On March 22-25, 2010, the Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction
Studies held an interactive workshop, Agriculture: Promoting Livelihoods in Confict-Affected Environments, in Monterey, California, that convened 44 experienced agricultural practitioners to discuss strategies for rebuilding degraded agriculture sectors in post-confict societies, sharing best practices and lessons learned. The workshop, which was designed by Dr. John Mellor, Dr. Sophal Ear, and Mr. Jeff Lewis, provided participants with the opportunity to learn from practitioners who had been involved in agricultural redevelopment initiatives in such countries as Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Rwanda, among others. The Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies (CSRS) is a teaching institute which develops and conducts educational programs for stabilization and reconstruction practitioners, including representatives from US and international nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, government civilian agencies, and the armed forces. Established by the Naval Postgraduate School in 2004 through the vision and support of Representative Sam Farr (CA-17), CSRS creates a wide array of programs to foster dialogue among practitioners, as well as to help them develop new strategies and refne best practices to improve the effectiveness of their important global work.
Located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, CSRS also contributes to the universitys research and graduate degree programs. For more information about CSRS, its philosophy, and programs, please visit www.csrs-nps.org. Workshop design and facilitation by Dr. John Mellor, Dr. Sophal Ear, and Mr. Jeff Lewis. Program coordination by Graseilah Coolidge. Report writing and publications development by Holly Larson. Cover design by Jesse Darling. Report layout and graphics by David Bilotto. Photography by Nico Mavris. Copyright 2010 Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies. All rights reserved. The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reect the views of the Naval Postgraduate School, the US Navy, the US Defense Department, or any other agency or organization. Promoting Livelihoods in Conict-Affected Environments March 22-25, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Executive Summary 5 The State of Agriculture in Post-Confict Societies 11 Moving from Agricultural Intervention to Redevelopment 27 Conclusion 29 Workshop Participants 31 Endnotes 1 Hunger and poverty: The two go hand in hand. Despite decades of technological progress that have resulted in large-scale increases in global agricultural production, food scarcity continues to be a daily issue for much of the worlds poor. Nearly a quarter of the worlds population, or some 1.4 billion individuals, lives on just $1.25 a day, with an astonishing 95 percent concentrated in just two regions of the globe: Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 1
Food insecurity, already a challenge for so many of the worlds citizens, becomes especially acute during periods of confict. Threatened by insurgents, farmers may fear to till the soil, or they may fee, leaving crops, livestock, and lands behind. Harvests spoil or are stolen. Livestock perish. And land usually passed from generation to generation of farmers falls into the hands of illicit owners, often never to return to its rightful owners. As a result, input and crop prices skyrocket, and food shortages occur. More than a third of all food emergencies in the period between 1992 and 2003 were caused by confict and economic issues. 2 The converse is also true: Food scarcity can precipitate confict as people become increasingly frantic over Executive Summary 1 Despite decades of technological progress in agricultural production, much of the worlds poor still struggle with hunger. Some 1.4 billion individuals, 95 percent of whom live in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, live on just $1.25 a day.
The workshop convened 44 experienced
agriculture practitioners to discuss strategies for revitalizing the agriculture sectors of post-confict societies. skyrocketing prices and shortages of key foodstuffs. In 2007, rising food prices caused riots in the cities of more than 30 different countries. 3
Of equal importance, confict degrades critical infrastructures and depletes human and organizational capacity at the very time the population is increasing. According to leading agricultural expert Dr. John Mellor, extended violence often leads to a doubling of the population with no attendant increase in capacity, straining outmoded agricultural systems and production methods. However, population growth is not just limited to societies in confict: According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the worlds population is slated to grow from 6.1 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050 meaning that world food production must increase 70 percent just to keep pace. 5 In the food-insecure region of South Asia, increases in population have caused the amount of average cultivated land to decline to 0.3 hectares per person. 6 While the West, with its steady investment into new agricultural methodologies and technologies, is able to meet the growing and increasingly sophisticated consumption of its expanding population, the developing world is falling ever- further behind in its ability to provide basic nutrition for its citizenry. Net cereal defcits, which reached nine percent of consumption in the 1997 to 1999 timeframe, are expected to accelerate to 14 percent by 2030, despite the fact that agriculture has fgured prominently in hunger and poverty reduction initiatives for the past several decades. 7 Other issues, such as countries use of biofuels and the diverse impacts of climate change, will increasingly strain global food production. 8 Stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) practitioners know that rebuilding the agriculture sector is one of the highest priorities for a post-confict state. Agriculture feeds the nation and contributes to food security: A robust, well-linked, and modernized agricultural supply chain can more easily withstand disruption than the informal, small- scale, and ineffcient networks that operate during confict. In addition, agriculture provides livelihoods for a vast number of the societys citizens, including low-skilled workers and ex-combatants who may not be absorbed by other sectors: According to a US Agency for International Development (USAID) report, 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sources: How to Feed the World 2050; Improving the Livelihoods of the Resource-Poor Smallholder Farmers and Producers in Developing Countries: An Urgent Appeal for Action; and Feeding the World: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources. 4 Please see Endnotes for complete references. AGRICULTURE BY THE NUMBERS 9.1 billion the worlds population by 2050 6.8 billion the worlds current population 2.5 billion individuals involved in rural agriculture 1.5 billion resource-poor smallholders 1.28 billion farm plots of less than two hectares of land 840 million people suffering from chronic food shortages 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 Farmers are the most commonly found entrepreneurs in low-income post confict countries. 