Editorial»
Poverty alleviation & agriculture
JAN 21 - Every government that came in power, be it after the restoration of democracy or prior to it, had/has claimed to its credit the significant economic and social achievements during its tenure in the government. In spite of such ostentatious claim the ground reality is that the numbers of the poor, landless and hungry people of the country are relentlessly increasing.
We all are aware that most of these unfortunate people live in rural areas where they are inevitably dependent on farming and related rural industries for their future hope of employment, higher income and better living standard. But unfortunately, many of them are now abandoning these hopes and migrating to cities, not in trickle but in torrent, where the limited urban services are not enough to cope with the exodus. This predicament has been further exacerbated by the existing political turmoil in the country.
There are countless historical and contemporary evidences to show that if a country like Nepal improves its agricultural productivity it at once increases job opportunities, both on-farm and off-farm that service farmers. Then, when the poor people find employment and gain a regular income, they spend much of their money on food steadily improving their health and general standard of living. Economic and social progress throughout the whole community, then, starts spinning off.
Since it is advances in agriculture that initially drive the engine of national economic development, the most pressing problem the country faces is how to improve the agricultural productivity.
Looking at the agricultural advancement in developed countries one tends to think that plenty of fertilisers, irrigation water, and agricultural chemicals, combined with machines and high yielding varieties of crops would together do the trick.
However, experience has shown that the success of these so-called high energy input technologies of farming is often short-lived and, in the end, they lead to serious environmental degradation. Therefore, the challenge we all face today is learning how to produce higher yields of crops and livestock while still conserving essential natural resources, like soil, water, forests and bio-diversity, which will be needed for the survival of our future generations.
Although information on improved farming with sustainable technologies has increased in recent years, there are still many vital gaps in our knowledge, particularly in relation to some of the soils, indigenous crops and local pests and diseases found in the country. There is only one way of expanding knowledge of these essential matters and, therefore, of developing the higher yielding and sustainable farming technologies that are needed to generate jobs, incomes and exports. This knowledge can only come from the process of experimentation and trial-and-error, which constitute research.
As improved agricultural productivity provides the necessary basis of national economic progress, so does agricultural research provide the sustainable and profitable technologies that are the necessary bases of improved agricultural practices.
The economic and environmental returns from agricultural research are known to be greater than from other forms of public investment yet, in recent years, the government has reduced their funding for this activity, and this decline is continuing. This is true with bilateral and international agencies as well. The reason frequently given by aid donors is that the government does not accord a high priority to agricultural research in its own national expenditure or in the requests for development aid.
Therefore, there is no point in funding agricultural research in these countries when they are themselves unwilling to provide their own agricultural research systems with adequate resources. Does this not demand introspection of the psyche and attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture vis-à-vis agricultural research policy?
There is plenty of evidence to support the view that one of the most important long-term reasons why Nepalese agriculture performed so poorly has been the relative neglect of research and technology by the government. There is no doubt that ministers and political leaders have not sufficiently appreciated the importance of research in agriculture development.
When budget cuts in public expenditure have to be made, the government likes to cut first those items that do not cause antagonism and public fury. Clearly one such item is agricultural research. The budget cuts in agricultural research normally pass unnoticed, questions are not raised in parliament, the media remain silent, and there are no protest rallies and public demonstration on streets. Politicians always prefer to make decisions, which are easy and do not invite acrimonious criticism and protest. Therefore, one can only be baffled and frustrated by the seeming unwillingness of the government and politicians to respond in a rational manner to a serious issue that deserves attention.
Despite the fact that the funding needs of agricultural research are extremely modest in relation to most items of national expenditure, there is an inexplicable reluctance on the part of the government to fund this vital activity. For example, there is widespread norm that countries should allocate at least 2% of their agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) to agricultural research. Most developed countries spend over 2% of their AGDP on their own agricultural research, and they do this because the resultant improvements in farm efficiency make their farm produce more competitive in the market. However, in our case we are spending less than one half of 1% of AGDP on our national agricultural research systems.
The reality is that our farm productivity is being held back, our competitiveness in the market is being undermined, and our national prosperity is being unnecessarily limited because the agricultural research services are starved of the modest level of resources that they require.
Recently we have been discussing on the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), a very much talked issue in the government’s programme planning. Has the PAF duly taken note of the important role of agricultural research in poverty alleviation? Unless the decreasing trend in funding agricultural research remains unchanged, the battle on poverty will not be realised. The casualties of this situation will not be scientists but the poor people of the country. Therefore, support for agricultural research is not a matter of charity but it should be taken as wisdom and prudence.Posted on: 2004-01-21 02:51
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