Thursday, November 08, 2007 Developing countries prodded By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BERLIN - As investments for infrastructure for information technology and other industries soar, governments of transforming countries should also focus investments on agriculture to reduce poverty in rural areas and ensure food security, World Bank officials said.
The officials called on governments of transforming countries like the Philippines and foreign aid donors to place agriculture at the center of the development agenda, and highlighted its role in poverty reduction.
Specifically, the World Bank urged governments to invest in rural human capital, improve research development for agriculture and take a comprehensive rural development approach to reduce disparities in the income of rural and urban areas.
While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, only four percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries, down from 12 percent in 1990.
As for government spending, agriculture eats up only eight percent of Asian countries’ budget, or twice as much as Sub-Saharan Africa’s four percent.
Katherine Sierra, vice president for sustainable development of the World Bank, highlighted the role of agriculture in reducing hunger and poverty by half by 2015, one of the millennium development goals (MDG) of the United Nations.
World Bank officials were in Berlin last Tuesday for the presentation of the 2008 World Development Report “Agriculture for Development.” Its last report on agriculture was made in 1982 yet.
“After 25 years, agriculture is still affected by trade and low public investments. What has not changed is the role of agriculture in poverty reduction. It is vital for development and reaching the MDGs but there is not much support for the agriculture sector,” Sierra said in a press conference at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development building in Berlin.
She said that governments should also promote sustainable farming systems and environmental services as they address challenges like trade barriers, resource scarcity and land degradation and connecting farmers to new markets, as cited in the report.
The World Bank also noted weaknesses in governance such as coordination among government agencies and decentralization of services for the agriculture sector.
The World Development Report focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where neglect and underinvestment for agriculture were noted.
In the Philippines, the official presentation of the report will be on Dec. 7 at the World Bank office in Makati City.
With the findings of their study, Sierra said the World Bank is likely to increase lending for agricultural purposes to implement the agenda for agriculture, depending on the needs of the individual countries.
Derek Byerlee, co-team leader of the World Development Report of the World Bank, said increased funding for agricultural programs will have tremendous results.
Citing the report, he said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth from agriculture could raise the income of the poor two to four times more than GDP growth from non-agriculture sectors.
“In countries where there is a booming manufacturing and information technology industries, agriculture is no longer the major source of growth and this is a tremendous challenge in terms of meeting the MDGs, in reducing poverty in the rural areas,” he said.
