The Rationale for
Asian Development
Bank Involvement in
Agriculture and
Natural Resources
Research
This unpublished précis excerpts selected arguments put forward toward the definition of the Asian
Development Bank's policy on agriculture and natural resources research, dated 1995.
Olivier Serrat
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Introduction
1. The Asian Development Bank's Medium-Term Strategic Framework for the period 1995– 1998 sets out the operational agenda for the Bank over the medium term and defines the Bank's strategic development objectives. These are: (i) promoting economic growth; (ii) reducing poverty; (iii) supporting human development (including population planning); (iv) improving the status of women; and (v) protecting the environment. Bank investment in agriculture and natural resources research can be expected to contribute in varying degrees to the achievement of all the Bank strategic objectives but perhaps most significantly to the three strategic development objectives of poverty reduction, environmental protection and women in development as discussed below.
Poverty Reduction
2. Despite steady overall growth of the agriculture sector and the gains in per capita food grain production, a substantial segment of the Asian and Pacific region's population remains in poverty and more than half is found in the rural areas. As such, an important focus of agricultural research needs to be on rural development. Integrated rural development projects have often failed in the past but new research and new participatory approaches give hope that appropriate technology and methods can be found to promote successful development. In marginal environments, new farming systems increase the prospects of raising farmer income levels above the poverty line. There is much scope for agriculture and natural resources research to address the complex interactions between poverty, environment, and development.
3. Technical change can have a positive impact on the poor and greater efforts must be exerted to harness technical change in effective ways to reduce poverty. Accordingly, an agenda for Bank assistance to agriculture and natural resources research that addresses poverty reduction in rural environments would, for instance, include: (i) examining ways to attain each region's agroclimatic potential; (ii) redesigning crops and foods consumed by the poor to improve nutrients and dietary components; (iii) focusing major efforts on subsistence farmers, where most of the gains will be retained within the family; and (iv) targeting impacts by gender to ensure maximum effectiveness. While the targeting of agriculture and natural resources research carries risks, targeted research in the past has yielded positive outcomes. Moreover, the alternative of continuing growth-oriented agriculture and natural resources research of a more traditional variety has its own risks in that there is a growing concern that the resulting growth will not bring corresponding gains in the incomes of the poor.
4. Moreover, in such research efforts, socioeconomic issues cannot be considered secondary to technical issues and agriculture and natural resources research that addresses poverty reduction would also include analyzing farming and natural resource exploitation systems in their complexity. In particular, research into the multidisciplinary social dimensions of these systems, whether crops, livestock, forestry and agroforestry or fisheries, including gender-specific organization in different systems, provides scope for Bank assistance toward poverty reduction.
Natural Resources and Environmental Protection
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6. Environmental protection and conservation is crucially dependent on appropriate agricultural and natural resource development. For example, sustainable approaches to food production and to forestry and fishery management can reverse land degradation, reduce pollution from agrochemicals, remove pressure on national parks and reserves, and conserve biodiversity.
7. Given the present state of knowledge, the supplies of energy, land, water, climate and genetic resources are insufficient to meet present and future demands at acceptable economic and environmental costs. The implication is that meeting demands must be achieved by increasing the productivity of natural assets and rationalizing their use. This calls for a substantial increase in the body of knowledge and agriculture and natural resources research will have to focus more on technologies and practices that are less dependent on irrigation and fossil fuels and more environmentally benign than those in use at present.
8. Gaps in fundamental knowledge which must be filled through agriculture and natural resources research include the scale and causes of land degradation, the potential of tropical forests for renewing themselves and supporting sustainable production, the potential effect of climate change, and technologies for renewable energy. Of particular interest to the Asian and Pacific region is research for agricultural intensification to reduce the pressure on forests. For example, opportunities for maintaining productivity on deforested land and so reducing pressures for additional forest conversion include continuous crop rotation, legume-based pastures and agroforestry.
Women in Development
9. Research policy has hitherto been generally gender-insensitive and was determined primarily by the criterion of raising output, irrespective of the role of women in farming systems. However, appropriately targeted agriculture and natural resources research offers numerous opportunities for improving the status of women. For example, Bank assistance to agriculture and natural resources research can be modulated to redress the bias toward research on major food crops or export crops that has often led to the neglect of subsistence crops cultivated by women. In addition, agriculture and natural resources research that aims at improving the status of women would prescribe new crops or cropping systems that take into account the gender division of labor in the farm household. Furthermore, where certain crops or practices are clearly within the domain of women, the Bank would ensure that the extension services of national governments are knowledgeable and organized to fill the needs of women in the context of Bank-financed projects and nationally-financed projects. Research is also needed to ensure that outcome.
