5%-25% of total agricultural land worldwide. Brazil currently practises minimum-tillage for about 60% of its cultivatable area. Conservation agriculture is used in about 100m hectares worldwide (about 8% of arable land). Current trade in organic food, drinks and cotton amounts to about $60bn a year. India, Indonesia and the Philippines have removed insecticide subsidies and reduced insecticide use on rice by 50%-75%, while rice production continued to increase annually.

We can work with smallholder farmers in developing countries to do this even faster. IFAD's new Environment and Natural Resource Management Policy, launched on Wednesday, describes how our organisation will support an "evergreen revolution".

The main challenge is to change mindsets. Agriculture needs to be seen as an interaction with wider ecosystems – allowing agriculture to be practised as a renewable rather than extractive activity. In addition, the real value of natural assets, including cultural values, needs to be recognised. Government ministries (and international governance structures) can seek multiple-benefits rather than compete around trade-offs. From this will flow the change in policies needed to reward better stewardship of the planet.

The problem of environmental degradation in agriculture is more serious and systemic than many previously thought. Thankfully, we have the tools and knowledge for smallholder agriculture to play a key role in feeding a growing population in a way that is good for the poor and good for the planet. Let's invest in them.

Originally posted on Poverty Matters Guardian blog

Breakfast with Sir Gordon Conway: learning about the genesis of participatory rural appraisal

IFAD's Conference on New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture brought together numerous leading development actors. One among them is Sir Gordon Conway.

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by Sir Gordon. What struck me was how he managed to convey complex concepts in such a natural way. And this was because he actually told us a story - another example of the power and potential of story telling. Maybe next time, anyone out there decides to do a powerpoint presentation, they can at least try and give it a nice plot and actually TELL the story, rather than reading the slides!

This morning, I decided to be bold and ask Sir Gordon whether he would agree to do a short interview. It was a privilege and an honour to have this short conversation with him.

In less than 4 minutes he:

• shared an important piece of rural development history: the genesis of participatory rural appraisal 
• complimented IFAD for doing analytical work which is grounded in farmer's realities and challenged us to boil down the messages of comprehensive approach to smallholder development emerging from the  Rural Poverty Report 2011 to simple messages so that the people can understand and act upon them
• challenged IFAD to do more on climate change and to take the lead on climate change and agriculture
• shared his optimism on future of agriculture by saying that smallholder farmers in developing countries can feed the world and ensure food security. What we need to do is to use the available the technology and link farmers with markets and the outside world

Capturing ‘the State of Smallholders in Agriculture’ in Latin America

Examining Latin America at the New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture Conference
This is rural poverty in Latin America. And while its dimensions and striations, variegations, flaws, strengths and commonalities are nearly impossible to capture in a single portrait, it’s certainly worth the effort. In their recent paper Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, agronomist Julio A. Berdegué and sociologist Ricardo Fuentealba strive to define and delineate the nuanced reality facing one important component of the 62 million rural people living in poverty in the region: agricultural smallholders. The paper presents strong arguments on the nature of rural poverty, development and family farming in the region, also revealing a series of numbers and facts on rural inequality that lead the paper’s authors to conclude that Latin America has “the most unequal rural sector in the world.”

One thing we know for sure, according to Berdegué and Fuentealba, is that the Latin America of today “is truly a very different place than one generation ago.” Since the scorched earth days of the 1980s, the region has changed the way it works and does business. Its politics and economics have turned 180 degrees – in some cases the turn has been more like 270 degrees – presenting new paradigms for industry and development, and new opportunities and challenges for the rural sector.

“The past three decades have seen the region: liberalize and open its economy, including its agricultural sector; dismantle numerous public services related to agriculture; redefine the relative roles of the state, markets and civil society in development; nurture a growing number of medium and large corporations, including multinational ones, that play a dominant role in agriculture as in other sectors of the economy; dramatically expand the provision of basic health and education services, including in rural areas; introduce television, radio and mobile phone communications to the majority of rural areas; reduce its population growth; concentrate population in urban centers, including small and medium provincial towns and cities; expand the rights and opportunities of women; reestablish democracies and strengthen the rule of law and the respect of human rights; increase the responsibilities of regional and local (municipal) governments; expand the size, voice, and contributions of organized civil society; deforest vast regions, contaminate many of its rivers and lakes, and further erode its soils, while at the same time experience an awakening of an environmental consciousness and activism on the part of growing sectors of the population.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

All in all, it looks like things should be going well for smallholders in the region. Sure, the growth in large corporations may be siphoning off some of the money that would otherwise be landing in smallholder wallets, but, with all that growth, surely the region’s smallholders would be able to capitalize somehow on three decades of growth. Unfortunately, the numbers just don’t add up.  Over the past three decades, GDP jumped by over 25 per cent in real terms in the region, yet the number of rural people living in poverty dropped by only 12 million – with a drop of 6 million in the number of people who could not meet their food needs. This means that in rural Latin America today, some 35 million people do not have enough to eat on a daily basis and 62 million people are poor.

