Excellencies,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be here for this high level event on a topic that is so central to the global development agenda today, and beyond 2015.

Agriculture is at the crossroads of development. It cuts across all of the current Millennium Development Goals, and should form a foundation of the post-2015 agenda. It is central to eliminating hunger, eradicating poverty, and to the sustainable management of the world’s natural resources.

Issues of hunger, food security and nutrition are at the core of the work of my own institution, because IFAD’s mission is to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty and hunger.

In developing countries, extreme poverty and hunger are deepest in rural areas, despite rapid urbanization; and they will remain so for many years to come.

Today, around 1.29 billion people in the developing world live on less than US$1.25-a-day. More than 70 per cent of these extremely poor women, children and men live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but all too often they farm in difficult conditions, without the technology, financial resources, and access to markets they need to feed their communities and societies adequately.

We cannot afford for this to continue. Rural women and men – including those who today live in poverty – must have the means to contribute to the food security and nutrition of their communities and countries.

It is well documented that GDP growth generated by agriculture is more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors.

Indeed, according to one recent study, growth in agriculture is five times more effective in low income countries – and eleven times more effective in sub-Saharan Africa – in reducing poverty.

Experience repeatedly shows – in Burkina Faso, China, Ghana, India, Thailand, Viet Nam and elsewhere – that smallholders can lead agricultural growth.

Yet there seems to be little appetite for investment in agriculture. The share of the agriculture budget in relation to total government spending has declined in all regions of the world, and in many countries it is less than 10 per cent of total expenditure.

And despite renewed concern about food security, ODA to agriculture is only about 6 per cent today, compared with a high of about 20 per cent in the early 1980s.

We have seen, time and time again, how sustainable rural development transforms the landscape. Modern, diversified rural economies generate demand for locally produced goods and services, and they also spur non-farm employment in services, agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing.

They provide employment opportunities for young people, whose creativity and energy we need for a knowledge-intensive sector like sustainable, climate-sensitive agriculture. And we need modern rural economies to meet the needs of the 1.2 billion young people, aged 15-24, 85 per cent of whom live in developing countries.

For agriculture to have the greatest impact on poverty reduction and food security, it must be more productive, sustainable, and climate-sensitive.

This means respecting and responding to local conditions, whether environmental or cultural, so that the resource base is not depleted.

We have seen – in Africa, the Americas and Asia – the transformation that occurs when development is sustainable – economically, environmentally and socially.

Let me give you an example. In northern Pakistan, an IFAD-supported project has brought new roads, clean water, new crops, livestock and literacy to an area that previously had not been reached by development efforts, but had been affected by conflict. 

It took four years of project staff working with local community leaders to help local people realize that the project was not there to attack their religions or their culture, and gradually the project was accepted.

Today, the community has been transformed. People are growing more food, earning more money and educating their children. About 140 women’s organizations have been formed and women are starting small businesses.

In China, Gambia, Kenya, Pakistan, Rwanda and Viet Nam, IFAD-supported projects are helping farmers generate energy for their homes from the methane produced by human and animal waste. They are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing their dependence on fuel wood for cooking, and benefitting themselves and their families in the process.

When development is sustainable, the benefits last.

About 20 years ago, IFAD-supported a project worked with local farmers in Batodi village in Niger to revive and improve the traditional practice of using planting pits and half-moons to rehabilitate degraded land.

Today, the fields around Batodi have higher on-farm tree densities than they did 20 years ago. The soil is more fertile and the trees provide fodder for livestock. There is evidence that the water harvesting techniques have recharged the groundwater with increases in well water levels.

As a result, villagers have been able to grow vegetable gardens around the wells and are better able to cope with drought years. And yet, the project itself actually ended in 1996.

At IFAD, we are proud of our achievements, but we know we could achieve even more by expanding our partnerships. Imagine that IFAD's investment in agriculture and rural development is about 10 per cent of global ODA to agriculture. In 35 years, we have invested US$14 billion of our own resources and leveraged US$20.9 billion of co-financing, reaching and benefitting 400 million rural people. Now, imagine, had other development partners been true to their commitments, imagine how much closer we would be to achieving MDG1, as well as contributing to other MDG targets.

Agriculture is on the verge of a new era. With the world population expected to pass 9 billion by 2050, demand for food will only rise. And there is also new demand emerging for the environmental and other services that agriculture can provide.

By investing in agricultural development we have an opportunity to create rural areas dotted with sustainable farms and non-farm enterprises of all sizes, providing good jobs and income for young people – and at the same time contributing to food and nutrition security, inclusive growth and better management of our shared natural environment.

Let me leave you with one final thought. Our experience at IFAD shows that development efforts are most effective when the people we work with are the real and active drivers in their own development. No nation, nor people, ever achieved a transformation without it being an intrinsic process. Growth and development must come from within - led by the highest authorities, and inclusive of the people who most need to be reached.  Only then can development assistance be optimized.

Our job is to create the conditions and provide the tools so that poor women, children and men can overcome poverty and become food secure themselves. As we look at how to establish a global partnership for development, we need to make sure that poor rural people have a central role as partners in addressing the global challenge of food security.

Thank you.

Madrid, 4 April 2013