Minister of International Development and Human Rights Hilde F. Johnson

“The Role of Agriculture in Combating Poverty”

International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) 20th Anniversary, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1 October 1999

First of all, I would like to thank ISNAR and Mr. Stein Bie for inviting me here to take part in this celebration of ISNAR’s 20th anniversary. It is a great pleasure for me to be able to share with you some of my views on development issues that are closest to my heart: poverty alleviation, food security and human rights. I firmly believe that agriculture and agricultural research play a vital role in the process of achieving sustainable development in developing countries.

Initially, allow me to dwell for a few moments on the concept of “development”. People tend to think about “development” in terms of economic growth and increased gross domestic product. Certainly these are important factors. But economic growth in itself does not necessarily lead to development. Human development is a matter of enlarging people’s choices, improving their access to fundamental goods. In fact, it is about people’s right to have their basic needs - education, health, food and clean drinking water – covered. The quest for “development” is a quest for something better, for human dignity.

We live in a world of contradictions. Never before have so many people succeeded in freeing themselves from absolute poverty as during the last twenty to thirty years. At the same time, there has never been as many poor people as in 1999. And the gap between rich and poor has never been wider. More than a quarter of the world's population live in desperate poverty. Seventy per cent of the world's poorest are women. They are denied opportunities for education and employment, robbed of the chance to make the key decisions that shape their own lives. Still, more than 800 million people do not have acc ess to sufficient and nutritious food for a healthy life. According to some prognoses, one hundred and fifty million children in developing countries will be suffering from malnutrition by the year 2020. This increase is expected to be particularly dramatic in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Against this bakground of truly awful statistics, it is pretty clear to me that alleviating and eradicating poverty is the most pressing challenge of our time. We must do whatever we can to make sure that our fellow human beings do not have to live under degrading conditions, wondering where their next meal will be coming from. Helping others lead a life free from hunger is a noble cause, a matter of taking human rights seriously, and - mind you - a moral duty.

The primary objective of Norwegian development policy is to contribute to consistent and sustainable improvements in the economic, social and political conditions in developing countries. Our development assistance is targeted towards poor regions, poor countries and poor population groups. Priority is given to the least developed countries.

In many of the poorest countries, up to 90 per cent of the population are agricultural producers or peasants. Agriculture is the backbone of production; the dynamo of economic development. It has a significant effect on overall employment, and on income and export revenue. The difference between a good and a poor harvest may be a matter of life and death. Or a matter of meeting or not meeting the basic needs of millions of people. In these countries, poverty cannot be alleviated without a proper agricultural policy, laying a solid basis for sustainable growth in agricultural production.

In many developing countries, the agricultural sector is also the most dynamic sector in the economy. However, a cow in Tanzania still produces an average of only 450 litres of milk per year. A Norwegian cow produces 6500 litres. Hormone-free litres, that is….Despite natural variations - talk about scope for improvement!

In recent years, Norway has increasingly emphasized the agricultural sector in our development policy. From 1997 to 1998 we increased our support to the CGIAR system by 50 per cent. That level will be maintained this year. Earlier this year we launched a new strategy for the support of private sector development in developing countries. In this strategy, we emphasize the importance of developing the agricultural sector as a tool for poverty reduction and eradication. And we emphasize the role of women, as responsible for considerable economic activity within agriculture, small-scale industry and trade. This year we have also launched a new strategy for the strengthening of research cooperation between Norway and countries in the South. Part of this strategy aims at increasing our cooperation with international agricultural research institutions, including the CGIAR.

Traditionally, development in the agricultural sector and in food security has been linked to an increase in the production of food. The idea was that uncertainty about access to food would be reduced if the production of food simply increased. However, a steady increase in per capita world food production has not led to a significant reduction in the number of malnourished people in the world. Global production of food in the next 25 years will probably be sufficient to cover the needs of those who have the money to pay for it. At the same time, people in many developing countries will not be able to produce or earn enough to cover their basic food requirements. This is a terrible paradox.

How, then, can agricultural research and technology contribute to poverty eradication? I think most people will agree that agricultural research and technological improvements are crucial in increasing productivity and boosting income from agricultural activities. Agricultural research offers the prospect of large payoffs in terms of increased food production and income. The real challenge is to identify what kind of research is needed and to determine how limited public resources may be used in the best possible way. Exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships in this field is another important challenge.

