Session P 3.1 Innovations for Better Livelihoods

30 October 2012

Chair: Rodney D. Cooke

Facilitator: Patrick Dugan

GCARD Roadmap identifies 6 key areas:

• Collective focus on key priorities as determined & shaped by science and society

• True and effective partnership between research and those it serves• Increasing investments to meet the huge challenges ahead• Enhancing capacities to generate, share and use agricultural knowledge for

development • Effective linkages that embed research in wider development processes and

commitments • Better demonstration of impacts and returns from agricultural innovation

GCARD 2

• Foresight for impact - matching research priorities to future development needs

• Partnerships for impact

This theme concerns the roles and actions needed by all partners along intended agricultural innovation pathways – as projected for the CGIAR CRPs and other national, regional and international partnership actions

• Capacity development for impact

Aim of the GCARD 2 Parallel Sessions

• describe the outcomes expected with the programs reviewed;• identify key gaps which need to be addressed through new partnerships;• indicate what would be required to achieve large scale impacts

The focus of all sessions is on the practical actions to which interested parties are prepared to commit, and the Outcomes that can be achieved over the next two years and reported back in 2014

GCARD is intended as a process bringing to a head key issues identified by GFAR stakeholders as advances and or limitations to AR4D.

The state of rural poverty today

• Developing world remains more rural than urban: 55% of population is rural – 3.1 billion people

• Around 2020-2025 two major changes expected:

o The total rural population will peak, and then start to decline

o The total urban population will overtake rural population

Rural population trends

0

200

400

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800

1000

1200

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1600

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50

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55

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65

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70

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75

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80

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85

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90

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95

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05

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10

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15

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25

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35

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45

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ion

s o

f p

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Series11 Rura l Sub-Saharan Africa

Rura l South and Centra l As ia Rura l Latin America and the Caribbean

Rura l Middle East and North Africa Rura l East and South East As ia

Series17 Peak Rura l Population SSA

Peak Rura l Population SCA Peak Rura l Population LAC

Peak Rura l Population ESEA Peak Rura l Population MENA

The state of rural poverty today

Rural share of total poverty

Of 1.4 billion people living on <$1.25 a day, 70% – 1.0 billion people – live in rural areas

• So despite urbanization, in much of the developing world, poverty remains largely rural – particularly in Asia and SSA

Rural share of total poverty (Rural people as percentage of those living on less than

US$ 1.25 /day)

20

30

40

50

60

70

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100

Closest 1988 Closest 1998 Closest 2008

Eastern Asia

South Asia

South EasternAsiaSub-Saharan AfricaLatin America

Middle East andNorth AfricaDevelopingWorld

Smallholders are key

500 million smallholder farms worldwide supporting around 2 billion people. They:Farm 80% of the farmland in Asia and Africa. Produce 80% of the food consumed in the developing worldFeed 1/3 of the global population. Women are increasingly the farmers of the developing world,

Relevance of addressing gender in ARD: Yields gap between men- and women-run farms of 20-30%

Role of rural women•Account for 43% of agricultural labour force in developing countries; 50% in Eastern Asia and SSA•Typically work 16 hours per day •Multi-tasking with mix of productive and household responsibilities

Challenges facing rural women•Limited access to inputs, services and rural infrastructure (technology, education, extension, health, finance, markets, water, energy)•Represent fewer than 5% of all agricultural land holders in NENA; SSA average of 15%•Limited contribution to decision-making in home, organizations and community

Farmers do agriculture: people–focus - and women are usually the farmers

• 500 million smallholder farms worldwide

The challenge:

to transform smallholder agriculture into successful agribusinesses

Sustainable agricultural intensification

• Growing and wide interest in agric. approaches that are more sustainable and resilient as well as productive (e.g. IAASTD 2008).

