Group research for the ECN 413: Agricultural Economics Course at our university
What can our institutions do to help country governments commit to action around your recommendations, and to help ensure implementation will be effective?
To finalize our contribution to this discussion we provide the following ideas on the above stated question :
1. Establish and sustain an assessment or evaluation initiative where crucial agricultural programmes and projects will be evaluated under the supervision of technical and politically neutral experts.
2. Maintain systems of pledging accordance by developing nations, to the targets and milestones that are established by respective policies for nutrition enhancement
A system for incentivizing target achievement will surely encourage governments to commit to action. This involves the benefits that country governments can gain both politically and effectively in terms of their efforts to further the development cause in their respective nations.
3. Effective target oriented financial aid
This is especially useful in situations where projects are well designed but lack the necessary finance to be implemented.
4. Actively participate in the sharing of skills (more specifically, training) and technical expertise.
5. Enhanced communication and interaction between your institutions and the local agencies that are actually involved in the implementation phases of policies may help to bring about a positive response from country governments. The intimacy between policy makers and implementation agents can make for effective agricultural policy, and can signal to governments that your institutions are serious about effecting their mandates.
This final point about communication and intimacy between far reaching institutions and local agencies is also relevant to all the points we outlined above since many of the ideas proposed above rest on a closeness that needs to exist between the two types of entity for the purposes of informational accuracy; effective public relations and diplomacy; and mutual compliance with objectives of programmes.
We thank the moderators and all those who have contributed to the discussion for their continued involvement and support. We will definitely make efforts to improve the value of our future contributions to the forum .
We put forward the following ideas as part of the first question posed on the top five things to be done as part of an agricultural investment program to maximize policy impact on nutrition. They are listed in brief, as follows:
1. Raise awareness to the targeted population on the importance of nutritional diet
2. Promote and foster technological change through support of research and marketing
3. Encourage institutional support/participation
4. Increase the availability and accessibility of high value food in both rural and urban communities
5. Initiate and manage a crisis response agency
2. To support the design and implementation of this programme, where would you like to see more research done, and why?
In keeping with these five initiatives, we see key areas that would benefit from intensified research:
1. Knowledge of farm incomes - especially of lower income ‘peasant’ farms that often elude the informational net of relevant institutions.
2. Knowledge of disaster/climatic impact - knowing how adversely a disaster or inclement weather affects low income/disadvantaged communities both in financial terms and in terms of ‘well-being’ and the degradation of individual livelihoods can prove useful in the design phase of an agricultural policy. However, one should remain cognizant that in LDCs this information may not always be available or reliable.
3. Knowledge on the different communication channels so as to encourage high income countries to invest in the promotion of nutrition in LDC’s, whether through the private and public sector, NGO’s or any other means of communicating information across to LDC’s.
4. Knowledge is most needed in areas of agriculture such as nutrition and health, in the LDC’s, so as to encourage individuals to make wise nutritional decisions in order to take better care of their health and by extension expand the demand for healthier agricultural products.
We put forward the following ideas as part of the first question posed on the top five things to be done as part of an agricultural investment program to maximize policy impact on nutrition. They are listed in brief, as follows:
1. Raise awareness to the targeted population on the importance of nutritional diet
2. Promote and foster technological change through support of research and marketing
3. Encourage institutional support/participation
4. Increase the availability and accessibility of high value food in both rural and urban communities
5. Initiate and manage a crisis response agency
In keeping with these five initiatives, we see key areas that would benefit from intensified research:
1. Knowledge of farm incomes - especially of lower income ‘peasant’ farms that often elude the informational net of relevant institutions.
2. Knowledge of disaster/climatic impact - knowing how adversely a disaster or inclement weather affects low income/disadvantaged communities both in financial terms and in terms of ‘well-being’ and the degradation of individual livelihoods can prove useful in the design phase of an agricultural policy. However, one should remain cognizant that in LDCs this information may not always be available or reliable.
3. Knowledge on the different communication channels so as to encourage high income countries to invest in the promotion of nutrition in LDC’s, whether through the private and public sector, NGO’s or any other means of communicating information across to LDC’s.
4. Knowledge is most needed in areas of agriculture such as nutrition and health, in the LDC’s, so as to encourage individuals to make wise nutritional decisions in order to take better care of their health and by extension expand the demand for healthier agricultural products.
If we were designing an agricultural investment programme, the top 5 things we recommend to maximize its impact on nutrition are as follows:
1. Raise awareness to the targeted population on the importance of nutritional diet
This refers to the dissemination of information by nutritional experts or agents regarding the intake of foods that will supply the needed nutrition to the body. More so, research have consistently proven that women are more than likely to invest in the nutritional intake of her family and are more effective in delivering improved nutritional outcome (WBR, 2007). Therefore, the programme will facilitate the persistent involvement of more women in target communities, while remaining cognizant of their constraints, such as time and income, among others.
