IN FOCUS: AGRICULTURE STRATEGY
In this section:
New Agriculture Strategy to Help Small Farms Reach Global Markets
Improving Natural Resource Management
Working with Rural Communities and Vulnerable Groups
New Agriculture Strategy to Help Small Farms Reach Global Markets
As increasing world population and farming of marginal lands put stress on the environment, and as regional and international trade have become an increasing part of life around the world, USAID has developed a new agricultural strategy that focuses on issues like linking small farmers to wider markets and better managing natural resources like water and soil.
The keys to this strategy are good trade policies, using information technology in agribusiness and agricultural education, and reaching out to women in agriculture.
The strategy urges governments to help farmers own their land and equipment, secure loans, and sell crops to the highest bidder. Extension officers should help agricultural wholesalers and processors meet food safety standards, and governments must encourage trade across borders with a minimum of tariffs and corruption, the strategy says.
Connecting markets across borders can boost economic growth in an entire region, as food and grain move to areas of scarcity, keeping crop prices higher for farmers with a bumper crop and consumer food prices down in shortage areas. So USAID assistance should promote regional market linkages, said Jeff Hill, senior advisor in the Bureau for Africa.
Concentrating resources heavily on countries with sound policies is a new approach for the Agency, said John Becker of the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination. Before, the focus was more on assisting small and medium-sized farmers and processors to compete and export.
An example of the new approach is Central America, where several countries signed the Central America Free Trade Agreement with the United States in early 2004. With policies that favor commercial agriculture and exports in place there, USAID is expanding support of agriculture-related programs.
In Africa—where most aid dollars are assigned to HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, or humanitarian programs—USAID will invest scarce agricultural funding in a handful of countries with the most market-oriented agricultural policies under the President's Initiative to End Hunger in Africa. Other countries will be served through programs run by the Agency's regional missions that will stress market integration, Becker said.
At the same time, whenever possible, humanitarian aid will go toward long-term solutions to chronic food shortages. That might mean promoting policy reform, offering food for work, or marketing drought-resistant seeds to vulnerable farmers.
For instance, in the fragile ecology of the Horn of Africa, agricultural productivity goes hand-in-hand with good management of natural resources. "Agricultural expansion can have real environmental costs, so our focus needs to be on sound farming practices while scaling up for commercial viability," said Becker.
Improving water management practices is one way of doing this in the Horn. In other countries, government pricing policies might be crucial.
"Natural resource management is an integral part of the agriculture strategy," said Emmy Simmons, Assistant Administrator for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade. "We need more robust measures of agricultural productivity—not just yield per acre but also a 'crop per drop' measure," said Simmons, referring to irrigation.
The strategy also urges USAID project officers to recognize the barriers women face despite their domination of the sector in many societies by designing projects that help women farmers and processors gain access to land, equipment, information, and credit.
When submitting strategies, missions and other Agency operating units will need to demonstrate that their agricultural projects will
- link to market trends, whether at the global, regional, or local level
- improve natural resource management
- make use of science and technology
- attend to needs of rural communities and vulnerable groups
The strategy has been sent to field missions and is being presented at events around the world starting October 2004. Drafted by USAID agricultural and food security specialists, especially Tom Hobgood, the strategy was approved July 30, 2004.
Improving Natural Resource Management
 |
|
A Mexican coffee farmer picks coffee cherries in the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve.
Conservation International
|
Farmers in the buffer zone of Mexico's El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve are producing environmentally friendly coffee and getting higher prices for it. USAID, Starbucks Coffee Company, and Conservation International are working with El Triunfo coffee farmers to promote growing coffee under the shade of trees, preventing soil erosion, protecting streams, and conserving habitat for wildlife.
The program works with six cooperatives and more than 1,000 coffee farmers cultivating over 3,000 hectares to improve the quality of their coffee and update their business practices. Starbucks bought nearly 1.7 million pounds of green coffee directly from the cooperatives in 2003 and sold it under the brand names, Commitment to Origins, Shade Grown Mexico, and Decaf Shade Grown Mexico.
Working with Rural Communities and Vulnerable Groups
 |
|
Members of the Women's Metaj Dairy Cooperative show off some of their dairy cows. Arsino Zaka (right) is president of the 45-member cooperative.
Karla Christensen, USAID
|
Rural women in Albania have improved the health of their cows and increased the quality and quantity of milk produced. Land O'Lakes, with support from the Agency, trained more than 8,000 women in sanitation, milk quality testing, preventing mastitis and other diseases, dairy breeding, and business management skills.
As milk production increased, milk-cooling tanks and simple milk-testing laboratory equipment were installed to improve collection. Many of these milk collection systems are owned and operated by cooperatives. Albanian dairy products have since gained a bigger share of the regional market.
Back to Top ^
|
