Written evidence submitted by the UK Forum
on Agricultural Research for Development (UKFARD)
1. The UK Forum on Agricultural Research
for Development (UKFARD) is making this brief submission to the
International Development Committee's inquiry, because of its
serious concerns that the UK Government faced with major domestic
financial challenges may seek to review and reduce support for
some of its development assistance programmes. Past experience
in the UK and in many of the countries receiving "untied"
Budgetary Support from this country indicates that support for
the agriculture sector is often the first target for cutting when
there is any pressure on development assistance programmes. Yet,
there is universal recognition of the overriding importance of
agriculture/rural development if hunger and poverty are to be
eliminated throughout the developing world. Recent high-level
examples of this, including some triggered by the global food
crisis, are given below.
2. The World Development Report 2008 stated
that promoting agriculture is imperative for meeting Millennium
Development Goal 1 (MDG 1) of halving poverty and hunger
by 2015 and although rural people in many countries of the
South, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, have been diversifying
their livelihoods to include a range of non-farm activities, agriculture
remains the most important livelihood activity for most rural,
and many peri-urban, families. Agriculture is defined here as
including crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and, more broadly,
all aspects of natural resource management. The livelihoods of
75% of the world's poor will continue to depend on agriculture
for the foreseeable future. At the same time, rising food prices
are likely to make problems of hunger and poverty worse for urban
and rural poor. Subsistence production represents a vital safety
net for many poor people as it provides some degree of food security
and affirms community-held agrarian values. However, if the MDGs
are to be met and poor people are to climb out of poverty, small-scale
commercialised agriculture is one of the few ways for bottom-up
economic growth and a way out of poverty to a better life.
3. Research that produces innovation in
agriculture is therefore more important than ever for reducing
poverty. Agricultural development, however, is a multi-dimensional,
complex and above all, long term issue. Between the late 1980s
and the early years of the new millennium, international investment
in agricultural research for development fell dramatically particularly
in Sub Saharan Africa and this was mirrored by overall reductions
in agricultural production. In part, the thinking was that this
did not matter because there was a surplus of food in the world,
but this has now changed with predicted global food shortages
such that national and regional food security is now firmly back
on the agenda both in the developing and developed world.
4. This, together with rises in international
food prices and the financial crises of recent months, mean that
major players in the development sector such as World Bank and
DFID now acknowledge that it was a mistake to ignore agriculture
and that poor developing countries particularly in Sub Saharan
Africa need to make massive efforts to increase agriculture and
food production. Indeed the World Community as a whole is now
recognising this. For example, in January 2009 a high-level
meeting on "food security for all" was held in Madrid,
convened by the Government of Spain and the UN. This brought together
a broad range of stakeholders from more than 126 countries.
They came from national governments, civil society, trade unions,
private sector, academia, donor agencies and multilateral organizations
and the purpose was to accelerate progress in meeting MDG 1, namely,
to half the global level of hunger and poverty, and address the
effects of price fluctuations on vulnerable populations.
5. To achieve this, many inputs are required
ranging from new agricultural technologies to extension services
and micro credit, and from rural feeder roads to local market
development and international trade. Also, there will be a need
to address emerging issues related to agriculture and natural
resource management to mitigate the effects of climate change.
There is, however, an additional vital and often overlooked input
required in order to underpin more effective agriculture and food
production in Sub Saharan Africa and that is appropriate levels
of trained people. Most agricultural research, extension and educational
establishments in Africa have been starved of funds over the last
quarter of a century as African countries have followed the lead
of international institutions and cut back on investment in agriculture.
This all needs sustained and long term investment and now that
the international community is once again recognising (and investing
in) agriculture it is vital that this is maintained as a long
term investment and not knocked off track by the financial crisis.
6. UKFARD therefore urges the IDC to strongly
recommend that DFID maintains its full support for development
assistance in the agriculture sector, given that sector's vital
importance in addressing hunger and poverty, and its total interdependence
with other sectors, including health, water, energy, education,
and the overarching issue of climate change.
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