Inequality for all
Berdegué and Fuentealba say that unequal access to wealth and land are to blame. “If adjusted by inequality, the Human Development Indexes (HDI) of 18 LAC countries, for which there is data, drop below the HDI for Africa (four countries) or Asia (11 countries),” according to the paper, citing current data from the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report. And according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poor.

“The 20 per cent richest of the rural population earn between 10 and 50 times more than the 20 per cent poorest ranges (ECLAC, 2010); in 9 of 16 countries for which there is data, this measure of income distribution is worsening (Berdegué, 2010).”

Many of the countries have Gini coefficients of 0.5 or higher for rural income, according to the paper, confirming this to be the most unequal rural sector in the world (a Gini coefficient of ‘0’ represents complete equality, while ‘1’ represents maximum inequality). Inequality in land access is even more marked, with an overall Gini score of 0.78, compared with Africa’s 0.62.

Data from the World Bank tells us that every country in the Latin America and Caribbean region – with the exception of Haiti – falls in the middle-income category ($996 to $12,195 per year in GNI). But, as anyone who has ever spent any significant time in the countryside in Latin America knows, these national averages give a rather distorted view of the reality facing most poor rural people in the region. For example, while Mexico’s GDP per capita is US$8,920, the average income of the poorest 40 per cent of the rural population is just US$652 per year, and that of the poorest 20 per cent is US$456 per year (equivalent to the GDP per capita in United Republic of Tanzania).

Defining our target
One of the greatest achievements of the Berdegué and Fuentealba paper is a refined and multi-tiered definition for smallholder farmers in the region.

“The smallholder or family-based agriculture sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is defined as a sector made up of farms that are operated by farm families, using largely their own labor. A detailed analysis of recent data for several countries allows us to approximate that there are 15 million family farms in LAC, controlling about 400 million hectares. The family farming sector can be classified in three large groups: (a) Almost 10 million subsistence farms, with 100 million hectares, where households derive a large proportion of their income from non-farm jobs, remittances and/or social subsidies; (b) an intermediate group of 4 million farms with 200 million hectares, that are integrated in agricultural markets but face significant constraints derived both from their asset endowment and from the proximate contexts in which they operate; (c) about 1 million family farms that hire some permanent labor and that manage about 100 million highly productive hectares. The performance and opportunities of these family farmers is largely determined by the characteristics of their proximate context, which is unfavorable in most cases. Recent trends of agrifood markets also create a new environment for family farming in LAC.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

And while most indicators point to rapid urbanization and increased diversification of incomes for rural people in the Latin America region, according the paper, the smallholder sector is not actually getting any smaller. In fact, in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras more rural households are now defining themselves as “self-employed in agriculture.” The problem, say Berdegué and Fuentealba, is that we are using a set of rules and parameters designed for Asia and Africa, and trying to apply them to Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Using the definition of the smallholder sector as that comprised by farms of less than 2 hectares, Nagayets (2005) finds that there are about 5 million small farms in the Americas. This estimate, adopted by other authors (e.g., Wiggins et al., 2010; Hazell et al., 2010) as well as by IFAD in the background concept note for the conference on "New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture" [held January 24 and 25, 2010 in Rome], is patently wrong. While a limit of 2 hectares perhaps fits the distribution of landholdings in Asia, it certainly does not in LAC. Therefore, this procedure distorts our understanding of smallholder agriculture, and misguides the design of public strategies and policies, as it reduces the smallholder to a fraction of its real size, particularly if measured in terms of economic and social contributions.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

And while the reclassification of the family farming sector in Latin America and the Caribbean as outlined in the Berdegué and Fuentealba paper is far too complex to capture in a brief format, in examining the issue of farm sizes, it’s worth noting the importance of regional context. For example, in Ecuador, “a subsistence farm on the coastal plains is twice as big as one in the Andean highlands, while one in the Amazon basin is eight times larger. At the same time, a farm of 4.5 hectares in the Andes is already ‘transitional,’ while one of 25 hectares in the Amazon Basin is still in the ‘subsistence’ group.”