9 Unlike other would-be business owners, many of these entrepreneurs already possess the tools of their trade, including land, seed, and equipment. Thus, they simply require assistance in increasing production. In addition, farmers are part of a complex agro- economic ecosystem, where their prosperity is inextricably intertwined with others such as manufacturers, traders, and local purveyors of goods and services who buy and sell to them. As farmers prosper, their rising incomes help lift their communities around them. Farmers serve as employers, partners, and purchasers of local goods, increasing the growth of the rural non-farm sector, which is critical to a healthy developing economy. According to Dr. John Mellor, more than 60 percent of all incremental employment growth is due to agriculture and its multipliers, and farmers spend half of their incremental income gains on rural non-farm services. Far from a trickle-down effect, prosperous farmers have a fow-down effect on their communities, says Dr. Mellor. Thus, improving the livelihoods of this critical group can pay long- lasting dividends for individual communities and the nation. On an aggregate level, agriculture plays an important role in galvanizing a countrys economy. Since a societys economy is generally crippled after extended violence leading researchers Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffer have found it takes a country 21 years to return to its pre-confict state 10 rebuilding the agriculture sector can provide an important boost to a countrys GDP. In fact, improving farming techniques can demonstrate results in a single growing season. Benefts such as greater crop yields, higher per-farm revenues, and thriving local markets are visible to all. Such gains help actors buy time and citizen goodwill for larger- scale reforms infrastructure development, agricultural research and education, extension services, and credit among them to take root and begin making an impact on the national stage. While seed and input programs are important short- term interventions, they represent just the frst step of agricultural redevelopment. According to authors W. Erskine and H. Nesbitt, rebuilding the agriculture sector in post- confict countries involves far more than boosting crop and livestock production, but also requires spurring the growth of private sector industries such as transportation, marketing, pesticide and fertilizer production, and irrigation equipment; and facilitating such public sector responsibilities as infrastructure and human resource development, the formation of farmers cooperatives, and the provision and protection of equitable policy and property rights. 11 This objective, the authors acknowledge, is a massive task. By promoting agriculture, international actors also help increase the credibility of the host nation government during the pivotal decade post-confict when states are most vulnerable to returning to violence. Since nearly 40 percent of states return to violence in the frst few years post-confict, states Paul Collier on his website, this is an important objective. Post-confict governments are often seen by their citizens as weak, ineffectual, and corrupt. If instead, they provide vital services supportive policies and funding for farmers and related businesses, new technologies and seeds, and farming expertise in local communities they can cement their hold on power by helping their poorest citizens earn a living wage. In this model, the government is seen as an enabler, rather than a hindrance, to industry and economic development. For this reason, international actors must work behind the scenes, providing funding and technical support to build the capacity of Dr. John Mellor, formerly of the International Food Policy Institute and USAID, and Mr. Jeff Lewis, of the International Disaster Assistance and Response Training organization, served as two of the workshops three designers and facilitators. agricultural actors at the national, regional, and local levels so that they do not supplant the host nation as the provider of services in the eyes of its citizenry. In addition, actors must help the host nation provide essential security services: According to the FAO, A peaceful and stable environment in every country is a fundamental condition for the attainment of sustainable food security. 12 In insecure environments, the food supply is compromised, and women are often disproportionately affected: Since they represent the majority of the worlds cultivators in Africa, some 80 percent of all food production is done by women 13 they risk physical harm every time they draw water, gather frewood, or work in the feld in insecure environments. To explore these critical issues in depth, the Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies (CSRS), held an interactive workshop for practitioners in Monterey, California. The event, Agriculture: Promoting Livelihoods in Confict- Affected Environments, held March 22-25, 2010, convened some 44 experienced agricultural actors from 13 different countries to discuss best practices and lessons learned from past initiatives and begin crafting new strategies to meet the challenges presented in a wide array of fragile states. Participants, who represented nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, government civilian agencies, the armed forces, think tanks, and contractors, brought a wealth of experience to share with their peers. Agriculture: Promoting Livelihoods was designed and facilitated by three leading practitioners and theorists on agricultural issues and post-confict societies: Dr. John Mellor, the former head of the International Food Policy Research Institute and former Chief Economist for USAID; Dr. Sophal Ear, Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs, US Naval Postgraduate School and former Assistant Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Timor-Leste; and Mr. Jeff Lewis, President, International Disaster Assistance and Response Training. Other workshop speakers included representatives from FAO, USAID, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Army and state National Guards, and ACDI/VOCA, among others. Presenters shared case studies of both national and grassroots agricultural projects in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Rwanda. These projects sought to build vital institutional and human capacity, implement new livestock management and farming techniques, and provide farmers with the tools and techniques required to build sustainable livelihoods. Successes, both large and small, provided other practitioners with insights into strategies they could use in the future. CSRS is an education institute that develops and holds interactive workshops on a wide array of cutting-edge S&R topics. CSRS leverages the experience and insights of its workshop participants, who share case studies, best practices, and lessons learned with their peers. Participants value the opportunity to explore complex topics in-depth, practice new skills in executing complex simulations, and interact with practitioners across diverse communities. By so doing, actors increase their cognitive understanding of critical issues, develop strategies they can put to use in the feld, and build professional networks they can leverage in the future. 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WORKSHOP LEARNING OBJECTIVES Develop a deeper knowledge of the diverse factors affecting agriculture and its governance Understand the role of agriculture development in establishing political stability Explore a range of policy and programmatic approaches for promoting agricultural recovery and rebuilding livelihoods Gain familiarity with operational tools used to design effective programs Develop cross-community networks they can leverage in the future Agriculture: Promoting Livelihoods in Post-Conict Environments was designed to help participants: Although agriculture is critical to establishing a secure food supply, livelihoods, and economic prosperity, in post-confict countries this vital sector typically lags decades behind developed countries. Authors of a PRISM article detailing lessons learned from the US Department of Agriculture interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan make this argument quite bluntly: The U.S. Government should recognize that agriculture in Iraq is equivalent to U.S. agriculture in the 1950s, and the agriculture sector in Afghanistan is even more primitive by U.S. standards. 14 Why are war-torn countries so far behind their peers? One key reason is that they have experienced years of underinvestment in agricultural systems and methodologies, which are widely seen by leading experts as critical to ensuring the ongoing development of the sector. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa which has experienced numerous conficts over the past several decades, public investments into the agriculture sector represent only four percent of total government spending. 15 In middle- and high-income countries, farmers have ready access to the latest innovations, such as The State of Agriculture in Post-Confict Societies 5 In war-torn countries, the agriculture sector lags decades behind developed countries. One key reason why is that these states have systematically underinvested in agricultural systems and methodologies.
