Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

The extreme poor lack physical and educational resources.   Assuming they have access to land, then microcredit schemes to purchase quality seed, fertilizers if required, etc. can be very useful.  At the same time, some limited distribution of food may be necessary so that they can work productively until crops, pastures for livestock, poultry, fish ponds are producing.    Too often, the poor are weak simply from malnutition.

In many cases, human or animal parasites limit their productivity.   This requires intervention.

Once crops etc are produced, then the barriers to market must be addressed including transport and post-harvest losses which are often considerable.     Development of simple drying techniques of grain will reduce markedly spoilage from fungi.    On the other hand, rapid transport is required for perishable items eg leafy vegetables, meat, fish.

In any project, involvement of the locals, including finding a local champion, is essential in all phases of the project from design to implementation to conclusion in handing it over totally to locals.

It would be worthwhile examining some of the ACIAR [Australian Centre for International Agricultural Reseach] projects in say Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa.    Also, Dr Peter Carberry, now Deputy Director General, ICRISAT, has done some very interesting work in Africa including Buko Faso.

In the now-developed West, the change from subsistence farming to surplus production was dramatically accelerated by Harry Ferguson’s development of a three point linkage giving weight transfer – cultivations, weed control and husbandry greatly improved, land was released from feeding horses and labour reduced and progressively made available to the urban economy.

Today, in developing farm production in poor countries, manufactured fertiliser costs are high and, because of energy costs, will not get lower in time. Making fertiliser by composting urban wastes is an available technology which provides nutrients, reduces cultivation costs, reduces irrigation need, and progressively lowers crop diseases. It also provides a chargeable service to the urban economy. This “closed loop” economy sees urban wastes as a resource which can provide that trigger for rapid change and development, and is described in detail in “Survival; sustainable energy, wastes, shale gas and the land” by Bill Butterworth and available free for download at Amazon

English translation below

Chers participants,

En Afrique surtout en Afrique de l'Ouest, la pauvreté et l'insécurité alimentaires sont deux maux qui frappent la population de ces pays. L'agriculture occupe une place importante dans l'économie de ces pays dont les populations sont pour la plupart analphabète. Dans le but d'opiner sur les questions importantes qui entrent dans le cadre de cette discussion du fsnforum, mon point de vue se résume comme suit :

1- les ménages qui ont un accès réduit aux ressources productives peuvent sortir de l'extrême pauvreté grâce à l'agriculture en se mettant ensemble dans des associations ou des coopératives afin de pouvoir non seulement s'aider mutuellement (Faire des tontines, d’échanges de produits agricoles) ou pour solliciter des crédits auprès des institutions de micro finances (IMF) agricoles. Par ailleurs l'Etat doit jouer sa partition en rendant ces institutions (IMF ou banques) plus proches de ces populations agricoles à travers des politiques dynamiques et un accompagnement de ces acteurs. Ces IMF doivent aussi réduire les procédures administratives afin de faciliter l’accès à l’heure service.

2- Une gestion plus durable des ressources naturelles dans le but de soutenir l'éradication de l'extrême pauvreté permettrait une pérennisation de ces ressources au profit de la génération future mais aussi un renouvellement adéquat de ces ressources dans le temps. En effet, en prenant l'exemple de la pêche certaines pratiques traditionnelles de pêche empêchent les petits poissons d'atteindre la maturité et de se reproduire, ce qui pourrait entrainer la disparition de ces ressources aquatiques dans certains cours d’eau, certaines lagunes etc. Ainsi une meilleure utilisation de ces ressources assurerait leur croissance dans le temps au profit de la génération présente et de la génération future.

3- La production agricole, les ressources telles que le poisson, les forêts et le bétail constituent à divers niveaux des chaînes de valeurs. Si les plus pauvres n'arrivent pas à produire ces ressources pour faute de moyens, ils peuvent se greffer à d'autres étapes de ces activités pour gagner un peu de sous, puisque qui dit chaîne de valeur dit plusieurs étapes (production, commercialisation, transformation primaire, transformation secondaire, conditionnement, vente etc). Certaines femmes des pays africains tels que le Bénin deviennent des mareyeuses de poisson au niveau des ports de pêche par ex afin de gagner leur vie.

