Eradicating extreme poverty: what is the role of agriculture?

Kamaludin mentions the agronomic systems in Somalia where local agricultural crops suitable to the environment and covering the needs of local geographic zones proved to be sustainable.

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Alum presents the case of school feeding in Uganda which prompted a virtuous circle promoting local agriculture production.

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Taibat elaborates on the paths that agriculture offers to lifts rural communities out of extreme poverty. She identifies contract farming as a promising model for linking small-holders to markets and participation in agriculture value chain as an avenue to pursue by those without access to productive resources and presents the successful case of a scheme organised by AMO, a Nigerian poultry company.

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Rauben focuses on the context of rural poverty in Uganda, where loss of soil fertility has dropped into poverty and food insecurity many households and suggests ways to address the needs of poor farmers.

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Jodean reflects on alternative ways to help the extreme poor. She highlights the roles of public and private partnerships (PPP) in bringing about fruitful progress and of agri-food companies in offering solutions to eradicating poverty and increasing food and nutrition security.

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Harriet provides some examples of casual or full-time employment in agriculture and that could be further developed and expanded through training opportunities.

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According to Mithare, agriculture should be adopted as a major occupation of the rural society to overcome extreme poverty; he elaborates on several aspects and measures to be taken in this regard, including good agriculture practices, family farming, rural employment guarantee programmes and many others.

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Based on the results of a recent Science Forum on Agricultural Research for Rural Prosperity, Preet elaborates on the links between agricultural research and poverty reduction and shares some related resources. Agricultural research has mostly an indirect effect on poverty and pathways through which agricultural research could contribute to reductions in poverty and associated vulnerabilities are complex, interdependent and context specific.

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Adebayo stresses the central role of agriculture in lifting people out of poverty, provided that the value chain is managed equitably and that policies are implemented which facilitate access to resources; extreme poor who lack assets should be engaged in the agriculture value chain.

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Costas presents the approaches of rural development projects implemented in Cyprus and focuses in particular on the model of a recent EU-funded LIFE Project in which the basic idea is to link agricultural production with marketing, product research, and treat the village or the area/region as a brand.

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Based on her experience, Suzan suggests that farms which operate near the extreme poor should provide knowledge, training and support for organizing farm groups to grow crops for their own use and surplus for sale.

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Sonali presents the case of the Wardha district in Western India, where farmers are suffering from repeated crop failures over the past few years and how the Foundation he works for is supporting households in developing income generating activities which complement agriculture.

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Stephen lists some steps to take to eradicate poverty, quoting, amongst others, the role of extension services, financial support, access to market and infrastructure.

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Nickson brings up the aspect of orphan crops which, like in the example of arrowroot in Kenya, can require less skills and inputs.

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Brandon elaborates on the potential use of unrecognised or yet unrecognised resources offered by the natural environment and how these can help in promoting sustainable food security and nutrition.

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Joel reflects on the many factors affecting food insecurity and extreme poverty and how they are strictly related to policies. He calls for a coordinating mechanism to address agriculture reforms geared towards the eradication of hunger and shares a related article.

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Florence calls for a clarification of the terms “agriculture” and “extreme poor” and promotes the use of territorial approaches and sustainable local development strategies to address food security and poverty eradication.

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Olutosin shares his views on the set of policies that are necessary to address food security and poverty eradication, with agriculture and rural interventions playing a central role.

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Amanullah suggests that international cooperation agencies should support agriculture research projects of universities in poor countries.

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