Also worth noting is the increased diversification of incomes in the region. According to the paper, about 65 per cent of the region’s 15 million family farms rely on non-farm incomes to keep themselves afloat. “for them, agriculture complements other activities, and remittances and cash, as well as in-kind social transfers and supports are of great importance. Still, this group owns or controls about well over 100 million hectares. Even if small, the income derived from this land is absolutely critical for their survival and to reduce their vulnerability to shocks of all kinds. Many if not most in this group would be considered poor. Yet, an agriculture-based or agriculture-led development strategy would miss the fundamentals in the case of this group.”

A second group of family farmers derive much of their livelihoods from the plow and are well integrated into agricultural markets. Yet this group of about 4 million small farms that control some 200 million hectares of farmland face significant challenges in regards to risk and assets, and would certainly not fall under the guise of the 2-hectare limit.

Supporting this second group is key to the revitalization of rural economies in the region. “The contribution that this group makes to feeding Latin America and, increasingly, other regions of the world, cannot be underestimated. Because they are deeply embedded in the local economies, their agriculture-based development has production and consumption linkages that makes them important local and regional players.”
The final group of family farmers would then be farms that fall somewhere between a traditional Mom-Pop-and-four-pups family farm and a corporate farm. These are farmers that hire labor to increase scales. They hold roughly 100 million hectares and represent 8 per cent of the smallholder sector.

The Berdegué and Fuentealba paper was presented at the New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture Conference held at the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Rome headquarters in Rome on 24 and 25 January 2010.


Outlooks

Today, IFAD President released The Rural Poverty Report 2011 at Chatham House in London, #rpr2011

Here is our big day. We are launching the Rural Poverty Report 2011. The report is the result of two years of extensive work.

To make sure that nothing would go wrong, I went down early to the plenary hall of Chatham House to get myself organized to find out to the my biggest chagrin that there was no internet access in the plenary hall. PANIC, total PANIC. I pulled out my Blackberry, more PANIC, no signal!!

Deep breath, think and think fast. Rushed upstairs to do as much as I could do  before the meeting started. After putting in place the contingency plan and coming to terms with my constraint, I headed back downstairs.

At 9:33, David Nabarro welcomed the participants and opened the “Food Security 2010 – Making Food Security work: Matching supply to demand.

In introducing Dr Nwanze, IFAD President, to take the floor to deliver the keynote address, he mentioned that “IFAD is now a leader and advocate for food security". Nabarro compliment IFAD taking "actions to ensure that food security will be experienced by everyone and not just a few”.

With that introduction, the President, holding the report in his hand  and later in the session, Edward Heinemann, the Rural Poverty Report, team leader,  proceeded to unveil the findings of the Rural Poverty Report 2011.

"The report is a comprehensive review of rural poverty, which accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s extremely poor people – about 1 billion children, women and men", said Dr Nwanze.

"The report provides an in-depth evaluation of the state of rural poverty and its consequences for people all over the world. It also makes important recommendations on policies and investments that will help rural women and men move out of poverty and, in the process, become part of the solution for the global food security challenges of the next
several decades".

"One of unique characteristics of the Rural Poverty Report 2011 is that it goes beyond cold facts and figures and includes the stories, hopes, challenges and aspirations of poor rural women and men from around the world who are struggling to overcome poverty. Their thoughts and perspectives were influential in the preparation of the report", said Nwanze.


During the meeting both Dr Nwanze and Heinemann reminded the audience that as we embark in the new decade of the 21st century, global poverty still remains a massive and predominantly rural phenomenon - and this is absolutely unacceptable.

The Rural Poverty Report outlines four steps to eliminate hunger and poverty

• Help rural people better manage the risks they face
• Sustainably increase agricultural production
• Facilitate equitable access to new and changing marketplaces by viewing smallholder farmers first and foremost as businesses
• Encourage the growth of non-farm rural jobs

Managing risk
"Smallholder farmers have always been vulnerable to risk, and now these risks are growing. Today, they face less secure access to land, increasing pressure on common property resources, climate change and food price volatility. We need to find ways of reducing risk and giving poor rural people access to the tools they need to deal with it", explained Nwanze.

The Report argues that for some, this will mean improving their skills, while for others, it will mean access to micro insurance, and for others still it will mean social protection. What is crucial is to create the right environment to make it easier for more rural people to be more entrepreneurial, creating the conditions for a vibrant rural sector which generates locally produced goods and spurs sustainable non-farm employment in services, in agro-processing and in small-scale manufacturing.

Sustainably increase agricultural production
The report makes the case that we need to ensure that the world’s 500 million smallholder farms are able to realise their potential as small-scale businesses and at the same time increase food production but in a sustainable way.