4- Les politiques nécessaires pour aborder les questions liées à la sécurité alimentaire et à l'éradication de l'extrême pauvreté dans les zones rurales sont d’ordre institutionnel, agricole. En effet il faudra trouver un système facilitant l’accès aux crédits agricoles, informer et former les petits producteurs sur l’importance de se mettre ensemble, les politiques agricoles axées sur l’accès à de nouveaux marchés agricoles et une garantie des ventes de produits agricoles même avant leur production. En outre les politiques qui visent l’autonomisation de la femme participeraient davantage à l’éradication de la pauvreté dans les zones rurales au vu de l’importance du rôle que jouent les femmes dans ces zones.

***

Dear Participants

In Africa and in particular in West Africa, poverty and food insecurity are two evils that afflict the population of these countries. Agriculture occupies an important place in the economy of these countries whose population is mainly illiterate. With the aim of giving an opinion on the important questions that fall within the framework of the discussion of the FSN Forum, my point of view can be summarized as:

1- Households that have limited access to productive resources can emerge from extreme poverty thanks to agriculture by getting together in associations or cooperatives so they can help each other (setting up tontines, exchanges of agricultural products) or in order to request credit from agricultural micro finance institutions (MFI). Moreover, the Estate must play its part by bringing these institutions (MFI or banks) closer to the farming population through dynamic policies and by maintaining contacts with these actors. These MFI must also reduce the administrative procedures in order to facilitate access to their service.

2- A more sustainable management of natural resources in pursuit of the eradication of extreme poverty would allow for these resources to become perennial for the benefit of future generations but also for a sufficient renewal of these resources over time. Actually, taking the example of fishing, certain traditional practices do not allow the baby fish to reach maturity and reproduce, which can result in the disappearance of these aquatic resources from some water systems and lagoons, etc.  It follows that a better use of these resources would ensure their growth over time to the benefit of present and future generations.

3- Agricultural production, resources such as fish, forests and livestock, are at various levels part of the value chains. If the poorest of the poor cannot produce these resources for lack of means, they could get involved in other stages of these activities to earn some cash, because talking about a value chain implies talking of different stages (production, marketing, primary transformation, secondary transformation, conditioning, sales, etc.). Some women in African countries, such as Benin, become the wholesale fish merchants par excellence at fishing ports in order to earn their living.

4- The necessary policies to approach the questions related to food security and eradication of extreme poverty in rural areas are institutional and agricultural in nature. Indeed, it is necessary to find a system that facilitates access to agricultural credit, informs and trains small producers on how important it is to work together, designs agricultural policies based on access to new agricultural markets and provides a guarantee of sales of farming products even before their production. Furthermore, policies which envisage women´s autonomy will contribute favorably to the eradication of poverty in rural zones given the importance of the role that women play in these areas

I am working with Agriculture engineers at the University of Cordoba, Department of Cordoba, Colombia. The University of Cordoba agriculture engineers have world class community outreach efforts in which each agriculture engineer is assigned to train extremely poor campesinos in one to four municipios within the Department of Cordoba. In order to help the extremely poor campesinos I have suggested the following procedure.

Identify the methods that poverty stricken campesinos feel they can best get out of poverty by monitoring the applications for agriculture micro loans to different micro loan organizations such as Kiva

Provide You Tube vocational training videos so that the extreme poor have training material on tropical lowland agriculture and small animal raising. The Government of Colombia has provided excellent You Tube training videos on how to grow papaya in the Department of Cordoba

Periodically have a student or professor come to the community to teach classes and answer questions. The Department of Cordoba agriculture engineers currently teach classes on the growing of papya, yucca, and white yams.

My suggestions for the FAO are the following 

Provide YouTube training videos that are appropriate for different tropical and arid lands areas. The You Tube videos should be classified by Koppen climatic zones and altitude if they are to be used in tropical regions

Focus on making suggestions that are appropriate for raising small animals given the supplies that are available within the region that is being targeted. There is nothing more frustrating than hearing an expert recommend ideas such as micro irrigation when the supplies are not available with the region he/she is targeting.

