Very bad: Price policies that penalize agri
One of the salient findings of a reasearch by two international agencies is that among 117 countries, agricultural development took off when they removed price policies that penalize agriculture.
This was reported by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). The research tracked the performance of 117 countries over 45 years to understand which policies have succeeded or failed in eradicating poverty through agriculture.
The report noted that poverty eradication through agriculture depends whether a country has enough agricultural land, how fertile it is, and the demographic pressures.
The other key findings in the research, aside from the price policies that penalize agriculture are: “To determine the development needs of a particular country, look at how much agricultural land is available, how fertile it is, and birth rates.
“Public investment in research, extension services, electricity and irrigation are important, but the quality of those services can matter more than quantity.
“Land reforms, research institutions and improving access to credit are also critical, but ultimately no country succeeded without a combination of policies and public investments that complemented each other.”
“Inclusive agricultural transformation is the bedrock of development. It can lead to increased productivity, higher incomes, food security and women’s empowerment,” said Carin Smaller, senior policy advisor of IISD.
The global analysis explains how progress has been achieved in some countries in recent decades and what steps can be taken for countries to succeed – and the outlook is positive.
“Only 10 countries of the 117 are still categorized as subsistence agriculture compared with 30 in 1970,” explains David Laborde, senior fellow, IFPRI. “Except for countries at war, no country is worse off than they were decades ago. Our report is a clear indication that agricultural transformation fosters economic empowerment for countries and their communities.”
None of the countries studied were able to transform without an appropriate mix of policies and public investment that complemented each other at a given juncture. No single measure alone was sufficient to make good progress,” according to IISD’s Carin Smaller.
**** **** **** STORY GOES VIRAL – The story of Gilbert and Rachel Bugia which we posted in our blog (zacsarian.com) went viral, registering 2,816 pageviews on October 10. The two are taking care of 500 cattle and 2,000 goats in their NW Farm in Palauig, Zambales. Theirs is a subfarm of DV Bower International headed by Dexter Villamin.
Rany P. Constantino who also runs a DV Bower International subfarm in Maragondon, Cavite, says that the mother company is really helping a lot of OFWs to invest their hard-earned money in livestock raising. Today, Gilbert Bugia believes there are 85 subfarms now operating in various parts of the country. There are five in Zambales, alone.
SINGAPORE – The world’s largest rice collection is to receive permanent funding for the conservation and sharing of 136,000 varieties of the staple crop that feeds more than three billion people worldwide. The agreement between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Crop Trust, which guarantees funding worth US$1.4 million a year, in perpetuity, will be signed on World Food Day, October 16th, during the 5th International Rice Congress in Singapore.
“This is fantastic news for the future of rice research,” said Matthew Morell, Director General of IRRI. “Half of the world’s population—around 3.5 billion people—eats rice every day and the IRRI genebank is fundamental to global efforts to make the rice sector more resilient, sustainable and equitable. The Crop Trust funding enables IRRI to focus on using its large and diverse rice collection to benefit the world.”
Scientists worldwide use the seeds stored at IRRI’s high-tech facility in Los Baños, Philippines to develop improved rice varieties that can withstand climate change impacts—such as severe flooding and drought—while keeping pace with the growing world population and changing consumer preferences. By 2050, annual global rice consumption is estimated to rise from 450 million to 525 million tons. Asians eat more than 90 percent of this rice; the region’s 515 million hungry are particularly dependent on the staple. This is in addition to demand for rice in Africa growing at almost 7 percent per year.
Scientists at IRRI have used the rice samples stored in the bank to develop rice breakthroughs tailored to climate extremes like drought and flooding which are already threatening production in key rice-producing regions, including India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
One major innovation is set to benefit farmers tending to some 20 million hectares of rice land across Asia regularly hit by flooding. Whereas most rice dies within days of submergence under water, “scuba rice” withstands flooding for up to two weeks. This rice is currently grown by five million farmers in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Laos, the Philippines and Indonesia. Researchers are now adapting the rice for Africa.
Ruaraidh Sackville-Hamilton, an evolutionary biologist who manages the IRRI genebank said: “Our work to conserve rice has a proven track record in bringing benefits to the world. With this collection safely conserved, we can continue to use it to develop improved rice varieties that farmers can use to respond to the challenges in rice production and to adapt to the changing tastes and preferences of consumers everywhere.”
Conserved in the IRRI genebank are the ancestors and descendants of IR8, the world’s first high-yielding rice. Developed by IRRI researchers, this “miracle rice” brought Asia back from the brink of famine during the so-called Green Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, when a series of farming innovations transformed agriculture in developing countries. The rice was grown in the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar (then Burma), Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. The influence of IR8 can also be traced to rice varieties grown elsewhere in the world, especially Latin America.
The IRRI collection also includes wild rice species, which have been used to develop varieties that tolerate heat and drought and resist pests and diseases. Some wild species have been used to develop varieties that can tolerate iron toxicity, a common problem that affects flooded, lowland rice, mostly in Africa.
FUNDING IN PERPETUITY - The US$1.4million per year will be paid from the Crop Trust’s endowment fund, which was established in 2004 to provide sustainable, long-term financial support to the world’s most important food and agriculture genebanks.
“This is a landmark moment for IRRI and for the Crop Trust,” said Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. “At a time when many donors have increasingly complex demands on their resources, it’s important that the world’s crop collections are safe, secure and the genebanks functioning effectively.”
“Providing permanent funding to the world’s most important crop collections is at the core of the Crop Trust mission,” she added. “Today’s announcement validates 20 years of work and 50 years of thinking on how the international community can safeguard crops used for food and agriculture. We hope IRRI will be the first of several globally significant genebanks to receive permanent financial support from the Crop Trust.”
The IRRI genebank is one of 11 genebanks of CGIAR, a global research partnership dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. The CGIAR genebanks conserve millions of crop seeds, distributing more than 100,000 samples to researchers and farmers around the world every year.