Sustaining Technological Progress in Agriculture Cees de Haan World Bank

Overview of Presentation Three key words of the title: Agriculture; Technology; Development Delivery Sustainability. …. Implementation and cooperation

Agriculture technology is important Agriculture still the engine of rural growth; Source of employment for half developing countries labor force; Agriculture is facing new productivity challenges Increasing land and water scarcity, shifting demand (“the Livestock Revolution”, other high value products) Agriculture is facing new quality challenges Trade liberalization, urbanization and increased consumer demands,

But lending for Agriculture is declining

And the same for agricultural technology

With an apparent low share for research Total Loan Commitments in the Research and Extension Portfolio, 2002

Key components of agricultural growth: Improvement in the productivity of the entire food chain, by improving factor productivity, competitiveness, access to markets; Diversification of agriculture and boosting high-value products; Reduction of post-harvest losses and Tailoring agenda according to the major farm types Source: Reaching the Rural Poor

 

C: Subsistence Farmers Strategy Targeting investments to poorer regions, minorities, etc Strengthening local institutions and organizations that can best support farmers with scarce resources and develop market-oriented enterprises. Facilitating participatory development of local infrastructure and technology in collaboration with NGOs. Poverty Impact Development of human and social capital necessary to address wider problems. Development of niche commodities such as organic produce that are labor intensive. Reduction of vulnerability Employment generation

B: Small Market Oriented Farmers Strategy Developing an efficient agricultural technology system to meet the needs of small farmers. Supporting innovative communication systems to supply relevant information on production, markets and alternative crops. Promoting small farmers’ organizations to coordinate input and marketing needs. Poverty Impact Broad-based growth to generate income for small-scale farmers. Increased productivity to reduce food prices for non-tradables.

A: Commercial Farmers Poverty impacts Strategy Assistance to develop and employ food and biosafety regulations and systems for quality assurance, traceability and certification Strengthening of legal frameworks for property rights to promote private R&D and secure tenancy. Strengthening producer organizations to represent member interests and promote initiatives in the industry. Supporting development of diverse and competitive agricultural/agro-industrial innovation systems based on user-financing and private service delivery. Poverty impacts Development of labor-intensive high-value systems to generate employment for the poor. Increasing productivity to reduce food prices for non-tradables

 

Focus in Technology Generation Technology generation should become more holistic: Cover the entire food chain (farm to table); Greater attention to efficiency of input use (water, feed grain); Use all tools (traditional breeding and bio-technology, agro-ecological approaches, IT); Become much more client driven; and Strengthen public and private partnerships and private investments. i.e. technological progress in agriculture needs to become more pluralistic and knowledge intensive, less dependent on the “silver bullet”

Focus in Technology Delivery Evolving concepts and approaches Greater differentiation between public, commercial and private services Public services, where market failures occur (poor, NRM, organizations) Commercial and private services where markets function Pluralistic institutional arrangements Decentralized, participatory, competitive. Experimentation with new approaches ICT, mass media, etc.

Issues in Technological Services Crowding out by the State and donors; Seed (testing, parastatals), fertilizer (subsidies), emergency aid; Poor being marginalized Economies of scale in food safety and quality Sustainability of investments; Financial and institutional

Sustainability and poverty focus

Sustainability of Completed World Bank Project Interventions, with a lasting impact

Discussion of OED factors in ICR [FY1998-2000, n=75 projects]

Key Factors affecting Sustainability

Project documentation on poverty focus by sector [FY99-00, n=92 projects]

Conclusion: Seek to increase investments in agriculture; Enhance the poverty impact Pay particular attention to post-investment financing mechanisms; and Develop pluralistic approaches to technology generation and delivery.

RRP approach: development of sustained political support for the sector Two main thrusts: Develop national “home grown” rural strategies, involving all stakeholders, for integration in new development planning instruments (PRSP, CAS) to establish domestic power base for rural areas; and Scale up areas of good practice to reach increased number of poor to convince politicians of the benefits of rural investments.

Key Issue: How to get into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) Poverty focused, client (country) driven, multi-sectoral, strategy papers Main input into Bank’s Country Assistance Program (CAS); Leading to fewer, programmatic, multi-sectoral lending operations. How can we ensure that the need for technological progress is adequately heard in this broader and more competitive environment

Key issue: How do we scale-up good practices? Criteria for up-scalable good practice: Contribution to poverty reduction, cover large population, low investment per capita, suitable for partnering and programmatic lending. Key candidates: CDD, land reform, watershed development, financing mechanisms for technology generation Key issue: HOW ,

    Institutional Vertical scaling up through policy or administrative change Socio-economic, technical     Horizontal scaling up, e.g. farmer to farmer Innovation with impact Human Natural resource local province national

Inputs into scaling up “good practice” Elements Unbundling the practice Evaluating the practice Successes and failures Introduction into the policy dialogue and priority setting; and demand vs. supply driven Knowledge management, including learning mechanisms.

Key areas of cooperation Working jointly on agricultural approach paper Expanding the political foundation Assisting in development of “homegrown” rural strategies; Working jointly on institutional issues in technology Sustainability, participatory priority setting; Working on scaling up Evaluation, methodologies Participating in project preparation. How: Short missions, Secondment, Sabaticals, Staff exchange etc, Issue for discussion: How to finance cooperation

Thank you