Provide experts who know principles of Business Process ReEngineering so that the FAO can provide best business practices to their recommendations

Best wishes.

"Zero HungerIndia:Policies and Perspectives" is an edited book carrying 6 messages,6 preamples and 26 chapters authored by the best available expert in the topic.Transformation of India from a starving nation in 1947-1962(ship to mouth) to the present food surplus(farm to ship) country (278 million tones of food grains and 307 million tones of fruits and vegetables is the saga of political support and policy(Late Indira Gandhi and C .Subramaniam),use of science and technology and international collaborarion(M.S Swaminathan and N.E.Borlaug),hard working and toiling farmers of Punjab,Western UP,West Bengal,Tamil Nadu and Odisha,a well knit public distribution system led to GREEN REVOLUTION.Despite availability of food,access to food and horticultural produces is limited to only above middle class people."Among mountains of food grains, millions go to bed with out a meal" is a paradox.In 2013 the Indian Parliament enacted the National Food Security Act which made access to food-grains,pulses,millets- a right.An effective Targetted Public Distribution System came into existance.Distribution being digitalized, loopholes were plugged.Despite all the above measures India continues to host the worlds largest number of women and children anaemic.Child malnutrition is rampant-stunting, low birth weight and high child mortality.Population explosion and carrying capacity of the available natural resources -land, water,air-need to be reviewed.The book will be released on 7th August,2018 on the birth day of Prof.M S Swaminathan

Simple networked institutions (such as Kenya's Chamas)  and instruments (credits/promises issued by farmers) are necessary to mobilise agricultural locally and bottom up as well as production sharing forms of tenure.



My UK presentation sets out this Regenerative Land Partnership approach



 

Dear friends all,

The call for this discussion starts from the wrong title, I’d say. I have many times advocated that the issue is not eradication of poverty; the issue is disparity reduction: the cake has to be re-sliced more equitably! (it is a zero sum game...)

A focus on interventions addressing hunger and extreme poverty are indeed sector-specific --and this is the problem.

If the discussion calls on inputs on the role that agriculture can play in improving the lives of the poorest of the poor we are precisely again falling on a sector-specific approach. Am I wrong?

FAO's approach towards the eradication of extreme poverty by using its experience in supporting agriculture thus needs to be expanded to embrace a disparity reduction approach.

Also, speaking of ‘the poorest of the poor’ is so depersonalizing. These are people rendered poor by an age-long process of deprivation, marginalization and exploitation. This is their ‘ordeal’, as you say. What are agricultural interventions going to contribute to change this?

Yes, SDG1 is right: “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. But have the SDGs really set the tone for this in the next 12 years? The clock is ticking...

You are right when you say that ‘agriculture mostly looks at those who have some assets, leaving the extreme poor behind’. When you talk about cash transfer programs you are a small step closer to what I mean.

I do hope FAO refines and improves its approach towards, not the eradication of extreme poverty, but towards disparity reduction. People have been ‘left behind’ for eons. The SDG slogan is thus aspirational at best.

1. Under what conditions can agriculture succeed in lifting people out of extreme poverty? Particularly those households with limited access to productive resources.

Unfortunately under none if used sector specifically.

2. What is the role of ensuring more sustainable natural resource management in supporting the eradication of extreme poverty?

This, again is only one aspect of the problem. If taken alone, little can be expected.

3. Can those without the opportunities to pursue agricultural production and to access resources such as fish, forests and livestock find pathways out of extreme poverty through these sectors?

‘Without opportunities’ relates to having been rendered poor and having been left behind and points towards disparity reduction actions that will only come if these groups act as claim holders, organize and mobilize to demand redress.

4. What set of policies are necessary to address issues connecting food security and extreme poverty eradication in rural areas?