2. Promote and foster technological change through support of research and marketing
Research and development in agriculture typically leads to a higher value of crop or agricultural produce. Allowing the market to function unencumbered by output control policies tends to work, achieving lower prices for high value food, therefore increasing the accessibility to those who need high value food the most.
3. Encourage institutional support/participation
Developing countries often lack the collaboration among agricultural institutions in order to effectively execute projects or programmes. As such, we would advocate for the involvement of appropriate institutions in aiding the processes of agricultural programs at a broad policy level
4. Increase the availability and accessibility of high value food in both rural and urban communities
Increasing food production through agricultural programmes increases the availability of food; however it does not ensure that the poor and vulnerable have sufficient access to high value food since the quantity of food produced tells little about the nutritional value persons gain from consumption. Having said such, this can be attained by creating “sustainable and stable employment opportunities” that would increase availability of and accessibility to food, especially among rural households (FNSS, 2011).
5. Initiate and manage a crisis response agency
It is accepted public knowledge that developing countries (such as Guyana) are more susceptible to natural disasters, climate change and man made disasters. Often times the agricultural sector suffers the most from such unforeseen calamities and this can lead to a massive decline in food production and consumption. As such, we strongly advocate for the establishment and management of an effective response agency that will specifically address food production and consumption in times of crisis.
Final Year Economics Students (group 4) University of Guyana
To continue or contribution to the discussion, here is our take on the third question posed:
How can we mobilize the political will necessary to put policies for hunger reduction and improved nutrition higher on the list of political priorities?
To mobilize political will, there must be an adoption into national strategy, the intended goals of improving key areas such as hunger and poverty reduction. If national strategies, in terms of the development goals of a nation, are geared towards the alleviation of hunger and poverty - symptoms of the underprivileged in society - at a broad level, then there can be significant assurance of policy implementation to favor the goal of hunger reduction.
Governments have at their disposal, the shared knowledge of the various policies (and their shortcomings) that can be implemented in tandem with agricultural policies based on the objectives of food security and food entitlement. Economic growth in less developed countries can be achieved, for example, using the basic agricultural policies (price policy, marketing policy, credit policy, mechanization policy, land reform policy, research policy and irrigation policy), that intend to improve welfare at a broad level. However, these policies must also be married to the goals of improving nutrition, especially for the underpriveleged. The 'traditional' measures of nutrition indicate very ephemerally, the standard of nutrition that is prevalent in populations under study. Simple caloric intake measures do not suggest overall improvement in nutrition. It therefore follows that the deliverables of the broader agricultural programs, should include improvements in wider measures of nutritional intake. 'Agricultural policy' and 'nutrition policy' need to be interchangeable terms in the strategic outlook and rhetoric of policy makers.
Final Year Economics Students (group 4) University of Guyana
Greetings all,
We begin our contribution to this discussion by addressing the first question posed:
1. Can you share specific experiences in which social protection and better food security governance have led to advances in local food security and improved nutrition?
It has been recognized that developing countries have shared experiences that regurgitate the importance of social protection and better food security governance towards the advancement of local food security and improved nutrition. It is only fair for one to remain cognizant that any mechanism implemented towards social protection will not yield immediate results, but rather reap long term benefits.
One project implemented under the Food & Nutrition Security Strategy of Guyana & facilitated by the Government of Guyana in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (S.A.I.C.D.) & the Guyana Rice Development Board (G.R.D.B), was the Hinterland Rice & Beans Project in Administrative Region 9-Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo, where the Region is home to about 400 people. This programme was established with the provision of 150 acres for rice cultivation & 15.5 acres for beans cultivation in Moco Moco. In September 2010, approximately 82 acres & 11 acres of rice & beans were harvested respectively, which is equivalent to approximately 25 bags of paddy per acre & 900 pounds per acre of beans. Through the implementation of the project, indigenous communities were observed to become more self-sustaining; to generate employment within the communities instead of searching for jobs elsewhere (the city) and to improve the overall livelihoods of residents, thereby contributing to food security in the village & by extension the economy.
Additionally, Guyana undertook the “Grow More Food” campaign which aimed at increasing the level of food production in Guyana by implementing a market led approach. This is a 5 step plan that includes the Agricultural Export Diversification Programme, the Rural Enterprise & Agricultural Development Programme, & increased investment in drainage & irrigation & by extension the maintenance of rehabilitated structures. More so, the establishment of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority along with improved extension services in 2008 benefited rural farmers, agro-investors & exporters through an increase in food production & a more productive means of livelihood. In addition to the increase in export, all of the above contributed to Guyana accomplishing the UN Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger.
Thank you for reading.