Participants gathered in breakout groups
to formulate a strategy for revitalizing agriculture in a fctitious country beset by many of the challenges experienced by post-confict countries. specially engineered seeds and high performing inputs, as well as core infrastructures well- developed transportation sectors, pervasive electrifcation and irrigation, and telecommunications services, among them that enable commercial farmers to continually increase yields, get goods to market, and obtain fair prices for their products. In post-confict countries, which are typically low-income, primitive agricultural techniques abound: Hand cultivation of soil, for example, is the norm rather than the exception. Farmers likely have access to only low- quality seeds and adulterated inputs, meaning that their crops produce a fraction of the yields achieved elsewhere around the globe. And large portions of the world simply do not have access to water and electricity. At the CSRS workshop, a speaker showed a nighttime satellite photo of Africa, which revealed that the vast majority of the continent was still not electrifed. In the area of telecommunications, however, the developing world has kept pace with the rest of the globe: Farmers across the world now use mobile phones to obtain critical agricultural information, ensuring that they obtain fair market prices for their crops, thus maximizing their return on investment. In post-confict countries, agriculture contributes disproportionately to the economy, employing a vast majority of the nations citizens and representing a third or more of its GDP, while constituting very little of its public sector spending. For example, in Rwanda, 40 percent of the population is employed in agriculture, while only 26 percent of Egypts citizens are, according to data presented at the workshop by Dr. John Mellor. 16 Egypts investments in rebuilding its agriculture sector have helped strengthen related industries, reducing its importance to the GDP. Currently, agriculture only contributes 16 percent to Egypts GDP, and the rural non-farm sector, which is a key engine of growth in developing countries, now contributes another 16 percent to the countrys GDP. Meanwhile, years of underinvestment in Rwanda are refected in the fact that agriculture still constitutes 40 percent of the countrys GDP. According to the World Bank, there is a close link between public investments and agricultures importance to the GDP. In agrarian countries, public spending on agriculture constituted a mere four percent of all government investments in 2000, while the sector accounted for 29 percent of those nations GDP. In urbanized countries, by contrast, public spending on agriculture represented 12 percent of government investments, while the sector only accounted for 10 percent of the GDP. 17 (See both tables 6 Ms. Ritumbra Manuvie, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, discusses the lack of key agriculture infrastructures in post-confict societies with Ms. Demetria Arvanitis, Winrock International. THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES 7 on page 8.) To galvanize the growth of both rural farm and non-farm sectors, post-confict countries will need to reverse their course of underinvestment and commit to long-term investments that build critical capacity and capabilities. While developing countries surely bear culpability for not investing in agriculture, workshop participants also said that donors need to share the responsibility for this lapse. According to Dr. Mellor, the US Governments approach to foreign development has changed signifcantly over the past several decades. Instead of funding large- scale, long-term initiatives that build national capacity, donors now prefer to invest in small-scale, quick- return projects that pay dividends for local communities, but do not provide an aggregate impact. And much of the world has followed suit. According to the organizers of the Global Conference on Agriculture Research for Development 2010, offcial development assistance to agriculture has plunged from a peak of 17 percent in 1979 to 3.5 percent in 2004. 18 Part of this historic shift may be attributable to the dearth of agronomists and technical experts in the senior ranks of donor organizations such as USAID, stated a workshop speaker. In the past, technical leaders who possessed a deep understanding of the sector and farmers needs were able to present a convincing business case for making ongoing investments and waiting years or even decades for capacity- building initiatives to show results. Now, funding decisions are made by program managers who have a much shorter-term focus, he said. However, the trend of donor underinvestment is one that most actors believe needs to change. According to the authors of an FAO report: Many more countries could beneft from development through the engine of agriculture, provided governments and international development partners reversed years of policy neglect, underinvestment and ill-advised investment, as agriculture uniquely contributes to development as an activity and livelihood, [and] also [serves] as a provider of a range of environmental services. 19
In addition to favoring smaller- scale initiatives, donors and host nations have frequently missed opportunities to revitalize the agricultural industries of the worlds poorest countries, either by under- investing in this sector or investing in the wrong things. Workshop speakers singled out donor funding fads as one key issue that short- circuits actors attempts to partner with host nations in building long- term capacity. As examples, they cited investing in unsustainable infrastructures, subsidizing private enterprise instead of public agencies, emphasizing local capacity development at the expense of national structures, and building niche markets rather than supporting established, large-scale production agriculture. Donor funding processes can also affect program design and implementation. Workshop participants discussed the diffculty of costing programs that are dependent on inputs seed, fertilizer, and pesticides among them whose prices change on a weekly basis, when funding approval cycles often take a month or more. That time lag places NGOs and contractors in a diffcult bind: Either they wait for approval and absorb the impact of raw material infation or they make fnancial commitments in advance of receiving approval. Moving in advance of donor approval can have multiple negative consequences: Not only does it subject implementing partners to fnancial risk, but it can also lead 7 THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES Pictured from left to right: Mr. David Speidel, US Department of Agricultures Foreign Agriculture Service, discusses donor funding trends with Ms. Adele Negro, Monterey Institute of International Studies. 8
DEMONSTRATING THE LINK BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT
AND THE SECTORS CONTRIBUTION TO COUNTRIES GDP Public spending on agriculture is lowest in agriculture-based countries, while their share of agriculture in GDP is highest. Public Spending on Agriculture/Agricultural GDP 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1980 / 2000 1980 / 2000 1980 / 2000 Agriculture-based Transforming Urbanized 17% 10% 4% 12% 11% 4% Agriculture GDP/GDP 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1980 / 2000 1980 / 2000 1980 / 2000 Agriculture-based Transforming Urbanized 24% 29% 10% 16% 29% 14% Source for both graphs: World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. Top graph based on data from Shenggen Fan, forthcoming. Please see Endnotes for complete publication reference. 9 GDP growth originating in agriculture benets the poorest half of the population substantially more. Objectives of the Agriculture-for-Development Agenda GDP Growth Across Sectors 8 6 4 2 0 -2 EXPENDITURE DECILES EXPENDITURE GAINS INDUCED BY 1% GDP GROWTH, % AGRICULTURE NON-AGRICULTURE LOWEST 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HIGHEST PRECONDITIONS MACROECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS GOVERNANCE SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT Improve market access; establish efcient value chains Improve livelihoods in subsistence agriculture and low-skill rural occupations Enhance smallholder competitiveness; facilitate market entry Demand for agricultural products Transition to market Demand for agricultural and nonfarm products Transition to market Increase employment in agriculture and the rural nonfarm economy; enhance skills World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development, based on Ligon and Sadoulet, 2007. Based on data from 42 countries during the period 1981-2003. Gains are signicantly different for the lower half of expenditure deciles. Please see Endnotes for complete publication reference. Source: World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. u v x w Pathways out of poverty: farming, labor, migration INCOME EFFECTS INCOME EFFECTS to substandard decision making. A contractor stated that he had seen NGO representatives unintentionally purchase adulterated inputs in their desire to still make a difference while waiting for funding. The NGOs may have had good motivations, but they ended up giving farmers something worse than they already had. In addition, funding does not always align with growing seasons. While one NGO member stated that she was successful in obtaining funding extensions, thus avoiding any impact to her organizations initiatives, others said that delays were commonplace and sometimes had devastating impacts. The powers that be dont have a good understanding of the issue of timing with agriculture. With wheat, if the funding for seed and fertilizer is a week late, youre done. If its grapes, it may not be as important, said a think tank member. Understanding the local context is also critical, as countries needs necessarily vary. An NGO member offered an example: While most countries have two growing seasons, Nigeria has but one. If you cant get funding in time for the growing season, youve missed the entire year, he said. Funding constraints are not the sole province of actors. Most agricultural producers in developing countries do not have the option of obtaining fnancing, either because it is unavailable, granting organizations are riddled by corruption and ineffciency, or credit terms are too onerous. More than 10 years after the confict in Rwanda, less than 10 percent of its rural population had access to banking services. 20
