Asian industrialisation cannot neglect agriculture
argues UN report
By Jon Fernquest |
The neglect of agriculture by Asian economies will stunt their growth.
Asian economies will not be able to develop their modern industrialised manufacturing sectors without attending to their often impoverished and backward agricultural sectors at the same time.
This is the basic message in the annual report Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008 issued by the UN agency ESCAP this week. (Available for free download online)
ESCAP is basically the UN's branch in Asia with the main branch office being located here in Bangkok.
Alternatively, the longer and more accurate description of the UN agency runs as follows. The acronym "ESCAP" stands for "United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific" also sometimes known as UNESCAP. ESCAP is technically the regional arm of the United Nations Secretariat for the Asian and Pacific region (See Wikipedia on ESCAP)
Today Noeleen Heyzer, a UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, contributed an editorial to the Bangkok Post to mark the release of this important report.
Many concrete images of poverty are provided in the report. Malnutrition and underweight children, lack of clean water and sanitation, all routinely plague life in the poorer rural agricultural areas of Asia. Infant mortality rates may have improved overall in Asia but many children still die before they even start attending school.
For more Bangkok Post articles on Thai agriculture check out our archive.
Here is the editorial in full:
ASIA-PACIFIC
Addressing the neglect of agriculture
NOELEEN HEYZERFriday March 28, 2008
In the last decade, developing economies in Asia and the Pacific doubled in size, growing over 7% on average. This growth has garnered much attention and plaudits. Yet, 641 million of the world's poorest - nearly two-thirds of the global total - live in the Asia-Pacific region. Other statistics are equally shocking. Ninety-seven million children remain underweight. Four million children die before reaching the age of five. Some 566 million people living in rural areas have no access to clean water. And less than a third of rural inhabitants have access to basic sanitation.
These fault lines question the sustainability and validity of the current development paradigm, which leaves millions of people trapped in extreme poverty when so much wealth has been generated in such a short time. Most of the poor are in the rural sector and agriculture is their main livelihood. And this is where the problem lies.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) has carried out research which shows that persistent poverty and widening inequality in the region are the result of decades of neglect of agriculture. The analysis - contained in Escap's flagship publication, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008, launched yesterday throughout the region - shows that growth strategies and economic policies in the region have systematically overlooked the agricultural sector. And this is despite the fact that agriculture is the main livelihood of the poor and still provides employment for 60% of the working population in Asia and the Pacific. The tremendous potential of the agricultural sector to reduce poverty has been weakened by unfavourable macroeconomic policies that led to high and variable interest rates and inflation in the 1980s as well as the erosion of public services such as agricultural extension services since the 1980s; the failure of agricultural credit policies; and the massive scaling down of public investment in irrigation and rural infrastructure. The list goes on.
Official development assistance (ODA) has shown a similar disregard for the sector. Between 1983-1987 and 1998-2000, ODA for agriculture fell by 57% to an annual average of US$5.1 billion. Lending for agriculture by multilateral lending agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, trended downwards.
As a result, growth and productivity in agriculture have stalled. Alongside this, the decline in poverty has been slowing down in the region since the late 1980s.
Our analysis also shows that the role of agriculture in creating jobs is diminishing in some sub-regions. In East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, agriculture generates fewer new jobs these days.
In China, for example, half of the decline in poverty occurred in the first half of the 1980s when agriculture was given priority. We see this pattern repeat itself time and time again - when agricultural development was placed high on the development agenda, poverty declined rapidly in Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, and many other countries in Asia and the Pacific.
The neglect of agriculture has put enormous pressure on farmers. Low yields, high input and low market prices for agricultural produce have led to a vicious cycle of low income and stagnation. Massive scaling down of public services, particularly in irrigation and agricultural extension services, has dealt a blow to the sector. The distress in rural areas is reflected in rising farm indebtedness and suicides in many countries, including China, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The figures are tragic and astounding - in India alone, almost 87,000 farmers committed suicide between 2001 and 2005.
Unless the neglect of agriculture is addressed, poverty will not be reduced significantly in the region, and inequalities will widen further. In turn, this will jeopardise the economic prospects of our countries and the social cohesion of our communities.
The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008 shows that improving agricultural labour productivity could have a profound impact on poverty reduction. For example, raising the region's average agricultural labour productivity to the level seen in Thailand would take 218 million people - a third of the region's poor - out of poverty.
India, China, Bangladesh and Indonesia would gain the most. Large gains in reducing poverty are also possible through the comprehensive liberalisation of global agricultural trade, with the potential to take another 48 million people out of poverty. Our research also shows that raising productivity in agriculture will reduce income inequality significantly.
If more reasons were needed for our call to focus on agriculture, then one need only look at the rising food prices that are being felt across the region. With the demand for biofuel apparently unstoppable, the region needs a renewed and urgent effort to revive its agricultural sector to increase food production and stop food prices from spiralling even further.
Escap's survey shows that the strategy required to make agriculture economically, socially and ecologically viable - and thus returning it to its rightful place in reducing poverty and inequality - is a straightforward one.
Quite simply, agriculture needs another revolution. Increasing agricultural productivity should be at the centre of this new approach. It is crucial that the sector's productivity is improved through increased investment in research and development, human capital, extension services, irrigation and rural infrastructure. Land tenure systems need to be revamped, where necessary. The rural poor need to be better connected to cities and markets. Macroeconomic policies, credit instruments and crop insurance need to be made farmer-friendly. A market orientation with a focus on quality and standards would be part of this strategy.