Demand that the SDGs be reconsidered so they can apply the human rights framework to achieve the goals through 117 progressive realization indicators. (I know I am a dreamer…)

Dear Membres,

In Africa, the vast majority of the poor live in rural areas where people's livelihoods depend on agriculture and related trade, services and processing activities. This suggests that most of the income of the rural poor comes from agriculture-related activities. As a result, the fight against poverty is mainly a question of improving the living conditions of rural populations, in particular by strengthening agriculture, but also by promoting alternative sources of income. To do this, it is important firstly to stop the rural exodus by creating attractive living conditions in rural areas, thus enabling people to feel good in their village and contribute to the development of their locality, thereby reducing the number of homeless people in cities. Then, we must create good working conditions for the agricultural farmer taking into account his working environment and all that surrounds it because the first agricultural investment is the producer himself, the more he works in an environment favorable to his needs and more is motivated to produce more. In addition, access to credit must be made easier for small agricultural farmers, youth groups and women producers who want to start farming. The implementation of such actions could improve the standard of living of rural populations and thus reduce poverty in a global manner.

In the city, although agriculture offers an opportunity for young people to escape poverty and improve their living conditions, they are not always attracted to the agricultural sector. Indeed, the idea received by young people regarding agricultural trades is pejorative; it is unthinkable for them that a university graduate, after long studies, finds himself in plantations; they prefer to work in air-conditioned offices and not under the sun between plants. It is therefore urgent to find ways to make the agricultural sector more attractive to African youth (It is estimated that more than 41% of Africa's population is under 15 years old, those aged 15 to 24 represent 20% of the total population and about 11 million young people, will be expected each year on the labor market (FAO)).

Nowadays, young people use a lot of new technologies, they are the tools they like the most. It is therefore possible to transform / and or modernize the agricultural sector so that it is endowed with the latest technologies, which will allow a little time to attract young people to the agricultural trades but also to have a sustainable agriculture which to its tower will achieve food security.

 

Joël Zongo

By supporting family farming and ensuring sustainability,

By organizing the producers-spreading the co-operative,

By passing on the policies of integrated rural development, their implementation.

Increasing the youthfulness of rural youth.

Taking into account gender equality in agricultural policies.

English translation below

D'abord, il faut reconnaître que l'agriculture est secteur stratégique dans tout le monde entier, quel que soit le pays. Même en théorie, les agro-centristes (Kuznets, Ojala, ...) et les industrio-centristes (List, Kautsky, ...) lui accordent tous une importance incontournable, sauf qu'elle est le secteur moteur dans un cas, et le secteur mû dans l'autre. La transition agricole est fortement corrélée à la croissance économique d'ensemble dans tous les pays du monde. En rapport avec son importance dans l'économie et la population active, la Banque Mondiale a distingué depuis 2007 trois catégories de pays dans le monde: les pays à vocation agricole (Bénin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, ...) où l'agriculture occupe la plus grande partie des pauvres, les pays en mutation (Maroc, Chine, Inde, indonésie, ...) et les pays urbanisés (Amérique latine, Asie centrale ...). La dynamisation de l'agriculture en général et surtout le développement de l'agriculture écologique (agriculture durable) en particulier s'avère fortement plus indiquée pour induire une croissance pro-pauvre et réduire significativement l'extrême pauvreté dans les pays à vocation agricole. Ce n'est pas le cas dans les pays urbanisés où la pauvreté est essentiellement un phénomène urbain. 

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Firstly, we must recognize that agriculture is a strategic sector everywhere in the world, irrespective of the country. Even in theory, the agro-centrists (Kuznets, Ojala, ...) and the industry-centrists (List, Kautsky, ...) attribute outstanding importance to it, except that it is the driving sector on the one hand and the reacting sector, on the other. Agricultural transition is strongly linked to economic growth in all countries in the world. With respect to its significance to the economy and the working population, after 2007 the World Bank has singled out three categories of countries: the agricultural countries (Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Kenya ...) where agriculture employs most of the poor population; the transitional countries (Morocco, China, India, Indonesia ...) and the urbanized countries (Latin America, Central Asia...). The revitalization of agriculture in general and the development of ecological agriculture in particular (sustainable agriculture) has proven to be very clearly identified as leading to growth in favor of the poor and to a significant reduction of extreme poverty in the agricultural countries. This is not the case in urbanized countries where poverty is essentially an urban phenomenon.