An NGO member working in Nigeria stated, There are some farmers in Nigeria who have been in business for more than 30 years and have not had access to credit once. Without credit and fexible loan terms, farmers have diffculty purchasing key inputs; improving or expanding operations; and surviving the crises that regularly affict their industry, such as weather conditions that ravage harvests. In addition, land tenure issues may negatively impact a countrys ability to revitalize its agriculture sector. According to the FAO, A crucial priority in overall development strategies is securing access to land and other natural resources for the rural poor. Rural landlessness is often the best predictor of poverty and hunger; the poorest are usually landless or have limited access. 21
Actors should work with the host nation to develop policies that protect farmers property rights and provide a clear chain of title. 10 Pictured at right: Ms. Erin Means, US Department of Agricultures Foreign Agriculture Service. THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES In the aftermath of confict, actors often focus on short-term projects such as food aid, cash for work, and seed programs, to solve the immediate problem of food insecurity. As an example of how confict can affect food supplies, an NGO member provided a case study on how the effects of just two months of confict in Kenyas Rift Valley, considered to be the grain basket of the country, negatively compromised production of its maize crop, a primary staple for 96 percent of Kenyans. The confict in late 2007 led to the displacement of 180,000 residents, a third of whom were farming families; the loss and theft of 20 percent of the countrys maize harvest; and skyrocketing prices for key inputs and foodstuffs. As a consequence, vulnerable communities reduced the number and size of their daily meals, with adults choosing to do without so that their children could eat. The NGO projects that it will take 10 years to rebuild core infrastructures and that the country will suffer from maize shortages for some time to come. In scenarios like this one, food aid is often an essential frst step to helping a country begin the journey of agricultural recovery. Moving from Agricultural Intervention to Redevelopment 11 In Kenya, just two months of conict led to the displacement of 180,000 residents, the loss and theft of 20 percent of the countrys maize harvest, and skyrocketing prices for key inputs and foodstuffs.
Practitioners, who represented an array of
diverse communities, shared perspectives from initiatives they had been involved with in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Rwanda. While short-term interventions can meet immediate needs feeding a hungry populace, employing low- skilled workers, and increasing harvests they do little to combat the larger-scale problems caused by years of underinvestment. Workshop participants singled out four major initiatives agricultural research, extension services, credit, and infrastructure development as especially critical to revitalizing the sector. Whats key, said one speaker, is for actors to begin long- term projects at the same time they tackle immediate needs, as development initiatives will take years to bear fruit. FOOD AID So what are some of the short- term initiatives that actors should pursue? To combat the problem of food insecurity in the aftermath of confict, many donors offer food aid, either in the form of direct relief or food for work programs. While such programs can alleviate hunger or starvation, they also can have unintended negative consequences, demotivating farmers and crushing local markets. In addition, they may create a sense of entitlement in the minds of benefciaries. Food trucks are like heroin. Theyre really easy to start, but hard to stop, said an NGO member. One participant proposed that actors offer cash for work instead, allowing citizens to purchase goods directly from local markets. As an example of an effective food aid program, a government civilian agency representative cited USAIDs Food for Progress program, which purchases and donates foodstuffs to a host nation, which the government can then sell to citizens. Programs like this can provide much-needed supplies four and food grain among them while minimizing competition with local purveyors of goods. CAPACITY While capacity building is no longer a primary focus of international donors, it remains one of the single most important needs of host nations. Unlike many other industries, agriculture is driven by the public sector, rather than by private enterprise. The government funds large-scale research into new farming techniques and technologies that beneft individual farmers rather than corporate entities; delivers extension services to train and equip agricultural value chain participants; and provides credit that commercial banks will not offer. As such, it is essential that practitioners work with REVITALIZING AGRICULTURE IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES Workshop participants stated that fragile states must invest in four key areas to rebuild their agriculture sector: Agricultural research Extension services Credit Infrastructure development 12 MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT host governments to develop the national and regional capacity they require to deliver critical services and drive reform efforts forward in the absence of international actors. In this model, practitioners provide technical assistance, but the host nation assumes ownership of all programs. Effective capacity development programs involve key stakeholders in the design, implementation, and evaluation of new initiatives; are grounded in a frm understanding of the host countrys needs; seek to create an enabling environment where reforms can fourish; and build vital expertise and capabilities in institutions and individuals at the national, regional, and local levels. Organizations working to build the capacity of developing countries include the FAO, USAID, and US Department of Agricultures Foreign Agriculture Service. These organizations are increasingly joined in their efforts by the US armed forces. In Afghanistan, state National Guards have committed to deploying Agribusiness Development Teams for fve consecutive rotations to the same provinces to work with regional offcials on improving agricultural education, capacity, and farming techniques. The initiative, which began with a single team from Missouri, has expanded to a dozen or so state teams. In addition, teams have implemented the concept of sister cities where they link small cities in Afghanistan with US counterparts, providing host nation agricultural practitioners with access to vital expertise and research support from land grant universities. By providing provinces with longer-term support and consistent services, the National Guard is helping build regional capacity in a wide array of areas, including improved farming techniques. GOVERNMENT POLICIES Practitioners must work closely with host nation governments to design supportive policies and incentives that enable the development of the agriculture sector. These policies range from protecting the property rights of landowners to removing restrictive business requirements or price controls that impede the growth of key markets. While land is one of the most valuable resources a farmer can have, farmers around the world do not always possess clear title to the lands they till. In Africa, for example, urban property, constituting only two to 10 percent of countries total land holdings, is often registered, while rural land is not. 22 Farmers who own their land are motivated to invest their labor and fnancial resources in improving it. Not only do they seek to improve yields and increase their incomes, but they are also maintaining and improving a valuable asset they can pass down for generations. However, in a post-confict society, the rural poor may have lost access to their land 13 Workshop presenters offered case studies on both small-scale and regional agricultural interventions around the world. While land is one of the most valuable resources a farmer can have, growers around the world do not always possess clear title to the land they till. In Africa, for example, urban property is often registered while rural land is not.
MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT
if they ever possessed it in the frst place. Workshop participants discussed Iraq as a case in point: During his 24-year rule, Saddam Hussein seized land and destroyed property records in Iraq, making it impossible for individuals to lay claim to their property, even after his overthrow. Meanwhile, in many African countries, communal ownership holds sway. In countries where land can be individually owned, women, who represent the majority of the worlds cultivators, may be disenfranchised. Even in progressive countries such as Namibia, Rwanda, and Uganda, which have enacted civil laws to protect womens property laws, customary law often predominates. As a consequence, women who live in these countries often lose access to their land when their spouse dies 23
a major concern in this continent where HIV/AIDS has felled so much of the adult population. In other cases, land tenure issues may be due to the remnants of colonialism or its modern replacement, globalism. A workshop speaker discussed the challenges of working with farmers in Mindanao. Since much of that areas land is concentrated in the hands of a few large-scale land barons, most farmers either work small plots or serve as hired hands on the ruling elites plantations. As a consequence, corruption and oppression are rampant, with few options available for assisting the rural poor. However, in the modern era, countries and global companies are increasingly replacing wealthy individuals as large-scale land owners. Indigent host nation governments may sell or lease property assets to drive revenues for their state or enrich the ruling elite. Some 20 countries have leased tens of millions of acres in African countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, and Nigeria to combat food insecurity and produce resources such as biofuels. 24 Such actions may push farmers off arable lands into areas where poor soil, drought, and other issues make it diffcult to earn a living wage from growing crops. Some donors have sought to shore up property rights with reform programs or new infrastructures. In Afghanistan, USAID trained personnel in maintaining more than six million legal documents. 25 Such efforts can prove costly and time- consuming, with one workshop speaker questioning their effcacy. People generally know who owns land in their communities. That knowledge and good relationships is the source of their security, he said. However, he acknowledged 14 Mr. David Odigie, MARKETS, shares his insights on land tenure issues with Mr. Chukwuemeka Mbah, Institute for Peace and Confict Resolution. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT that countries that had pervasive land tenure issues would have diffculty using agriculture as a tool for combating poverty and hunger. In such countries, he said, only a large-scale land redistribution program would address the economic and social ills caused by inequitable resource allocation. In addition to addressing land tenure issues, host nation governments must reconsider business policies that constrain growth. A USAID report states: Short-term gains in new cash-crop production can be lost rapidly if the business environment is not conducive to success. Frequently in the case of private sector enterprises, regulatory constraints such as licensing or restriction of imported inputs may be important to address 26 Several examples suffce to illustrate this point: The rise of GMO seeds has led to a split in the global agriculture community, with some nations adopting new seeds and others refusing to do so. Zambia has even gone so far as to outlaw all GMO crops, because such crops are not marketable in Europe. That decision, said a workshop presenter, is short- sighted. If European markets open to GMO goods, Zambia will be years behind its peers. However, governments can also reverse restrictive regulations, clearing the way for market forces to take effect. In the 1980s, Mozambiques use of price controls eradicated farmers incentives to supply the Maputo market and led to chronic shortages. The USAID Mission worked with the government to remove price controls, providing monies for seeds and tools; this combination of incentives helped to recharge both the vegetable market and the growth of input markets. 27
Similarly, eliminating warehouse ownership requirements for cashew exports in Guinea-Bissau helped create market competition, leading to signifcantly higher prices and increased investment. 28 MARKET INCENTIVES Workshop participants discussed the tension between government intervention and market forces. While regulations can help foster an enabling environment for agriculture to fourish, some cautioned against creating overly restrictive policies that might have unintended negative impacts, such as promoting corruption. However, actors often face a conundrum in instances where they hope to implement new production procedures, but lack a regulatory stick to force compliance. In these cases, workshop participants said, it was important to fnd market incentives that rewarded the adoption of new practices. Speakers offered two compelling case studies. In the frst example, an IGO member shared his organizations 15 Lieutenant Colonel North Charles, US Army, is serving on one of the dozen-plus state National Guard teams working on multi-year agriculture programs in Afghan provinces. Actors working with livestock producers shared their struggles to motivate farmers to adopt sanitary handling and slaughtering procedures. What worked: Finding market incentives, such as higher revenues and prot margins, that rewarded their adoption of new practices.
MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT
work to motivate small-scale poultry farmers in Southeast Asia, who typically raised focks in their homes, to adopt better food safety procedures. Even though the recent outbreak of avian fu required the culling of 250 million birds across the region, demonstrating the worlds vulnerability to a global pandemic, farmers had no motivation to adopt new practices because they feared they would negatively affect their bottom line. Hence, the organization conducted a market study and demonstrated that buyers would be willing to pay 30 to 40 percent more per bird, providing farmers with a compelling business rationale for adopting new practices. On a national scale, the US government has been working with Afghan farmers to stamp out illicit poppy production, which is used in opium. Until 2002, the Nangarhar province was the second largest producer of opium in the country. An NGO member shared his organizations work to provide farmers with assistance to transition to licit crops. The NGOs program, which targeted 226,000 households in the region, provided partially subsidized inputs such as high quality seeds, technical assistance to build capacity, market linkages, and substantial investments in roads and infrastructure projects. The region was declared poppy- free six years later, as a result of the organizations successful work to upgrade production of 118,000 hectares, increasing productivity by 72 percent. As a result of this organizations intensive support, farmers realized that they were able to obtain comparable revenues from licit crops, thus motivating the desired behavior change. THE LOCAL CONTEXT It is a truism that actors must consider the local context and involve stakeholders in the design and implementation of programs. Issues for practitioners to assess include: land ownership, regional crops and prevailing dietary preferences, imports and exports, the availability of critical infrastructures, and distribution and logistics processes. Donor aid has often targeted the rural poor, also called smallholders, or those farmers tilling less than two hectares of land, who represent some 85 percent of all farmers in the developing world. 29 Such farms are typically run by families who lack the fnancial resources and technical knowledge to purchase quality inputs and increase production on their small plots of land and as such, require assistance. 16 Workshop participants discussed the need to tailor agricultural initiatives to the local context. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT Smallholder farming or the (sic) family farming remains the most common form of organization in agriculture, and it should be understood that following the local integrated farming system, using locally adapted species and varieties, substantially increases the net farm productivity of small farms and [their] contribution to the GDP of countries, agriculture growth, development and poverty reduction. 30
However, Dr. Mellor added a caveat to this commonly held wisdom, stating that improving yields on plots of land smaller than one hectare benefted no one save the farmers themselves. Individuals tilling property of one hectare or less are subsistence farmers who often pursue additional forms of employment to augment their farm earnings, he said. Farmers who till larger plots of soil are motivated to take risks and adopt agricultural innovations; any crop increases they achieve are taken to market rather than consumed by their families. Not only do women serve as the majority of the worlds farmers, but they also represent an outsize number of its poorest agricultural households. 31 As a consequence, their needs should be incorporated into the design of any intervention program. Women should participate in agricultural decision making and should have equitable access to all services, including research, credit, and extension services. The sustainability of post-confict agricultural efforts also hinges on their relevance to a regions native crops or dietary preferences. Regions in Sub-Saharan Africa that are largely dependent on cereal grains such as sorghum, millet, and maize (and tef in Ethiopia and Eritrea) are unlikely to be well-served by seeds from a donor country more tailored to a Western diet. A USAID report affrms the importance of obtaining seeds in the local context or from the market where the crops will ultimately be transported and sold: Donors can easily provide seeds from the surplus in their home countries, but such seeds may not be suitable to local conditions or to local market tastes and requirements. 32
Other issues that actors should consider include the availability of key inputs and systems; the sustainability of new processes; and the need to balance local food crops with perennial crops. An NGO working in Nigeria has developed a Commercial Innovation Fund to spur the development of context-specifc tools such as a harvesting tool for cassava, processing equipment to convert discarded cassava peels into animal feed, and rice parboilers to reduce product breakage during milling. Such processes, which require limited skills on the part of users, are more likely to be adopted and maintained than those which are dependent on complex systems or require wholesale changes to customary ways of working. 17 Pictured at right: Ms. Sharon Akanyana, National University of Rwanda. Improving agriculture yields on plots of less than one hectare benets only farmers. Actors should target mid-tier farmers who are motivated to take risks and will sell, rather than consume, any crop increases they achieve.