In short, agriculture should be treated as a high value added, diversified, marketable sector - not a charity case.
Given its natural limitations, agriculture alone cannot take the region's 641 million poor people out of poverty. Therefore, a gradual transition from agriculture should complement productivity improvements - by empowering the poor, particularly women, with the skills to tap labour market opportunities and by promoting rural non-farm activities and regional growth centres.
The region's agriculture sector faces serious challenges. Without the political will to revive the sector, it will only worsen. Governments have the opportunity now to help more than 200 million people of our region escape the shackles of poverty. This opportunity should not be missed.
Noeleen Heyzer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of Escap.
(Source: Bangkok Post, op-ed section, page 11, 28-03-08, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP, UNESCAP) - the UN's branch in Asia with its main office located here in Bangkok, the regional arm of the United Nations Secretariat for the Asian and Pacific region
X stunts growth of Y - factor X prevents Y from growing and developing as much as it should
impoverished - poor
backward - a region or country that has not developed successfully or quickly, does not have modern machines, industries, and facilities
malnutrition - reduced health problems from an improper or insufficient diet (See Wikipedia)
infant mortality rate - the number of deaths of infants under one year old in a given year per 1,000 live births in the same year (See Wikipedia and comparative list of countries)
routinely - happens repeatedly, so not surprising
X plagues Y - X causes a lot of problems and suffering for Y
the message - an idea or point that someone is trying to communicate in a writing, speech, or lecture
the basic message - the idea communicated in short summary form
X is basically Y - X is a simple and easy definition of Y
alternatively, Y - introducing a new way of looking at something in your writing
an acronym - a word like IMF composed of the first letters of a long title, used to make it easier to say
X stands for Y - shorter X represents longer Y
a flagship Z - the most important Z in an organisation (for example, a flagship company, the organisation's flagship publication, the government's flagship hospital)
garnered - gained, collected
plaudits - admiration and approval
sanitation - the process of keeping a place clean and healthy, especially removal of wastewater (sewage) and a clean water supply
fault lines - weak parts of a system or process that is likely to be a point of failure
sustainability - activity can be continued for a long time, so future generations can enjoy the benefits too (See glossary)
validity - 1. important and serious enough to be worth talking about or doing, 2. based on logical and sensible reasoning
a paradigm - a model that explains something, a repeated pattern
a development paradigm - a model that explains how poorer countries can and do develop economically
neglect X - fail to give due attention to X and look after X properly
systematically - done thoroughly and efficiently according to a plan
Y overlooked - did not notice or realise how important Y was
disregard for the sector - ignore that sector and part of the economy
a livelihood - a source of money and income such as a job that allows you to buy the things that your family needs (See glossary)
scaling down - making smaller in size (for example, the operations of the firm in Singapore were scaled down as a cost saving measure)
the list goes on - could continue with this list and make it longer, but not enough space
bilateral - between two countries (most Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are bilateral)
multilateral - between many countries (the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a multilateral organisation)
multilateral lending agencies - international organisations that lend money collected together from several countries participating in the organisation (for example, the IMF, the ADB, and the World Bank)
the World Bank - an internationally supported bank that provides loans to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty (See Wikipedia)
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) - a regional development bank established in 1966 to promote economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries through loans and technical assistance (See Wikipedia)
stalled - stopped for now, may continue later
given priority - given importance, will do this before other things
a vicious cycle - a difficult situation with many problems that in turn causes more problems which in turn cause the original problems and difficult situation to get worse and worse
stagnation - stop moving forwards, stop making progress and developing
agricultural extension - the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education, joint university-government programmes often bring this to the farmer (See Wikipedia on agricultural extension)
X dealt a blow to Y - X harmed or injured Y
Y jeopardises X - do something Y that might cause X to fail
social cohesion - the different members of a society work well together as a united whole
labour productivity - how much workers produce, total output divided by the number of workers or the number of hours worked (See The Economist glossary)
agricultural labour productivity - how much agricultural workers produce (compared to workers in other sectors such as the manufacturing or service sectors)
comprehensive - includes everything that is relevant and needed
liberalisation - when laws or attitudes become less strict and people are allowed more freedom of action (See glossary)
comprehensive liberalisation of global agricultural trade - all aspects of agricultural trade are liberalised (it's a problem if everyone country has a long list of complicated exceptions, maeks trade liberalisation less feasible)
biofuel - using plant products as evergy and gasoline subsitutes (from palm oil or sugarcane, for example)(See Wikipedia)
stop food prices from spiralling even further -
viable - has a good chance of succeeding, not failing (See glossary)
returning it to its rightful place - return to where it should be
land tenure systems - systems of land ownership
revamped - made changes to improve
credit instruments - official arrangements or contracts used to borrow and lend money
crop insurance - when farmers get insurance to protect them from bad weather, insect destruction, and other things under their control that might destroy their crop or lead to lower production
orientation - the kind of goals and interests that an organisation or person has
market orientation - has goals related to buying and selling things in markets for goods and services, has economic goals
diversified - (See glossary)
charity - an organisation that provides free help to poor who are ill, disabled, or just very poor and unable to help themselves
a charity case - a poor person who receives free help from a charity
X complements Y - X adds value when used in combination with Y (for example, babby bottom wipers complement diapers, or fish sauce complements my noodles)
X taps Y - X uses resource Y
