Why invest in the drylands?
Frank A. Hilario
February 17, 2010
Director General
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India
As the first decade of the new century comes to a close, ICRISAT is engaging in broad consultations to develop a new Strategic Plan. We´re re-examining the fundamental rationale underlying our priorities and activities. This process will continue throughout most of 2010, and dovetails with the CGIAR´s change management process.
The over-arching mission of the CGIAR, and therefore of ICRISAT, is to reduce poverty and hunger through more productive, sustainable, resilient agricultural systems, by applying partnership-based research-for-development. How do the dry tropics (ICRISAT´s focus zone) fit into this picture? I´d like to share with you some of our early thinking on basic issues.
Rich knowledge base
Our analysis is informed by strategic studies that we commissioned to elucidate trends and dynamics in the drylands (particularly Walker´s 2010 update of Ryan and Spencer, 2001 – referenced at end), reinforced by our long-term, in-depth Village Level Studies on how the poor cope with dryland poverty. Our 35 years of work in close partnership with a wide range of institutions across the drylands enrich these discussions with hands-on research-for-development experience. The process also draws from broader global studies, particularly recent macro-assessments by the World Bank (World Development Reports 2008, 2009).
Three worlds of development
The World Bank assessment constructs a broad global model of three states of economic development: agriculture-based, transitional, and urban (primarily non-agricultural). Poverty decreases as societies move along this development pathway. ICRISAT is uniquely placed to explore this development model, because our work spans these states of development. Dryland African economies are predominantly agriculture-based, while dryland Asia´s economy is largely in the transitional stage. Different stages are also observed in different locations within these two large regions. Much can be gained by sharing lessons learned across this range of development settings.
Asia
Dryland Asia was an agricultural economy as recently as the 1950s/60s, but rapid economic growth since then has propelled it into the transitional phase towards urbanization. Our Village Level Studies find that as this engine of development gained traction, many village poor found greater opportunities in cash crops (particularly oilseeds, eg, soybean and castor, mustard, potato, horticulture, rubber, and floriculture crops), reducing the value-share of staple food crops in their total income portfolio. The poor also found opportunities to provide the urban population with higher-value food products such as fruit, dairy, meat and vegetables, as well as in non-farm occupations.
As a result, the poverty rate (proportion of the population living below one US dollar per day of income) declined substantially in dryland Asia, from 55% in 1980 to 34% today (well below Africa´s stagnant 46% rate). How is this transition being enabled? Government agencies are investing in a wide range of education, social welfare, infrastructure, health and employment programs to give the poor the capacities to ride the growth engine. The picture is not entirely rosy, though; child malnutrition persists at an alarmingly high rate in dryland Asia (42%, much higher than dryland Africa´s 27%), a major remaining challenge.
ICRISAT and partners are contributing toward change in dryland Asia by working with communities to intensify watershed agriculture, including cash crops, without sacrificing sustainability. We´re incubating agri-businesses to spark new markets for higher-yielding, higher-value and more nutritious food products, and battling food safety hazards like aflatoxin. Our strategic planning deliberations are considering ways to better address the child malnutrition issue.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The World Bank analysis found that the African drylands were home to a high proportion of the deepest pockets of poverty, and their economies are primarily agriculture-based, dominated by subsistence farming. ICRISAT staple food crops account for a higher value-share of dryland income in West/Central Africa (approximately 40%) than in Asia or in East/Southern Africa (20%). This would imply higher potential impacts from our crop research there; however, impacts are more difficult to achieve in subsistence farming settings.
Subsistence farmers suffer from the one-two punch of low reward, high risk. They are isolated from markets that could provide them the profits needed to invest in yield-enhancing inputs. Lacking those inputs, they are often unable to grow enough food to feed their families, particularly in drought years, leading to recurrent hunger and malnutrition. Nevertheless, very low-cost or subsidized interventions can still improve their well-being significantly, eg, disease-resistant varieties that stabilize yields, and micro-doses of fertilizer that trigger large yield increases, enabled by locally attuned credit mechanisms.
For the longer term, the transition to market-driven development that has reduced poverty elsewhere needs to be fostered in Africa as well. Urbanization creates the markets. An indicator of urbanization that takes market access into account is called the ´agglomeration index´; it is substantially lower in dryland Africa (35 for West/Central and 25 for East/Southern Africa) than in Asia (52). However the trend is strong; by 2020, half of West/Central´s population will be urban. Our ICRISAT strategy for poverty reduction will include the development of equitable, sustainable, resilient systems that connect African subsistence farmers to higher-value markets.
Escaping the trap
Development pathways are exciting because they suggest ways to overcome stubborn poverty. ICRISAT and its partners, of course, cannot by themselves deliver the drylands from this scourge. Our innovations must be accompanied by strong public and private investments in infrastructure, services, capacities and safety nets (eg, roads to markets, telecommunications, emergency food reserves, insurance, education and health). Development investments must be designed in ways that preferentially benefit the poorest, especially women and the children that depend on them.
Let us work together to help today´s dryland generation enable their children to fully, and finally escape the poverty trap.
References:
Ryan J and Spencer DSC. 2001. Future Challenges and Opportunities for Agricultural R&D in the Semi-Arid Tropics. Hyderabad, India: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.
Walker T. 2010. Updating and Reviewing Future Challenges and Opportunities for Agricultural R&D in the Semi-Arid Tropics for ICRISAT Strategic Planning to 2020. Hyderabad, India: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. (In progress).
World Bank. 2008. World Development Report. Agriculture for Development. Washington DC: The World Bank.
World Bank. 2009. World Development Report. Reshaping Economic Geography. Washington DC: The World Bank.
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