Mixed progress but also new hope in reducing rural poverty

All of this creates opportunities for poor rural women and men to lift themselves out of poverty and create a future for their children. But making the most of it requires policies and investments that are both market oriented and environmentally sustainable.

For starters, national governments and the international community need to reverse the long-standing neglect of rural development. We need to improve governance in rural areas and create an economic environment that will allow smallholder farmers to grow both food and their businesses.

We need to invest in rural infrastructure and in building the skills of rural people so they can exploit new opportunities in agricultural markets or find jobs in non-farm industries. If we help them strengthen their collective capabilities, they will be able to support each other in managing risks, learning new techniques to improve productivity and marketing their products.

And we need to invest in youth. In developing countries, young people aged 15 to 24 make up 20 per cent of the population. In rural areas, many of them are growing up on smallholder farms. We must invest in those young, creative minds so they can develop the skills to run their farms like small businesses. Then rural communities will offer hope and a fulfilling future to those who might otherwise join the millions scraping by in urban slums.

But above all, we need to stop treating the rural poor as charity cases. Anyone who has spent any time with farmers in developing countries knows that they are dynamic, innovative people whose hard work will ultimately lead the way to development and prosperity.

At stake is the security of the global food supply. Agricultural production must increase 70 per cent by 2050, and output in developing countries will have to double, if we are to keep food on the table for the nine billion people expected on earth by then.

I have no doubt that Li, Shazia and Ribita are up to the challenge. Are the rest of us?

__________________

Kanayo F. Nwanze is President of the International Fund for Agricultural

Development (IFAD), an international financial institution and a

specialized UN agency that works with poor rural people to enable

them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine

the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12,5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty.

He will be participating in a seminar at ANU in Canberra on 5 April and in the Crawford Fund Conference “A Food Secure World: Challenging Choices for our North” to be held in Parliament House, Brisbane on 6 April 2011.