• SAI focuses on: improved soil / water management; harnessing of agro-ecological processes for enhancing soil fertility; selective/frugal use of external inputs; human capital for adapting/ innovating, and social capital to resolve landscape-scale problems

• Includes practices such as: conservation agric. ; water and soil conservation techniques; micro-irrigation, rainwater management, drainage; integrated pest management (IPM); integrated plant nutrient management; crop rotation; integrated crop and livestock/fish systems; agro-forestry

• None of the SAI practices represent an alternative to conventional approaches to intensification; rather, intended to be complementary

• SAI means different things in different places: a systemic approach, context adaptation, and linking farmers’ own and scientific knowledge. Premium on knowledge and innovation makes it well-suited for young farmers

Sustainable agricultural intensification

• How to move the SAI agenda forward? Six elements of a policy and institutional framework:

1. Land tenure: security of tenure; easing up of land rental markets

2. Pricing, incentives and regulation: consistent with policy direction; environmental regulation; food product and process standards

3. Payment for environmental services: importance of soil carbon market for smallholder agric., to provide incentive to adopt SAI practices

4. Agricultural education: to develop capacity for SAI, need for improved agric. education and training for farmers and agric. specialists

5. Agricultural research: need for increased research expenditure / focus on SAI agenda, multi-stakeholder innovation, client orientation – TAR4D

6. Agricultural advisory services: need for joint-problem solving and farmer capacitation – key challenge one of upscaling

The advent (almost) of agriculture in the climate change debates – CC CoPs and Rio: 4 key messages• Food security, poverty reduction and climate change are closely

linked – must not be considered separately• Without strong CC adaptation measures, poverty and food security

goals will not be met• Adaptation enhances FS and can reduce GHGs from agriculture• Climate smart agriculture offers triple wins for FS, adaptation and

mitigation

Creating opportunities in the non-farm rural economy

•The RNFE is important for risk management and for escaping poverty. Large number of rural people, rich and poor, are involved in it.

•As economies grow, so the RNFE expands; its importance is growing

•In some countries in Asia and L. America, non-farm income sources already make up a higher % of rural incomes than agriculture

The share of non-agricultural income in total rural income, by country per capita GDP

Albania '05 Bangladesh '00

Bulgaria '01

Ecuador '98

Viet Nam '98 Ghana '98

Guatemala '00

Indonesia '00

Madagascar '93

Malawi '04

Nepal '96

Pakistan '01

Nigeria '04

Nicaragua '01

Panama '03

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40

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80

0 2000 4000 6000 8000

GDP per capita (US$ PPP, constant 2000)

RPR - What needs to be done ?

Attention and investment needed around four cross-cutting issues:

• Investing in the rural areas – making them a better place to live and do business (infrastructure, services, governance)

• Making the rural environment less risky, and helping poor rural people to better manage risk

• Strengthening individual capacities – expand access to education, TVSD in particular, adapted to rural needs, and with specific focus on agriculture

• Continuing to strengthen collective capacities of rural people – to give them confidence, power and security; help them reduce risk, manage assets, market produce; represent and negotiate their interests

Conditions for smallholder development: New directions for smallholder agriculture - IFAD 2011( and after S. Wiggins, 2009)

• Favourable investment climate for farming- no distorting tax/ import subsidies

• Investment in rural public goods - agric R& D, rural roads, education and health - care

• Strengthened rural institutions- market support, rural finance, NR rights, access to technologies, collective action

• Access to K for Sustainable farm intensification

RPR - What needs to be done, and how?

1. Smallholder agriculture continues to play a key role in the economic development of many countries and remains a major source of economic opportunity for rural people – a step up, if not a route out of poverty.

o What sort of agriculture? In all regions, it must be: commercially oriented and linked to markets; increasingly productive; sustainable in its use of natural resources; and resilient to shocks and effects of climate change

2. At the same time, there remains need to harness the drivers of RNFE to create alternative opportunities for rural men and women to move out of poverty

o A successful agriculture will create possibilities for growth in the RNFE; and will create need for employment creation in RNFE

o In addition, other new drivers of growth in the RNFE are emerging in some countries

Thank you for your attention!