Promoting sustained agricultural growth
Monday, 22 October 2007
ACCELERATION of the pace of agricultural growth is the key to sustained progress in poverty alleviation and, thus, to improved socio-economic performance for countries like Bangladesh. This is more so because the potential for agricultural growth in such countries has yet remained largely untapped. Prospects for raising their agricultural output in a sustained manner have been marred by a number of factors including those relating to unfavourable weather conditions like floods, drought and the like. The resilience of the Bangladeshi farmers in coping with the problems arising out of the natural disasters is well known. But this resilience is not always enough to deal with the situation arising out of such calamities. Here effective public policy supports, particularly the implementation aspects thereof, assume a great deal of priority to facilitate the farmers in pursuit of economic activities that may help recoup the losses and spur agricultural growth.
In this backdrop, it has rightly been highlighted in this year's World Development Report (WDR) of the World Bank that the promotion of sustained agricultural growth in developing countries like Bangladesh would require a big boost in investment. It notes that agricultural and rural sectors that have suffered from neglect and underinvestment in the past 20 years would need a shot in the arm, through both policy and funding supports, for their accelerated growth performance. On its part, Bangladesh, as the WDR has pointed out, will have to strive for achieving a growth rate of at least 4.0 per cent in agriculture a year if it is to achieve the objective of halving its extreme poverty by 2015. There is no denying that poverty in Bangladesh is primarily a rural phenomenon, with 53 per cent of its rural populace classified as poor, comprising about 85 per cent of the country's poor. On a global scale, 75 per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas. It will be well-neigh impossible to confront the problems of poverty without creating the conditions for supporting sustained growth of agricultural sector in most of the developing countries where the bulk of the world's poor live.
The WDR this year of the WB has 'Agriculture for Development' as its main theme. It makes a strong case for placing agricultural sector at the centre of the development agenda, keeping in view the imperatives for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. For this purpose, the support of the international donor community, particularly that of the multilateral capital donors like the WB, will have to be scaled up. There has, on the whole, been an average decline in lending by such donors for the agricultural sector in developing countries like Bangladesh over the last two decades and more.
While the availability of funds in required quantum is required for the purpose of boosting agricultural growth in developing countries like Bangladesh, the right kind of supportive public policies is no less important for this sector in order to offer pathways out of poverty. Such policies do need to support meaningfully efforts to increase productivity in the staple foods' sector. Sustained growth in agriculture can, thus, come from intensification of cereal production, diversification into high-value crop and non-crop activities and value addition in the agro-processing sector. But there is no push-button arrangement for all these to happen. The right kind of public policies relating to agricultural research and extension systems, financial and other regulations, cost-effective delivery systems for supplies of critical agri-inputs at the farmers level, land administration and security, the quality of rural infrastructure and services will have to be there. For all practical purposes, countries like Bangladesh have no option other than having a 'dynamic agriculture for development agenda' in a situation where more productive rural employment opportunities through expanded farm and non-farm activities hold out the key to breaking the fetters of poverty in the near future. Hence, all policy-supports do need to be put in place at the earliest -- and in earnest -- to facilitate an accelerated pace of agricultural growth.
In this backdrop, it has rightly been highlighted in this year's World Development Report (WDR) of the World Bank that the promotion of sustained agricultural growth in developing countries like Bangladesh would require a big boost in investment. It notes that agricultural and rural sectors that have suffered from neglect and underinvestment in the past 20 years would need a shot in the arm, through both policy and funding supports, for their accelerated growth performance. On its part, Bangladesh, as the WDR has pointed out, will have to strive for achieving a growth rate of at least 4.0 per cent in agriculture a year if it is to achieve the objective of halving its extreme poverty by 2015. There is no denying that poverty in Bangladesh is primarily a rural phenomenon, with 53 per cent of its rural populace classified as poor, comprising about 85 per cent of the country's poor. On a global scale, 75 per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas. It will be well-neigh impossible to confront the problems of poverty without creating the conditions for supporting sustained growth of agricultural sector in most of the developing countries where the bulk of the world's poor live.
The WDR this year of the WB has 'Agriculture for Development' as its main theme. It makes a strong case for placing agricultural sector at the centre of the development agenda, keeping in view the imperatives for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. For this purpose, the support of the international donor community, particularly that of the multilateral capital donors like the WB, will have to be scaled up. There has, on the whole, been an average decline in lending by such donors for the agricultural sector in developing countries like Bangladesh over the last two decades and more.
While the availability of funds in required quantum is required for the purpose of boosting agricultural growth in developing countries like Bangladesh, the right kind of supportive public policies is no less important for this sector in order to offer pathways out of poverty. Such policies do need to support meaningfully efforts to increase productivity in the staple foods' sector. Sustained growth in agriculture can, thus, come from intensification of cereal production, diversification into high-value crop and non-crop activities and value addition in the agro-processing sector. But there is no push-button arrangement for all these to happen. The right kind of public policies relating to agricultural research and extension systems, financial and other regulations, cost-effective delivery systems for supplies of critical agri-inputs at the farmers level, land administration and security, the quality of rural infrastructure and services will have to be there. For all practical purposes, countries like Bangladesh have no option other than having a 'dynamic agriculture for development agenda' in a situation where more productive rural employment opportunities through expanded farm and non-farm activities hold out the key to breaking the fetters of poverty in the near future. Hence, all policy-supports do need to be put in place at the earliest -- and in earnest -- to facilitate an accelerated pace of agricultural growth.