In Africa, for example, only 6 per cent of the land is irrigated. Only one tenth of the average amount of fertilizer is used on farm land. But we also know that 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land is in Africa. Imagine the potential that this land holds for the approximately 300 million poor people who live in rural Africa. Imagine the potential of the 2 billion people who live or work on small farms the world over.

This means we need to get higher yields from existing land, and we need to do so in an environmentally sustainable way that does not pollute, diminish the land over time or contribute to greenhouse gas emissions - in other words, we must have sustainable intensification.

The report highlights that sustainable farming practices have improved yields by an average of nearly 80 per cent over four years. It argues that what we need is a systemic approach that uses a variety of innovations – derived from the latest scientific discoveries and from local practices and knowledge – to bring agriculture into the forefront of efforts to protect and preserve land, air and water for generations to come.

The report concludes that this means complementing conventional approaches to increasing productivity with a much stronger focus on soil and water management, integrated approaches to soil fertility management and overall farm production systems.

At the same time, the report recognizes that there is no blueprint for sustainable agricultural  intensification. The best practices will be determined by the local context. The challenge is to develop policies and institutions that can make it happen on a massive scale.

Facilitate equitable access to new and changing marketplaces by viewing smallholder farmers first and foremost as businesses
"One of the other challenges highlighted in the report is the lack of access to markets which is one of the determinants of poverty", explains Heinemann".

Smallholder farmers and poor rural people must have opportunities to be entrepreneurs, rather than bystanders. To realize their business potential there should be a concerted effort to reduce risk and transaction costs along value chains, supporting rural producers’ organizations, expanding financial services into rural areas and ensuring that small farmers have access to the infrastructure, the utilities and information. Investing in good governance is another key ingredient".

Encourage the growth of non-farm rural jobs
"There is no question that agriculture is and will continue to be the key economic driver in rural areas. Agricultural success is a route out of poverty for millions", said Nwanze.

"Today, around 80 per cent of rural people are involved in farming to some degree. We must continue to support those who see agricultural production as their main livelihood in every way we can. But we must also recognize that rural economies are becoming more diverse. If we succeed in creating more profitable farms, we will also succeed in creating associated non-farm enterprises. Some people will leave the farm for new jobs with large enterprises in rural areas, while others will choose to become entrepreneurs in non-farming pursuits".

The Rural Poverty Report suggests that in order to meet the growing needs of a hungry world, agriculture must be a viable and rewarding activity for the large number of people who choose it. But increasingly, it will be one of many choices, not the only choice. This is not a threat to agriculture, but rather a chance to develop a more modern, diversified economy.

Call for action
"Our report is not one that should sit on a shelf to collect dust. I hope that we all join hands to implement the four steps outlined above to eliminate poverty and hunger", exclaimed Nwanze.

"The challenge now is for governments to follow through on their promises and for players in all areas of rural development to take action. Developing countries must be the drivers of rural development. Where countries have shown the commitment, development agencies and others should support their efforts".

IFAD is meeting the challenge by working closely with partners to scale up our support to rural development on the ground. We are also championing a new and more dynamic vision of rural development.

Dr Nwanze concluded: "And as we look at today’s rural poverty report, we must also look to the future, and that means focusing on the young people who live and work in rural areas. Give them the skills and confidence they need to run profitable farms or start businesses, and they hold the potential to become the community leaders of tomorrow. Ignore them, and they will have little option but to leave their homes and families to search for work in the cities".

Sir Gordon Conway who took the floor after the President's keynote address complimented and congratulated IFAD for a great multidisciplinary report which is totally grounded in reality and comprehensively reflects the stories, challenges and aspirations of poor rural people!

Others commended IFAD for putting out a strong practical report showing how to unlock the potential smallholder agriculture, for seeing farmers as business people and for depicting "their business" being embedded in social, economic and political relationships and showing how when these relationships do not work that is when food security fails.

Sitting in the room and hearing rural development leaders citing and referring to the report just minutes after it was launched was indeed a gratifying moment. Undoubtedly we'll be hearing more and more people citing and quoting the report. Well done to all those who were involved in this two year effort. Well done to Ed and Bettina.

The panelists echoing the President's  message of hope and call for action urged the participants to read the Rural Poverty Report. Make sure you download the report.

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Also, please mark your calendars: on 9 and10 December from 9:00-10:00 and from 14:00-15:00 December, Edward Heinemann and his team will answer your questions and comments on Facebook and Twitter.

Please send us your questions and comments by 16:00GMT 8 December.

Follow @ifadnews on Twitter and become join us on our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/ifad/107399332627995).

See you on-line.

Listen to Edward Heinemann who shares some of the findings of the Rural Poverty Report 2011