World Development Report 2008: agriculture for development - seminar

"Agricultural growth has already been highly successful in reducing poverty in neighbouring East Asia over the past 25 years. The challenge is to sustain and expand agriculture's unique poverty reducing power …"

said Dr Byerlee, co-author of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development, speaking at a seminar which was jointly sponsored by ACIAR, the Crawford Fund and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology.

Dr Byerlee highlighted the role agriculture plays in reducing poverty in Asia and the positive impact ACIAR has in this area.

'I wish to make special note of the impact of the work carried out by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, which is held up internationally as an innovative example of support to agricultural science for development that pays high returns and benefits poor farmers and consumers in developing countries and also in Australia.'

'For Australia, funding agricultural research is truly a win-win proposition. Benefits that Australia receives from international agricultural research include mutually beneficial agricultural policy changes; advance information on markets for Australian commodities in developing countries; reduced risk of entry of weeds and of dangerous diseases and pests; early access to new germplasm and livestock breeds; shared technologies, and safer foods.

'International agricultural research centres supported by Australia return to us many times what we provide to them. For example the value to Australia of the wheat germplasm generated by CIMMYT (the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre) has been estimated to be $30 million each year.

Dr Byerlee outlined the linkages between agriculture, development and poverty, and the way these can vary substantially between countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In some, agriculture is a major source of broader economic growth, and, in others, like China, agriculture is no longer the major source of national growth.

The World Development Report 2008, the flagship publication of the World Bank, calls for greater investment in agriculture. Dr Byerlee flagged ACIAR's partnership modality as a way to deliver the outcomes the World Development Report is seeking.

Dr Byerlee, originally from a South Australian sheep/wheat farm, has worked in development for the last 25 years, most recently as Senior Adviser and Co-Director, WDR at the World Bank. He visited Canberra in February to present WDR2008 to the Australian Government.

Mr Peter Core, CEO, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), also spoke on the role of agriculture as a driver for change, and the role of the World Bank report as a catalyst for boosting the profile of agriculture for development.

"Agriculture is one of the constants in long-term development," Mr Core said, "placing it as an important trigger for early stage development, particularly given its place as a large sector in nearly all developing countries, and the sector where the highest levels of poverty can be found.

"This places research into agriculture in a unique position, but one that must also be carefully managed.

"In a development context, what is tremendously important is that our agricultural research investments are set within the development agenda of our partner countries and support the efforts of the national research systems of those countries. We should be developing long-term, enduring relationships with our partner countries and focusing on strengthening the National Agricultural Researchers [NARs] in these countries."

Mr Core also spoke of the need to examine why some partner countries can grow at a faster rate than others, and what role agriculture plays in this growth. "For me the question is the economic case for intervention and what has the highest likely pay-offs - is it a new bridge, is it better village education, is it farm level productivity enhancing research outputs or is fostering agribusiness linkages for an enterprise, village or region?"

"I think one of the real drivers of sustainable development is the quality of national institutions. Both China and India have nurtured their agricultural research systems. I know that development requires excellence across a range of institutions in partner countries but one thing I am very proud of is the way the ACIAR partnership modality has, over the years, enabled Australian research agencies to support NAR's development in partner countries of the region."

The World Development Report: agriculture for development:(MORE [1])

The Report is available on the World Bank website [2].

A summary of the report is available on the CGIAR website [3].