Hi colleagues, thanks you for your contributions on this topic-Eradicating extreme poverty: what is the role of agriculture? find my contributions to the questions below:
Under what conditions can agriculture succeed in lifting people out of extreme poverty? Particularly those households with limited access to productive resources.
One is said to be in extreme poverty when he is completely deprived of essential and basic needs for him to live. Such a person has very limited access to quality water, food shelter and services such as health and education. Extreme poverty is caused by lack of productive assets, lack of food, poor health, unplanned increased population and poor governance, political and social unrest which causes migration. This situation is a characteristic of many developing countries especially those located in the Sub-Saharan African.
In Uganda specifically where I leave, poverty continues to affect a large section of Uganda’s population. For instance, the national poverty level has increased from 19.7 per cent in the financial year 2012/13 to 21.4 per cent in 2016/2017, yet over 45 % of Uganda’s population remain vulnerable to poverty. This challenge is amplified by the high population of unemployed youth especially those below 30 years who make up to 78% of Ugandan population. The challenge is also magnified by the high refugee influx especially in the Northern and Southern regions. This kind of situation leaves many people in a vulnerable state since most of these people lack productive resources, have limited information and can be easily be won over by any kind of risks related to economics and the natural environment. This situation leaves many people in Uganda in a state extreme poverty a situation which will continue to hinder Uganda’s socio-economic transformation.
Many developing economies especially in Africa are agrarian economies where the agricultural sector is the back bone of these economies. In Uganda for instance, 72 % of the workforce and 87 % of the working poor are primarily engaged Agriculture sector. The sector also significantly contributes (23.4 %) to the country’s GDP and 76 % of households still earn some income from agricultural production. As envisaged in the situation of Uganda which is not different from other developing economies, many poor and vulnerable rural households mostly rely on agriculture for food and as source of income, therefore investing in interventions aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity, value addition and agro-processing is critical in eradicating extreme poverty.
It’s however important to note that the role of agriculture can significantly be recognized/ succeed only if Agricultural interventions are designed to address extreme poverty challenge from a social protection perspective. In other words, interventions should be designed to address multiple risks especially those related to economics, social and the natural environment. It is therefore important to create an understanding among policy makers, technical people and implementers from all actors within the social and agricultural sectors the two way relationship between social protection and agriculture.
What is the role of ensuring more sustainable natural resource management in supporting the eradication of extreme poverty?
Agricultural activities in many less developed and poor economies like Uganda depend largely on nature such as rainfall and biological processes such as crop pollination provided by wind and insects, soil fertility services provided by microorganisms.
This indicates a crucial role of sustainable natural resource management to agricultural development and poverty reduction. Failure to sustainably manage natural resources, may results of loss of biodiversity which may affect biological processes. In addition, loss of green cover and trees may result into climate change which will obviously affects agriculture productivity. This significantly causes food insecurity, reduce incomes and eventually leads to extreme poverty to majority people especially those who entirely dependent on agriculture. For agrarian economies like Uganda where majority people derive their livelihood from agriculture and yet agriculture still depends on nature, the ensuring sustainable natural resource management is key in eradicating extreme poverty.
Can those without the opportunities to pursue agricultural production and to access resources such as fish, forests and livestock find pathways out of extreme poverty through these sectors?
Yes, not everyone has to be in production, many people/actors can derived livelihood at different nodes of the value chains mentioned above. For instance, in fish, those who do not have access to capture fish and those who cannot afford the high investment required in aquaculture, can be employed in marketing, cleaning and carrying/transportation of fish. In Uganda for instance, due to the high investment required in forests and livestock, many youth are involved in the transportation of livestock products like milk while others are engaged forest product business as timber traders/dealers. In fact, studies indicate that actors like traders and processors gain more than producers.
What set of policies are necessary to address issues connecting food security and extreme poverty eradication in rural areas?
A blend of social protection and agriculture policies of two categories are critical;
1. Policies for increasing production, enhancing markets and business
2. Policies for building resilience of the extremely poor people towards environmental and economic risks
先生 Edward Tanyima