Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Multi-lender group warns of looming food crisis
From The Hindu
Another food crisis for developing countries looms on the horizon with food prices reaching a record high in December for sugar, grain and oilseeds, a network of independent evaluation groups across major multilateral development banks (MDB) warned this week.
The multi-lender Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) on Monday released a synthesis study on MDB assistance to agriculture and agribusiness, in which it argued that “The overarching message in this context concerns the urgency to raise productivity all along the agricultural value chain,” a goal that had been served in India by public investment in agricultural research.
Lauding India for positive developments in this context the ECG said that public investment in agricultural research accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the sector’s growth, with international institutions playing an essential part in facilitating better outcomes from research and extension.
For such investments in research to be effective, the appropriate technology must reach farmers and be adopted for use within the different farming systems, it added.
In the macro context, the SCG report cautioned that growth in agricultural productivity had suffered a slowdown following a sharp drop in investments by developing countries and donors.
“Bilateral and multilateral assistance alone to the sector fell by some 40 per cent by early 2000s from its peak in the mid-1980s,” the ECG paper noted, adding that the recent increase in official development assistance, to over $8 billion in 2008 from around $3.5-$4.5 billion per year between 1998 and 2004, would not assure results on the ground unless “accompanied by polices that will result in improvements in productivity.”
Multi-faceted approach
Pressing for a multi-faceted approach to raising productivity, the ECG report identified six areas where the MDBs and developing countries could take action, including research and extension; access to water; access to credit: access to land and land rights; roads; and policies, markets and agribusiness.
The ECG report also had positive assessments of India relating, for example, to irrigation investments in Andhra Pradesh that had increased the demand for labour, particularly for women, and made it possible an additional one million hectares of farmland to be irrigated over four years.
Overall the ECG report said while “most development institutions had recognised the damage caused by this past neglect [of investment into agricultural]... and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging... this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous.”
Another food crisis for developing countries looms on the horizon with food prices reaching a record high in December for sugar, grain and oilseeds, a network of independent evaluation groups across major multilateral development banks (MDB) warned this week.
The multi-lender Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) on Monday released a synthesis study on MDB assistance to agriculture and agribusiness, in which it argued that “The overarching message in this context concerns the urgency to raise productivity all along the agricultural value chain,” a goal that had been served in India by public investment in agricultural research.
Lauding India for positive developments in this context the ECG said that public investment in agricultural research accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the sector’s growth, with international institutions playing an essential part in facilitating better outcomes from research and extension.
For such investments in research to be effective, the appropriate technology must reach farmers and be adopted for use within the different farming systems, it added.
In the macro context, the SCG report cautioned that growth in agricultural productivity had suffered a slowdown following a sharp drop in investments by developing countries and donors.
“Bilateral and multilateral assistance alone to the sector fell by some 40 per cent by early 2000s from its peak in the mid-1980s,” the ECG paper noted, adding that the recent increase in official development assistance, to over $8 billion in 2008 from around $3.5-$4.5 billion per year between 1998 and 2004, would not assure results on the ground unless “accompanied by polices that will result in improvements in productivity.”
Multi-faceted approach
Pressing for a multi-faceted approach to raising productivity, the ECG report identified six areas where the MDBs and developing countries could take action, including research and extension; access to water; access to credit: access to land and land rights; roads; and policies, markets and agribusiness.
The ECG report also had positive assessments of India relating, for example, to irrigation investments in Andhra Pradesh that had increased the demand for labour, particularly for women, and made it possible an additional one million hectares of farmland to be irrigated over four years.
Overall the ECG report said while “most development institutions had recognised the damage caused by this past neglect [of investment into agricultural]... and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging... this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous.”
Labels: food crisis, food prices, MDB assistance
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 7:53 AM 
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