As experts in agriculture, the ministers no doubt know what extensive research confirms: Investing in agriculture and rural development, with a focus on smallholder farmers, is the best bet for achieving global food security, alleviating poverty, and improving human wellbeing in developing countries. During their upcoming meeting, the G20 ministers should seize the opportunity to call attention to this essential fact and propose a corresponding plan of action.

Shenggen Fan, Director General of IFPRI

Three years after the 2008 food crisis, expanding biofuel production, rising oil prices, U.S. dollar depreciation, extreme weather, and export restrictions have once again led to high and volatile food prices, threatening the wellbeing of the world’s poorest consumers, who spend up to 70 percent of their incomes on food. Any plan to curb volatility and protect the poor will require decisive action on a number of fronts, including measures to control speculation on agricultural commodities, promote open trade and export bans, establish emergency food reserves, curtail biofuels subsidies, and strengthen social safety nets, especially for women and young children.

In addition to these critical steps, achieving food security requires long-term investments to increase the productivity, sustainability, and resiliency of agriculture, especially among smallholder farmers, many of whom live in absolute poverty and are malnourished. Millions of poor, smallholder farmers struggle to raise output on tiny plots of degraded land, far from the nearest market. Lacking access to decent tools, quality seeds, credit, and agricultural extension, and being highly susceptible to the vagaries of weather, they work hard but reap little.

These challenges, however, are not insurmountable, and many actually present opportunities. Successes during the Green Revolution in Asia and more recent accomplishments in Africa show that rapid increases in crop productivity among smallholder farmers can be achieved, helping to feed millions of people. When smallholder farmers have equal access to agricultural services, inputs, and technologies, including high-yielding seeds, affordable fertilizer, and irrigation, they have often proven to be at least as efficient as larger farms.

Exploiting the vast potential of small-scale agriculture would increase productivity and incomes where they are most needed—Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The two regions are not only home to the majority of smallholder farmers and people suffering from extreme poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, but they also have rapidly growing populations. Improving smallholder agriculture could take pressure off global food and agricultural markets and cushion the negative impact on poor people who are most vulnerable to volatile markets.

Harnessing the promise of smallholder farmers, however, will require concerted action in a number of areas. First, investments that improve farmers’ productivity—such as better access to high-quality seeds, fertilizer, and extension and financial services—should be increased along with spending on roads and other rural infrastructure to improve farmers’ access to markets. Investments in agricultural research should focus on new agricultural technologies that are well suited for smallholder farmers, as well as other innovations, including insurance schemes that can reduce the risk small-scale farmers face due to extreme weather and high price volatility.

Second, while increasing productivity and incomes is crucial, it is not sufficient. Agricultural development among smallholders should also improve nutrition and health. Growing more nutritious varieties of staple crops that have higher levels of micronutrients like vitamin A, iron, and zinc can potentially reduce death and disease, especially of women and children. Producing more diverse crops, especially fruits and vegetables, can also help to combat malnutrition, and selling more nutritious food could increase incomes and provide additional employment.

Third, since smallholder farmers are extremely vulnerable to weather shocks, including escalating threats from global warming, promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation is important to protect against risks and potential crop loss. With the right incentives and technologies, smallholder farmers can invest in mitigation efforts, including managing their land to increase carbon storage. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has 17 percent of the world’s potential for climate change mitigation through sustainable agricultural practices.

Finally, policies and programs need to narrow the gender gap in agriculture and address the specific constraints faced by women. Although female farmers do much of the work to produce, process, and sell food in many countries, they frequently have less access than men to land, seeds, fertilizer, credit, and training. When women obtain the same levels of education and have equal access to extension and farm inputs, they produce significantly higher yields.

When the G20 Ministers of Agriculture develop an action plan to address food price volatility and its impact on the poor, they should focus on both urgent actions and the vital role of smallholder farmers. But before the international community issues any new recommendations, they first need to make good on previous commitments, including the G8’s L’Aquila pledge in 2009 to invest $22 billion in agriculture, which must be targeted to small-scale farmers. When it comes to achieving food security and reducing poverty, poor farmers in developing countries might be part of the challenge, but they are definitely indispensable to the solution.

by Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI

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Nowhere is this more relevant than in Sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture accounts for 30 to 40 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP) and almost 60 percent of export earnings. Agriculture is also the primary source of income and employment for many Africans, including most of the continent’s poorest citizens.

In recent years, many global and national promises have been made reinforcing the importance of agriculture for promoting development and alleviating hunger. But decisionmakers at all levels have often failed to make good on those commitments. Monitoring progress on past pledges—by international donors and African policymakers alike—also needs to be high on the Deauville agenda. In the face of growing challenges to global food security, such as high and volatile food prices, the rising cost of energy, and climate change, we cannot afford to let good intentions remain just that.

Shenggen Fan, Director General of IFPRI

Recognizing that agriculture must play a central role in stimulating economic growth and development across the continent, in 2003, African leaders launched the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and agreed to allocate at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture. Although most countries have made progress toward this target, less than a dozen have achieved it.

From 2000 to 2007, public spending on agriculture as a share of agricultural GDP—which takes into account the relative size and importance of the sector—decreased from 4.4 percent to 2.5 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, during the same period, public agricultural expenditures in the region grew by 47 percent in absolute terms, which was significant, but considerably less than East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, which increased spending by 86 percent and 65 percent, respectively.

Historically, African governments have spent much less on agriculture than their counterparts in other developing countries, but now is the time to reverse that trend. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region of the developing world expected to have more poor people in 2015 than it did in 1990. Hunger and malnutrition continue to affect nearly 30 percent of the population. In Eastern and Central Africa, the percentage of people living on less than a dollar a day actually increased during the past two decades. An agricultural revival on the continent could help countries tackle these problems and enable them to take advantage of the renewed global interest in agriculture.

After more than two decades of neglect, official development assistance (ODA) to agriculture is gradually on the rise. From the mid-2000s to 2009, ODA commitments to agriculture increased from US$5 billion to nearly US$10 billion, not counting contributions from all multilateral donors. During the same time period, the share of total official development assistance spent on agriculture grew from 4 to 6 percent. At the G8 summit in L’Aquila in 2009, world leaders pledged more than US$20 billion to boost food security and agricultural development. And last year, a multilateral fund, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, was launched with the goal of improving agricultural production, crop productivity, and food security.

Although these financial commitments are substantial, challenges remain. First and foremost, donors need to make good on their promises—as do African governments themselves.

Second, investments in agriculture should reflect a country’s national priorities, contribute to an overall development strategy, and be supported by good governance and effective policies. Finally, determining the “how” of agricultural spending is as important as the “how much.”

In a world where public resources are not only limited but often scarce, prioritizing investments to maximize benefits and on-the-ground impact is critical. Because countries have different political and economic systems, natural resource endowments, and socioeconomic conditions, a one-size-fits-all strategy will not work. However, IFPRI research shows that in general, spending on agricultural research and development, education, and rural infrastructure—especially rural feeder roads in Africa—are most effective for promoting agricultural growth and reducing poverty.

If G8 leaders are serious about their partnership with Africa, they need to ensure, in a spirit of mutual accountability, that African countries have every opportunity to capitalize on agriculture’s immense potential—beginning with the fulfillment of past pledges. With African countries firmly in the driver’s seat, agriculture can shape and impact development on the continent and ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of all citizens.

by Shenggen Fan

Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

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