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Perennial crops, such as coffee and cocoa, can also serve as vital catalysts of economic growth in low-income countries. According to a report developed for the Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development, coffee is the second most valuable globally traded commodity, outstripped only by oil, and cocoa provides more revenues to Ghanas rural areas than the countrys largest export, gold. 33 Helping countries add value to these cash crops can increase the margins farmers are able to command. One of the most well-known examples of this phenomenon is coffee washing. In 2000, Rwanda possessed just a single coffee washing station, as evidenced by its exports: Although the country exported 14,000 tons of semi- washed coffee, only 18 tons were fully washed. With USAID funding and technical expertise, Rwanda coffee farmers installed 72 more coffee washing stations over a four- year period. As a consequence, when exports grew, farmers were able to wash a greater number of beans and command higher prices for their goods: In 2006, the country exported 26,000 tons of coffee;10 to 15 percent of this product was fully washed. 34
While actors must work closely with key stakeholders, they often discover that it is not always possible or desirable to grant stakeholders wishes. In Afghanistan and Iraq, practitioners found that farmers unions competed against each other; thus, advisors chose to work through councils, rather than sheikhs and leaders, to reduce some of the ethnically motivated maneuvering. 35
Meanwhile, workshop participants stated that obtaining a wish list of desired changes from local farmers did not always yield desired results. A contractor said that when actors asked local farmers in the Nangarhar province what trees they wanted planted in their region, they obtained a list of 50 different varietals, many of which were more suited for home gardens than large-scale production. Instead, the contractor provided farmers with three types of trees that PRIORITY AND SEQUENCING OF AGRICULTURAL INITIATIVES Assist returnees; provide food aid, seeds, and tools using market-restoring approaches Strengthen markets for agricultural services, inputs, and outputs Restore rural roads, market information systems, and other key rural economic infrastructures Reform agriculture sector policies and improve the agribusiness enabling environment Reestablish herds; build agricultural value chains Strengthen agriculture sector instructions and regulatory capacity Strengthen agricultural training, education, outreach, and adaptive research A C T IV IT Y U R G E N T IM M E D IA T E IN T E R M E D IA T E C O N S O L ID A T IN G Source: A Guide to Economic Growth in Post-Confict Countries, 67. See Endnotes for complete publication reference. High intensity level of assistance Lower intensity level of assistance Typically very little assistance 18 MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT had commercial viability. Similarly, a military vet working in an Afghanistan province denied farmers requests for assistance when an oversupply of animals resulted in feed shortages. Instead, he recommended culling herds to bring supply back in line with local demand. SEED AID Drawing on years of research, actors know that increasing the production of staple crops and systems is the most critical strategy for combating food insecurity and poverty in post-confict countries. According to the FAO: Overall, it is estimated that about 80 percent of future increases in crop production in developing countries will have to come from intensifcation: higher crop yields through appropriate use of fertilizers, improved germplasm and water management, increased multiple cropping and shorter fallow periods, improved land and livestock husbandry and pest and disease management. 36
Decades of underinvestment in new farming techniques and specially engineered seeds mean that agricultural producers typically have yields that are signifcantly lower than their more technologically sophisticated peers. While growers often tinker with their own farming methods in an attempt to drive crop yields, such efforts are unlikely to increase yields by more than a half percent, said Dr. Mellor. Farmers need access to critical, high quality inputs, such as high performing seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides. According to authors W. Erskine and H. Nesbitt, the most common agricultural intervention in post-confict countries is delivering seeds ensuring the immediate availability, access, and the subsequent continuity of supply of appropriate seeds 37
which is typically accomplished by providing imported inputs. Workshop participants discussed the diffculty of using imported seeds, which may not meet local tastes or perform as desired in the new context. Actors should perform market studies, conduct feld research, and test seeds before distributing them to make sure that they are high quality and context-appropriate and produce desired yields. In Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Cambodia, actors used their historical knowledge of past practices to guide seed development: choosing and testing quality seeds and using them to increase local stocks. 38 In addition, practitioners often use fnancial incentives to encourage adoption of new seeds, providing vouchers that subsidize farmers purchases and gradually phase out over time. 19 Seed aid providing immediate, full, and continuous access to high quality, locally appropriate seeds is one of actors rst strategies for revitalizing agriculture.
