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World Bank Development Report 2008

Farmers welcome World Bank Development Report

Paris, 22 October 2007 – Farmers’ organisations have being saying for years that “Investing in agriculture and small scale farmers is crucial to reduce poverty and hunger”. They are therefore pleased to see development partners like the World Bank recognizing it with the launching of the 2008 World Development Report, the first on Agriculture since 1982. The report notes that while 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas and depend on agriculture, only 4 percent of overseas development assistance goes to agriculture and only 4 percent of the budgets of governments in Africa go to agriculture. “This is an unsustainable situation” said the President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), Jack Wilkinson, “and we will be pleased to work with the Bank on its new strategy to turn this around”.

The initiative of the World Bank to consult civil society for this report, including farmers’ organisations represented by IFAP, is very welcome. However, farmers have a key role to play in addressing concerns in every chapter of the report, and not just in the separate chapter on farmers’ organisations.

“Now, we need actions from donors and national governments after too many years of neglecting agriculture” said the IFAP President. The situation of rural populations has worsened since 1982, meaning that existing agricultural strategies are not working.  This is why IFAP urged the World Bank to adopt a new approach based on a “farmer-centred approach”. “Any successful agricultural and rural development strategy requires investment in small-farm agriculture so that subsistence farmers become small-scale entrepreneurs and not migrants to over-crowded cities” said Wilkinson. It is important to invest in agriculture and generate income at country level.

Also, the definition and implementation of agriculture policies and rural development strategies should include farmers and their organisations as equal partners. The World Development Report is a publication that will be used by many international organizations and by national governments to support their decision-making and we are proud as farmers to have included our voice into this report.