doc_Comments-on-WDR2008

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development

WDR2008 Civil Society Consultation

Toronto, Canada, 25-26 January 2007

Comments from Jack Wilkinson, IFAP President

1. The initiative of the World Bank to consult civil society for this report is very welcome. However, it should be noted that since the last WB Report on Agriculture in 1982, the situation of rural populations has worsened, meaning that existing agricultural strategies are not working. There is an urgent need to adopt a new approach. The classic approach of moving small-scale, subsistence farmers off the land into other sectors is not a viable option for most of the poorest countries given the large size of their agricultural populations and the lack of development of their manufacturing and service sectors. Thus 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. At the same time, it is also necessary to create small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to bring value-added to the farmers, e.g. through farmer cooperatives. The development of local SMEs will also enable farmers to be able to supply local markets with locally-sourced products, which is important in a global agri-food system dominated by multinational retail chains which source globally.

2. Farmers are the main actors of the agricultural sector, and therefore IFAP proposes that agricultural and rural development strategies should be based on a “farmer-centered approach”. The definition of agriculture policies and rural development strategies should include the main stakeholders and get them involved in their definition as well as their implementation.

3.IFAP believes that the purpose of agricultural policies and rural development strategies should be to improve farmers’ revenues and make agriculture a profitable activity for farmers round the world. Is important to invest in agriculture and generate income at country level. This is essential if the MDGs to reduce poverty and hunger are to be met.

4. The farmer-centered approach implies that an environment should be created to enable farmers to be able among others to:

have access to resources and technical support
add more value to their primary products
and find alternatives to improve their revenues through market diversification exp: adapted responses to climate change including biofuels that bring benefits to farmers

5. Farm profitability will not occur without organizing and strengthening the place of farmers in the marketplace. To succeed, this requires a partnership between national farmers’ organizations and national governments with the assistance and collaboration of the entire development community to get farmers involved in the definition and implementation at all stages of agricultural and rural development strategies at local, national, regional and international levels.

6. As a consequence, there is an urgent need for international organizations to change their approaches in order to consider farmers as equal partners and get them involved in :

Policy definition and implementation: for example in defining its country strategy and rural development strategy, the World Bank should set up targets such as meeting the MDGs. Loans to a country should be based on an adequate rural development strategy with the inclusion of farmers’ organizations as partners. This inclusion should be supported by sustainable financing mechanisms to ensure the effectiveness of that participation.

Research area: Farmers should be engaged in the research area in order to define their needs and priorities, and to better benefit from the research findings and so improve their livelihoods. This is a case for CGIAR and other relevant research institutions.

It should be noted that the initiative of IFAD in involving farmers in their national projects and at international level through the Farmers Forum is the line of the farmer- approach and should be highly encouraged and adopted by the others.

In addition, a process of analysis of lessons learned should be set up to ensure that 1) the targets (i.e. MDGs) are met and 2) alternatives are found to adjust when the targets are not met in order to go forward.

7. Finally, coherence and transparency are the keys for success. Indeed, many farmers’ are concerned about lack of coherence within the World Bank itself where various departments adopt different approaches in the same village community. It is therefore urgent to set up a coordination process among all international organizations in their agricultural development strategies and projects in order to speak the same language and pursue more effectively the same target, that is to say reducing poverty.