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Pictured in foreground: Dr. Sophal Ear, US Naval Postgraduate School, one of the workshops designers and co-facilitators. OTHER INPUTS In addition to high performing seeds, farmers need access to other key inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides. While farmers typically obtain such inputs locally, they are often substandard or even toxic. The World Bank website provides numerous case studies of how unchecked use of banned or restricted substances has led to a signifcant number of pesticide poisonings in Bangladesh, Brazil, and Vietnam. According to an FAO report, pesticide issues are a major concern for the developing world, due to the lack of nationally enforced legislation, the widespread sale of substandard and hazardous products, and lack of safe handling practices. As a consequence, soil and water contamination of rural areas is a major issue in such countries. 39
In a similar vein, a military offcer shared the example of how General Petraeus ban on ammonium nitrate, a key component used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), has led to the large-scale dumping of fertilizers. Since military personnel cannot differentiate between those fertilizers that possess ammonium nitrate and those that contain urea and ammonium forms that were not banned, they destroy both. Not only is this causing ecological damage, but it is also preventing farmers from accessing vital inputs. Workshop participants discussed whether the host nation should implement policies that regulate key inputs. While numerous international actors have called for stricter regulation, one speaker took a contrarian view, stating that in developing countries, such regulation invariably led to further corruption. He cited an anecdote of a large-scale fertilizer producer in Afghanistan who adulterated his goods by 10 percent to stay competitive with other suppliers. When questioned about the possibility of regulation, the supplier said that he would then need to adulterate his product by another 10 percent to cover the bribes he would need to pay inspectors. Regardless of whether countries choose to regulate these products, farmers need training in how to 20 Pictured from left to right: Dr. John Mellor; Ms. Siti Ismah Afwan, UN Development Programme Indonesia; and Ms. Demetria Arvantis, Winrock International. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT assess input quality and use products safely and in the right quantities, as numerous research studies have exposed the deleterious effects of improper handling. LIVESTOCK INTERVENTIONS In addition to providing farmers with high quality inputs, donors often fund livestock interventions, such as training veterinarians and farmers in techniques like animal inoculation and the treatment of vitamin defciencies. Two military veterinary offcers shared their strategies for helping farmers in the developing world adopt livestock best practices. A military vet working in the Philippines said that he conducts vet demonstrations with local farmers to train them on how to conduct physical exams of animals and do inoculations. While it is initially diffcult to convince farmers to adopt new practices, they become convinced of the effcacy of these methods once their animals gain weight and ticks fall off their hides, he said. Ultimately, they realize that healthier animals command higher prices in the marketplace. Vet demonstrations are augmented with extension training services for agriculture offcials and university staff and livelihood programs for ex-combatants. National Guard teams experienced similar breakthroughs working with livestock owners in Afghanistan: While farmers were resistant to using new slaughterhouses and implementing sanitary animal processing techniques, they did so once they realized that they could achieve higher margins by selling certifed meats to US military forces. In both instances, market incentives drove desired behavior change where veterinary best practices could not. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH Agricultural research has often focused on driving yields of staple crops. And it has achieved amazing results in this regard. Drawing on Norman Borlaugs intensive research to produce high-yielding, disease- resistant seed varieties, countries around the world have driven yields of staple crops, even as populations exploded. In 1950, the worlds countries produced 692 million tons of grain for 2.2 billion people. By 1992, after Borlaugs techniques had been adopted, countries produced 1.9 billion tons for 5.6 billion people using only one percent more land. 40
Norman Borlaug is widely credited with helping India and Pakistan achieve agricultural self-suffciency and saving as many as a billion people globally from starvation, efforts for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 41
NGOs and contractors working in the developing world typically seek to involve the rural poor in designing and implementing programs that will achieve a sustained growth rate of four 21 Participants discussed strategies for working with the host nation to create an enabling environment for long-term agriculture reforms to take root. With the introduction of high-yielding, disease-resistant seeds, the worlds countries were able to drive grain yields from 692 million tons to 1.9 billion tons in just four decades. This fertile phase of agricultural research has been justly dubbed the green revolution.
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to fve percent annually. Such programs, which combine both traditional knowledge and cutting- edge technology, seek to produce more food and agricultural products from the same overall resources (e.g., land, labor and water) while reducing the negative environmental impacts and at the same time increasing contributions to natural capital and the fow of environmental services. 42 In Nigeria, for example, an NGO working in multiple regions has helped local farmers implement a system of rice intensifcation: Efforts to date have helped double yields from a low of two tons per hectare to four tons still far short of the 12 tons achieved by Asian countries, but an important step on the path to progress. Yield-focused programs, while important, are just one component of a broader research platform. The global author team of Transforming Agriculture Research for Development recommends that developing countries increase funding for agricultural research to 1.0 or 1.5 percent of agricultural GDP and focus research on the following themes: developing agricultural systems for the poor and vulnerable; enabling agricultural incomes for the poor; optimizing productivity of global food security crops; agriculture, nutrition, and health; water, soils, and ecosystems; forests and trees; climate change and agriculture; and agricultural biodiversity. 43
In addition, actors should work to promote higher education, so that post-confict countries can develop their own human capacity to execute context-specifc research. REBUILDING CORE INFRASTRUCTURES Beyond immediate interventions, one of the most critical things actors can do is rebuild critical infrastructures. While such systems as irrigation, electrifcation, and cold storage are important, participants singled out all- weather roads as the number-one infrastructure issue facing most post-confict societies. Simply put, farmers need traversable roads to get goods to market. While costly to underwrite, road projects also serve as a vital source of employment 22 Participants, who hailed from 13 different countries, brought a wealth of insights to share with peers. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT for low-skilled populations such as ex-combatants and youth, easily withstand the departure of actors, and provide benefts for area communities for years to come. Beyond roads, irrigation continues to be a major concern for drought-afficted countries, especially those in Africa. Only four percent of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are irrigated although this region uses less than three percent of total water resources. 44 Since Sub-Saharan Africa constitutes one of the two regions where the greatest proportion of the worlds malnourished reside, improving irrigation and increasing the amount of farmable land could have a considerable role in strengthening productivity and alleviating hunger worldwide. Improving electrifcation and cold storage can help increase farmers revenues by protecting crops from spoilage. Multiple workshop participants spoke about the challenges facing Afghan farmers who lack cold storage for fragile crops such as apples and grapes that would enable them to store produce and increase sales to the domestic market. As a consequence, they are locked in a counterproductive and proft- draining market cycle: They sell their produce to neighboring Pakistan, whose enterprising traders refrigerate purchased goods, and then sell them right back to Afghan citizens. Actors can also work with local agricultural practitioners to streamline the supply chain. A USAID factsheet details the work of an NGO to improve the availability of Nigerian cassava, which constitutes 50 to 60 percent of citizens diets. 45 Despite its nutritional importance to the country, cassava is not typically used for large-scale industrial applications because its roots must be processed within 48 hours. An NGO teamed with an Akure-based food mill to demonstrate that implementing a computer logistics program and GPS technology to modernize collection, transportation, and logistics processes could improve cassava availability. If the mill expanded its outgrowers network and updated its truck feet, it could achieve 80 percent of processing capacity in just fve years. Demonstration programs such as this one could have an aggregate impact on the countrys economy if funded for implementation on a national scale. However, actors should take care to ensure that new systems and methodologies can be sustained without expensive, imported inputs or wholesale disruption to commonly accepted practices. In the words of practitioners involved with Provincial Reconstruction Team initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan: All agricultural actors (particularly contractors and USAID personnel) need to tailor their projects to local conditions, and provide tools and technologies that are appropriate to local skill 23 Dr. Juan Estrada, Development Alternatives, Inc., discusses farmers needs for such infrastructures as irrigation, electrifcation, and all-weather roads with another participant. Afghan farmers, who lack cold storage, often sell their produce to neighboring Pakistan only to purchase refrigerated goods back again at higher prices.
