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The food, fuel and financial crises of 2008-2009 pushed many millions of people deeper into poverty and hunger. They also led to new questions being asked about food security in the future. While most projections suggest food production can keep pace with population growth and change, ensuring access to - or demand for - that food remains an enormous challenge.
Rural people comprise the majority of the poor and the food insecure. But greatest impact on improving global food security. Can be achieved by enabling the rural poor to increase their agricultural production and bring more to the market, raise their incomes and create employment opportunities for the poorest.
As IFAD notes, the problems and opportunities faced by rural people in different parts of the world vary (http://www.ifad.org/rural/rpr2010/): Brazil is different to Bhutan or Botswana; China has little in common with Chad or Chile. Rural people have varied livelihoods, as producers of food and other agricultural products, as pastoralists, fishers, hunter-gatherers, and – increasingly – as labourers and micro-entrepreneurs. And the problems faced by men are frequently different to those faced by women, by the youth, and by indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.
Climate variability, declining access to land and water, exclusion from global markets and low rural wages could result in growing poverty and hunger Others argue that there could be increased investment in the rural areas and enabling policies leading to increased agricultural productivity, stronger rural organizations, and a growing rural economy in which the poor share the benefits.
IDAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2010 (in prep) - result of a broad consultative process - will comprise three main sections (http://www.ifad.org/rural/rpr2010/):
- The first part will provide an overview of rural poverty today, and examine what conditions could be like for rural people in 2030 if things go badly wrong.
- The second part will explore the major issues and responses to them that are needed if the world is to avoid the worst scenarios for 2030 and build a better future for rural people. Its three chapters will focus on understanding how rural people can overcome risk and reduce their vulnerability to shocks – increasingly, climate-related; how they can adopt sustainable land management practices and productivity enhancing technologies; and how they can expand their access to agricultural value chains, including those capturing carbon in the soil.
- The third part will take another look at 2030, focusing on what the future could look like for rural people if things are done right; and close with a call for action, for policy makers, donors, NGOs and the private sector, which will enable the world to reach that scenario.
Key messages from this forthcoming report are listed in Box 4.5.
Box 4.5: Rural poverty: some key messages
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How difficult life could become for rural people Living in poverty, in the absence of the right new public policies, the right functioning institutions and the right private investment.
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The need to move on from old dichotomies in agriculture and rural development policies and practice – farm/non-farm, urban/rural, market/subsistence, market/production, sustainable/technology-driven, yield enhancing/risk reducing, large farm/small farm, etc.
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The need for a new mainstream agricultural development paradigm focused on the actual producers, including the many women farmers and labourers, incorporating risk, vulnerability and uncertainty, sustainable natural resource management, and, critically, climate change mitigation into efforts to enhance incomes/productivity.
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Climate mitigation, especially soil carbon capture, can provide a secure source of income to smallholder agriculture provided the measurement, verification and certification challenges can be addressed.
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The critical role of local organisations, as a means to build the capacities of rural people and empower them to play a more proactive role in their own destinies. The context for their strategies is set by governments, the large scale private sector, and myriad market actors.
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The significance of non-agricultural policies for the elimination of rural poverty – including protection, education and skills.
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The importance of responding to the interests of wage labourers alongside smallholders and tenant farmers, pastoralists and fishers, in seeking food security, exit routes from poverty and a new balance between farm and non-farm economies.
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The importance of context for rural poverty reduction and the heterogeneity of situations in determining combinations and sequences of policies and interventions.
Source: http://www.ifad.org/rural/rpr2010/. |
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