Agriculture and other natural resource-based enterprises are the foundation for economic growth in many developing countries. Of the 11 percent of the world’s land surface that is suitable for agriculture, 38 percent has become degraded by poor natural resource management practices. With no significant room to expand areas of cultivation, good farming practices and stewardship of the available land are necessary to increase agricultural productivity, ensure economic growth, protect biodiversity, maintain sufficient amounts of clean water, and meet the increasing food demands of a growing global population.
Sustainable agriculture integrates environmental health, economic viability, and social equity to ensure long-term productivity of natural resources and improved livelihoods. It helps reduce the risks in developing countries of complex problems like water variability and scarcity – important because agriculture constitutes approximately 70 percent of water consumption in the developing world, increasingly competing with demand for domestic, industrial, and ecosystem services.
FACTS:
- Agriculture is the single largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40 per cent of today’s global population. It is the largest source of income and jobs for poor rural households.
- 500 million small farms worldwide, most still rainfed, provide up to 80 per cent of food consumed in a large part of the developing world. Investing in smallholder women and men is an important way to increase food security and nutrition for the poorest, as well as food production for local and global markets.
- Since the 1900s, some 75 per cent of crop diversity has been lost from farmers’ fields. Better use of agricultural biodiversity can contribute to more nutritious diets, enhanced livelihoods for farming communities and more resilient and sustainable farming systems.
- If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.
- 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity worldwide – most of whom live in rural areas of the developing world. Energy poverty in many regions is a fundamental barrier to reducing hunger and ensuring that the world can produce enough food to meet future demand.
AGRICULTURAL MARKET:
A global food crisis from 2007 – 2008 underlined the critical need for open and transparent agricultural markets and trade. Attempts by crisis-stricken countries to hoard supplies, control prices, or ban exports only exacerbate price and supply volatility and cause hardship to millions of producers and consumers. In developing countries, overall economic growth depends on performance in agriculture.
Robust and properly functioning markets:
- Increase returns on investment in agricultural productivity.
- Give rural people the opportunity to specialize in fewer commodities, which increases productivity and affordability.
- Help to match supply and demand between locations and across seasons, increasing sales outlets for producers and improving food security, access, and availability for consumers.
- Bring down the real cost of food,
To be competitive in today’s global marketplace, farmers – especially smallholder farmers – need to be integrated into the full chain of production, from farm to fork. We are facilitating this integration, enabling producers and rural industries to better connect with agricultural trade and market opportunities. Specifically, we are working with public and private sector market participants, governments, universities, agribusiness value chains, and civil society and farmer groups to:
- Support the development of sound policy environments that enable open markets, private sector investment, and gender-equitable access to factors of production, products, and income.
- Promote effective institutions and services, such as rural extension and finance, to enable both women and men producers to acquire, protect, and use the assets they need to take advantage of emerging market and trade opportunities.
- Strengthen producer and other rural organizations to help them participate effectively in national, regional and global markets, reduce transaction costs, acquire productivity-enhancing technologies, and make use of information on domestic, regional, and international markets.
- Develop product standards and quality control to meet market demands for food safety, purity, and quality, and to reach higher-value markets.
- Develop the public sector’s roles as provider of market-facilitating goods and services, regulator and referee, and monitor and analyst.
