1 / 9

Inclusive Agricultural and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Inclusive Agricultural and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chris Barrett Cornell University  November 16, 2004 USAID BASIS CRSP Policy Conference Combating Persistent Poverty in Africa Washington, DC. The Daunting Challenge.

mvitiello
Download Presentation

Inclusive Agricultural and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Inclusive Agricultural and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Chris Barrett Cornell University  November 16, 2004 USAID BASIS CRSP Policy Conference Combating Persistent Poverty in Africa Washington, DC

  2. The Daunting Challenge 1) Huge numbers need help: >500 mn Africans live on $2/day or less … to grow to >610 mn by 2015 2) The aggregate $2/day poverty gap for SSA ~$190 bn/yr or about 62% of gross income (PG ~ 38%) … or leverage through high return investments 3) Overwhelming majority live in rural areas and depend – directly or indirectly – on agriculture 4) Ag productivity stagnated for a generation Must re-ignite rural farm/non- farm productivity growth!

  3. How To Meet This Challenge Context-specific, multi-dimensional asset thresholds that separate growth / decline Climbing out of poverty traps and keeping the non-poor out of poverty traps requires: - increase productivity of assets (markets/technologies) - facilitate asset building and protection (cargo/safety nets) - remove exclusionary mechanisms (finance/social networks) Start with the familiar, then move to more novel …

  4. Familiar 1: Increasing Asset Productivity Improve agricultural technologies and uptake: - renew investment in NARES (incl. universities) - integrate three methods of agricultural TFP growth: ▪ Traditional GR methods (maize, cassava, etc.) ▪ Biotechnology (NERICAs, DRVs, etc.) ▪ Agro-ecological methods (SRI, agroforestry, etc.) - one-off stimuli (starter packs, FFW) Improve terms of trade for poor - reduce costs of mkt participation (roads, ICT, contracts) - level playing field (farmer groups, outgrowers, business skills and support services) Improve non-farm productivity - stimulate private sector investment, esp. in post-harvest processing (labor demand, K deepening)

  5. Familiar 2: Facilitate Asset Building Human capital (labor primary asset of poor): - Education: key to remunerative non-farm employment and to technology uptake /agricultural intensification Natural capital (one of two legs for ag growth): - soil and water conservation (crowding-in investments) - soil nutrient replenishment (IFs, bulk phosphate, etc.) - water management (harvesting, small-scale irrigation) Physical capital; - minimum scale of non-farm capital (“micro” finance?) Cargo net strategies for those seemingly trapped in persistent poverty

  6. Novel 1: Safety Nets for Asset Protection Human capital (labor primary asset of poor): - Health and nutrition: preventive health care and ensuring adequate nutrition … keys to avoiding falling into long-term poverty traps (Kenya, Madagascar, Zimbabwe) - Workfare schemes to avoid asset liquidation responses Livestock: - animal disease control, restocking projects Keys: 1)Multidimensional asset protection essential 2) Need to set safety nets at critical asset thresholds 3) Beware trying to do too much with safety nets

  7. Novel 2: Remove Exclusionary Barriers Financial services (exchange across time): - In order to make time work for the poor, must be able to borrow, insurance and save (SRI, dairy, tea) - Micro-finance sometimes promising, but beware (KDA) Socio-political exclusion: - public goods access (roads/electricity … argan case) - racial, gender, religious, ethnic, caste barriers (traders, information, safety nets, occupations, finance): need to do more than tear down formal barriers … need to bridge the divides those barriers create(d)

  8. Conclusions and Policy Implications 1) Many familiar: improve productivity and build assets ... But need to fund and prioritize these longstanding prescriptions 2) Poverty traps imply some more novel approaches: safety nets and removing exclusionary institutional mechanisms 3) Need progress on multiple fronts … will require significant resources (financial, human and technical) … but alternatives are continued deepening persistent poverty ~$190 bn/year and growing

  9. Thank you!

More Related