The Green Revolution, which is perhaps the best-known aspect of international agricultural research, was made world-famous when Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Views differ as to how successful the Green Revolution actually was. The original Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s was based on the assumption that food supply constraints were an overriding cause of food insecurity in developing countries. It became clear, however, that applying the Green Revolution strategy would not be enough to address persistent food insecurity in poor rural areas. Yes - the Green Revolution contributed to huge and, by all means, important yield increases. And yes – it made some countries, like India, largely self-sufficient in terms of food production. But still – the Green Revolution rarely made much of a difference to poor farmers in marginal areas.

I am glad to see that agricultural research related to food security and farming systems has undergone considerable change in recent years. Now, the focus is on a second, “doubly green” or “evergreen” revolution, fundamentally different from its forefather. I firmly believe that agricultural research, both today and probably even more so in the future, will contribute towards poverty reduction by developing crop varieties important for poor people and adapted to local conditions. We also expect that improved management approaches, appropriate for small farmers in developing countries, will have an increasing poverty reduction impact.

The CGIAR`s mission is “to contribute to food security and poverty eradication in developing countries through research, partnership, capacity building and policy support”. This is a very broad mandate. The changing institutional landscape in global agricultural research poses new challenges for CGIAR. Private sector agricultural research is expanding. The same is true of advanced research institutes in the industrialized countries and some national agricultural research institutions (NARS) in large developing countries such as India, China and Brazil. The CGIAR, as the global public agricultural research system for development, is but one of several actors in the global agricultural research arena.

However, when it comes to giving priority to poverty eradication, the CGIAR is definitely the most important agricultural research actor. The Lucerne declaration of 1995 established the CGIAR as it is today – a network of research centres subscribing to the “doubly green revolution”, integrating environmental concerns and constraints into the research agenda, and adopting poverty reduction as its principal mandate. Since Lucerne, the CGIAR institutions have expanded their activities in direct support of poor people. Even so, there is still a long way to go: in 1997 only 25% of the CGIAR project portfolio were fully targeted on poverty in marginal areas.

I believe CGIAR should deal with those items on the sustainable agricultural research agenda that specifically address persistent poverty. A persistent poverty focus could become the CGIAR's comparative advantage.

With the limited resources available to the CGIAR, and considering the other actors in the global agricultural research arena, it may be time for a further sharpening of focus and priorities. One possibility is to concentrate efforts on the following four major areas of research, all of which focus on improving the ability of poor people to make a living:

1.Research to understand the interaction between rural poverty, agriculture and the environment

2.Research on sustainable technology development for highly populated marginal areas

3.Research on resource management strategies and institutional arrangements to ensure that poor people have access to productive resources

4.Research to evaluate different policies’ impact on specific food-insecure groups, not only their aggregate impact on income or the environment

In order to implement such a research agenda, a decentralised and participatory research strategy is needed. This strategy should be based on long-term partnerships with National Agricultural Research Institutions (NARS), NGOs, other development organisations and poor people themselves. I believe this could be a truly significant and relevant niche for the CGIAR, and that it could indeed sharpen its research focus on poverty reduction.

In this regard, the ISNAR’s mission is central, indeed: to enhance the performance of agricultural research institutions in conducting research and providing services in the areas of policy, organisation, and management. The ISNAR is doing a wonderful job collaborating with NARS in many countries: increasing the scope of agricultural research and expanding knowledge on agricultural research policy, organisation and management, not least in developing countries.

The ISNAR`s mandate is definitely relevant in a poverty reduction perspective. However, to obtain a more direct focus on poverty, it might be a good idea to integrate the rural poverty-agriculture-environment nexus more explicitly into the institute’s mandate.

In May this year, at a seminar on the “Development of Sustainable Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa”, His Excellency President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria recognised the important role of the ISNAR and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Quoting the ISNAR on the dilemma of public investments in agricultural research and development being perceived by some as a luxury, he added, “I believe this is a dilemma that we invent to excuse wrong policy decisions because effective prioritisation will reaffirm the centrality of agricultural research in the quest for food security. We must be able to effectively explore, adopt and develop suitable technologies that address Africa’s needs. We cannot just rely on outside support for this, but must equip ourselves appropriately. Where, in addition to the national research centers, we have international ones like IITA, we must take advantage of our cohabitation.”

I will conclude with thi s quotation, which illustrates the strong commitment of the NARS to working in partnership with the CGIAR in general, and with the ISNAR in particular. I would also like to reaffirm our own support to this important process.

With these words I hope I have given you some food for thought. The most important thing, however, is to translate these ideas into action, resulting in not only food for thought, but food for all!

Thank you again for inviting me.

Happy Anniversary!