Agricultural Research in the Face of Emerging Global Crises and Challenges

Introductory Remarks

First, let me thank ICRISAT for inviting me to speak today at your Annual Conference. I am particularly delighted to see colleagues and friends of the CGIAR.

Standing here before you fills me with great pleasure, immense pride – as well as uncontrollable nostalgia.

As you know, I trained as an agricultural biologist, and spent more than 30 years with the CGIAR, 18 years of which were with ICRISAT. For 10 of those 18 years I was based here, in Hyderabad.

ICRISAT is the foundation of my professional career. It is where I developed my scientific ability, through working on various projects and programs. It is where I nurtured my management and leadership skills from Ouagadougou to Niamey to Hyderabad. And it is where I started developing an important insight into today's agricultural development issues and their historical origins.

So I have a deep appreciation of the importance of agricultural research, in particular in the face of today’s multiple crises and emerging challenges.

Today’s challenges

When we talk about multiple crises and emerging challenges, we are talking about the spiraling and volatile food prices of the past two years and the more recent global economic downturn. We are talking about the growing number of hungry people, which now shamefully exceeds one billion. 

The plight of the poor rural communities in the semi-arid tropics, where ICRISAT works, is particularly pronounced. The majority of the world's poorest people reside in these agro-ecologies -- including 50 per cent of all undernourished people and 70 per cent of all undernourished children. People living in semi-arid tropics are mainly agriculturists, farming under harsh climate conditions and generally with poor, water-stressed soils, erratic rainfalls and more than their fair share of pests and diseases. Farming is a very risky business for these people. But it is their only available livelihood choice.

The recent crises, compounded by climate change and population growth, are testing our collective capacity to achieve global food security and to eradicate poverty and hunger for once and for all.

Food security has dominated the international agenda for over a year. And it is clear that it will continue to pose a critical challenge for years to come. If nothing else, the recent crises have served as a wake-up call to all of us, reminding us that innovative solutions will be needed if we are to achieve global food security. It was innovative solutions that led to the Green Revolution in the 1970s. I believe that what is needed today is a new Green Revolution for global food security.

Historical perspective on poverty and hunger

Looking back at the past three decades, there have been a number of developments that should, in principle, have taught us some lessons. The Sahelian drought of the mid-1970s destroyed the lives of a million people and afflicted 50 million. The famine in the same decade crippled Bangladesh.  The 1974 World Food Conference considered the situation and concluded that there was a need for an International Fund for Agricultural Development “to finance agricultural development projects primarily for food production in the developing countries.”  Against this backdrop, the Green Revolution, with India at the forefront, had been transforming Asian agriculture and boosting yields for a decade or more.

And yet, in spite of these developments, investment in agriculture and agricultural research since the 1970s has been in decline. ODA for agriculture fell from 19 per cent in 1980 to a low of just 2.5 per cent in 2006.

Lessons to be learned

If we are to protect the world's poor and hungry from future price and financial shocks, if we are to protect them from the adverse impact of climate change, if we are to be able to feed a population projected to increase by 50 per cent over the next 40 years, we need to learn lessons from our past.

I believe there are six key lessons:

First: The world can ill afford to under-invest in agriculture. While the food price crisis of 2007/2008 was exacerbated by short-term developments -- such as crop failures in major cereal producing countries, it was fundamentally a reflection of the failure of world supply to keep pace with growing demand, largely due to declining or stagnant agricultural productivity in developing countries.

Food security requires consistent sustained investment in agriculture; it cannot be turned on and off like a tap.    

Second: In today's interconnected world, food crises will undoubtedly have an immediate and massive impact on the poor in developing countries. Recent estimates indicate that more than 100 million people joined the ranks of the hungry as a result of the food and global economic crises of the last two years.

Third:  Although the sharp spikes in world food prices hit the urban poor in developing countries – leading to well publicized public protests – it is poor rural households who often bear the brunt of the crisis. These people are typically net purchasers of food and need to spend as much as 80 per cent of what little money they have on food.

Hunger and poverty are inhuman and should never be tolerated.

Fourth: While increased food production is necessary, it is not sufficient to avert food crises.  Food security requires distribution mechanisms that enable equal access to food for all people. It is not enough to increase production and productivity; farmers should be linked to markets -- not necessarily international markets but the last mile to vibrant and competitive local markets.

Fifth: Global food insecurity can no longer be tackled by food aid alone -- as important as such aid is in crisis conditions -- but by helping developing countries increase their production of food. For most, this translates into increased production by smallholder farmers. Investing in smallholder agriculture is the best safety net to economic empowerment of the rural community, social equity, economic growth and improved livelihoods.

Sixth: While smallholder farmers need to increase their production to enhance national food security, governments have to create the environment to enable them to do so. The crisis has shown that smallholder farmers often find it difficult to respond to sharp increases in demand and higher food prices in the absence of supporting institutions and appropriate infrastructure.

Developing country governments must create the political will and the right policy environment for development.

A new Green Revolution

For those of us working in agricultural development, it is clear that a new Green Revolution is needed. This revolution will need consistent investment and a long-term commitment to agriculture by both developed and developing countries.

I have already mentioned the falling levels of international investment in agriculture. The same is also true at a national level in many developing countries, where the share of government budget devoted to agriculture has also been in decline. This trend has to be reversed both nationally and internationally.

