Agriculture is Important for the Poor

The poor's main livelihood is in agriculture and in agriculture related activities. Most of them are engaged in growing food crops and spend most of their income in buying food. Yet, they suffer from inadequate nutrition. This affects not only their physical and psychological development, but also later academic performance thus seriously hindering their ability to contribute to the socio-economic advancement of society over the long run. Clearly, the cost of not investing in agriculture is enormous.

IFAD's Rural Poverty Report 2001 focuses on four things that poor people need:

• Assets
• Markets
• Technology
• Institutions

These are among many that the poor need; these are key factors to reduce poverty.