At the start of 2013 there were some 870 million rural people living on less than 1.25$ per day, most of them living in Asia and Africa. To reduce these levels of poverty and rural hunger the G8 has called for increased investment in agriculture and donors are responding.
Many of these investments need to target improved agricultural productivity just to keep pace with growing populations and increased consumption, and important steps are being taken with the development of improved crop varieties, increased access to markets, and improved policies in support of this needed growth in production and improved access to affordable foods for poor consumers.
For rural families who live in more marginal agricultural lands and combine farming with fishing, herding and other forms of resource use, other types of investment are required. For them the paths to improved livelihoods and increased income wind through a complex set of choices considering the risks and benefits of changes in cropping patterns, resource use and investment of family assets. What is right for one family may be wrong for their neighbors, and what is right this year may change next.
In these more complex farming systems new approaches are needed to harness the full potential of rural families to innovate, diversity their income, and reduce poverty.
The ‘Dialogue on Re-Imagining Agriculture Research in Development‘ organized by the WorldFish Center, a CGIAR Consortiium member, will be taking place in Penang, Malaysia from 29th – 31st January 2013 where leaders in agricultural research and development policy and practice will address how to reach those on lowest incomes.
For more information:
Re-imaging Agricultural Research in Development (WorldFish)
Development in difficult places (Stephen Hall Blog, WorldFish)