The L’Aquila Food Security Initiative is a step in the right direction. The Initiative recognizes that global food security crucially depends on agricultural development in developing countries rather than simply on aid. It also lays down a number of fundamental principles on which efforts at increasing agricultural production must necessarily rest. Above all, it has stated that all efforts must be country-owned and country-led.

But for this new momentum to generate results on the ground, there also needs to be stronger sense of mutual accountability between the donor community and developing countries in promoting agricultural development. This concept of mutual accountability must be a central feature of a new Green Revolution.

The goal of the original Green Revolution was to maximize yields. It did this by developing high yielding varieties of rice and wheat, and supporting the increased use of fertilizers, pesticides and better irrigation, developing rural infrastructure and ensuring reliable markets for smallholders. It was remarkably successful in transforming agriculture in the most favourable regions of Asia.

A new Green Revolution must be different however. It must be flexible and suitable to local conditions, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. It must also be more innovative and knowledge intensive than the one that went before.

New factors, such as the impact of climate change on agriculture and of agriculture on the environment, must be taken into account. Agricultural research for development has already become increasingly focused on promoting environmentally sustainable systems and on improving the integrated management of crop, livestock and natural resource systems, while maintaining biodiversity. This is important, because smallholder farmers in developing countries are at the sharp edge of climate change and they are the least equipped to cope. This is particularly the case for rural women, who make up between 60 and 70 per cent of smallholders in the developing world and who often shoulder the main responsibility for providing for the food, water and fuel needs of their families.

The way forward

Higher levels of sustained investment in agricultural research must be the cornerstone of a new Green Revolution. Unfortunately, average global expenditure on agricultural research as a percentage of GDP is only one percent. In most developing countries it is even lower.

Yet investment in agriculture and agricultural research is fundamental to meeting today’s challenges. Agricultural research, which so successfully drove the first Green Revolution in Asia, has been shown to deliver rates of return in excess of 40 per cent.

As a co-sponsor of the CGIAR, IFAD has provided about US$172 million worth in grants to the CGIAR over the past 30 years. Of this, approximately US$12 million has funded 16 ICRISAT-led pro-poor research initiatives, six of which are on-going. 

IFAD has supported, often through the CGIAR system, agricultural research into the specific crops of importance to poor rural farmers. And with climate change expected to reduce yields from rainfed agriculture by up to 50 per cent by 2020 in some countries, agricultural water management is one area where innovation is essential.

It is essential, therefore, that smallholder women and men are provided with the means to adapt to climate change. They need seeds that are more resistant to drought or to floods. And they need cutting-edge agricultural technologies. They need micro-finance services to allow them to invest in the future and to help tide them over in the lean times. They need weather-indexed insurance to protect them from the shocks of climate change. And they need public investment in public goods, such as irrigation, rural roads, market infrastructure, education, and research and development is equally essential.   

Capital reversals, rising borrowing costs, collapsing world trade and commodity prices, and subsidizing remittance flows have also hit developing countries hard, as a result of the recent crises. Remittances are, of course, private flows and about 80 per cent of them are rightly used to provide food, shelter and education for the families of the migrants.  But if we could find innovative ways for rural micro-finance institutions to mobilise a part of the remaining 20 per cent for agricultural investment, it could make a major impact on both food production and rural poverty. 

Conclusion

The 2008 World Development Report told us that the majority of hungry people in the world live in rural areas of developing countries and depend either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. While the share of urban population is growing, rural areas will continue to be home to the majority of the world's poor and hungry for years to come.

Five hundred million smallholder farms worldwide currently support around 2 billion people, or one third of the world's population. Increasing their productivity is therefore essential to secure the food and nutrition needs not only of these farmers, but also of the millions of people who depend on them.

By improving smallholder farmers’ capacity to boost their incomes -- by supporting them in producing more food and better, at a lower cost to themselves -- they can not only improve the accessibility and affordability of food for themselves and their families, they can also contribute to the global food security agenda.

The importance of agricultural research in boosting agricultural productivity and production is no longer to be demonstrated. Agricultural research that constituted a pillar of the Green Revolution must be central also to a new Green Revolution. The CGIAR, in general, and ICRISAT in particular should continue to invest in pro-poor research that will contribute to lifting millions of people out of poverty and hunger.

Closing remarks

In closing, let me pause to reflect briefly on my own path from a humble scientist to a leader of an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency. At the beginning of my career, I used to carry out the scientific research to help smallholder farmers improve their yields. I now find myself on the other side of the workbench, leading a unique IFI/UN agency but still dealing with rural poverty and development, and advocating for agricultural research and adequate policy environment.

But from both perspectives, releasing the global potential of smallholder farming has been the focus of my efforts. One of the most rewarding aspects of my career to date has been the interaction I have been able to have with the farmers themselves. I am delighted to say that during my visit to India this time, I have been able once again to meet face-to-face those for whom I have worked in the CGIAR and for whom I continue to work now at IFAD.

These are both humbling and gratifying experiences. It is good to be back in India, to Hyderabad, but more so to ICRISAT. To meet as many colleagues and friends that Juliana and I consider one of our most cherished memories.

Thank you for your attention.

Hyderabad, 30 November, 2009