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levels and traditions. 46 They cite US-funded agricultural programs that provided John Deere tractors and heavy machinery to farmers in Afghanistan that either went unused or were stripped for parts the frst time they required maintenance. 47
The articles authors suggested that oxen, and tools like hoes and shovels, would have been more appropriate given the context. Similarly, a team from the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture interviewed a sheikh who had been given a tractor but no supplemental equipment or fuel by the US military. Said the sheikh: Giving a big tractor to an Iraqi farmer is like giving a black walnut to a man with no teeth. 48 MARKETING Workshop participants discussed the role of marketing, which has received considerable donor attention and funding. A speaker questioned the wisdom of involving the public sector in a sphere that has traditionally been the province of private enterprise. Traders are good at what they do, he said, while the public sector is notoriously ineffcient at these types of activities. It is far better, he said, for the government to develop supportive policies that encourage growers, traders, and suppliers to join the formal economy, where their tax revenues can be used to provide vital services. Participants also discussed donors efforts to grow markets of niche products, such as rosewater and saffron in Afghanistan. Such efforts, said one, contribute nothing to the countrys aggregate growth. A better use of resources would be to help growers increase production or add value to established crops. As an example, trellising grapes can help Afghan farmers improve yields by 50 percent, by preventing mold and rot. 49 EXTENSION SERVICES To take root, agricultural innovations need to be disseminated. The US is a model for many in this regard. Congress creation of the Cooperative Extension System more than a century ago enabled an agricultural revolution in the US, with dramatic increases in farm productivity and crop yields. Thousands of county and regional 24 Workshop breaks afforded participants with the opportunity to meet other practitioners and strengthen cross-community networks. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT extension offces provide access to teaching and research from the countrys more than 100 land grant universities. The program, which is funded by the US Department of Agricultures National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as state and county monies, now provides broad-based services that not only help farmers learn new productivity, marketing, and management techniques, but also assist landowners, youth, and families, according to the Institutes website. In the developing world, organizations such as the FAO and World Bank have supported efforts to develop local capacity, disseminate new research and methodologies, equip agricultural value chain participants with new skills, and link farmers to markets. Workshop participants discussed the diffculty of building effective extension services, when such programs have typically been starved of resources. Agents, they said, rarely make a livable wage due to corruption and diversion of funds. As a consequence, actors seek to develop agents skills by providing them with targeted training and resources. A contractor shared his organizations work to train agents and provide them with manuals, backpacks, and bicycles rather than cars and computers which require both resources and inputs to operate. In addition, he stated that his organization used technical criteria to select demonstration farms, avoiding the risk of possible cronyism that could occur if agents were allowed to choose the farms themselves. Involving local stakeholders in agricultural decision making is a key tenet of the FAOs Strategic Extension Campaign, which seeks to involve them in the planning, management, and implementation of agriculture extension and training programs. Actors have used Strategic Extension Campaign methodologies to work with stakeholders on such issues as the line sowing of rice, maize production and cocoa cultivation to tick-borne disease control, contour tillage, population education and ploughing with draught-animal power in multiple countries throughout Asia, Africa, the Near East, and the Caribbean. 50 CREDIT With its dependence on external factors, agriculture is seen as a risky lending enterprise. Farmers ability to repay loans is dependent on a wide array of inherently uncontrollable issues, such as area security, temperate weather, ready access to quality inputs, and healthy, abundant harvests. Since most commercial banks refuse 25 Participants considered the challenges involved with building effective extension services and ensuring that agents are paid a livable wage. With its dependence on external factors, agriculture is seen as a risky lending enterprise. Farmers ability to repay loans is based on a wide array of inherently uncontrollable issues such as area security, temperate weather, ready access to quality inputs, and healthy, abundant harvests.
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to lend to farmers, agricultural lending has typically been the province of the public sector. In the US, the Farm Credit System has provided farmers with fexible lending terms for decades, with Congress occasionally bailing out agriculture producers in times of need. However, very few countries in the developing world provide farmers with access to federally guaranteed credit. And those national agribanks that do exist are often riddled with corruption and ineffciency, meaning that only a privileged few obtain access to vital credit while depleting loan reservoirs by failing to make payments. Microfnance has been hailed by many as a tool for helping entrepreneurs obtain the fnancing they need to launch and grow businesses. The Grameen Bank, in particular, has helped create this important lending industry which offers small loans without collateral to the rural poor. As of April 2010, the bank had served some 8.1 million borrowers in Bangladesh, 97 percent of whom were women, according to its website. However, this model simply is not applicable to agriculture. With its high interest rates and small loans, microfnance does not provide farmers with ready access to the ample, affordable credit they need to buy costly inputs and harvest crops before repaying loans. Said an NGO member: Microfnance is not the right approach, because the loans can have interest rates of as much as fve percent a month. You cant fnance agriculture with that. Actors should work with host nation governments to develop federal agribanks that provide farmers with the full set of banking and lending services they require. But such institutions should be nationally operated. As a case in point, a workshop speaker shared a recent example of a US government civilian agencys efforts to create a national agribank in Afghanistan. Although his group submitted a proposal seeking to build an organization staffed solely with Afghans (except for a few senior managers charged with providing technical assistance), the agency opted instead to contract with a frm staffng the institution solely with external actors. While the agribank may provide funding to farmers over the short-term, it will do nothing to build human or institutional capacity within the country. Thus, when the contracting frm operating the institution departs the country, the organization will likely fold. Donors need to consider the long- term consequences of their funding decisions, the presenter stated. 26 During the opening presentation, CSRS Program Director Matthew Vaccaro asked participants to identify which communities they represented. MOVING FROM AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION TO REDEVELOPMENT Agricultures importance to a post-confict states economy cannot be overstated. A healthy agriculture industry provides food and sustainable livelihoods for its citizens, while contributing to a states security and economic recovery. As a consequence, actors know that helping a host nation revitalize this important sector and build the capacity to offer critical services is essential to preventing a return to violence and creating a peace dividend all can share in. Many practitioners also feel a sense of urgency to help post-confict societies which are typically low-income acquire the capabilities they need to prepare for such issues as population growth, economic volatility, and climate change, to name just a few of the challenges that will confront countries both today and in the future. Improving agricultural self-suffciency can help a country create an economic and social buffer against some of the impacts of globalization, while combating the twin scourges of hunger and poverty. Many of the issues confronting a post-confict society offer no easy resolution. However, the Conclusion 27 Improving agricultural self-sufciency can help a country prevent a return to violence, combat hunger and poverty, and revitalize the economy.
Pictured at right: Mr. Zerihun Getachew
Kelbore, University of Trento. path to progress in agriculture is actually quite straightforward. Practitioners have more than a half-century of agricultural research, best practices, and lessons learned to draw upon as they work with host nation actors to design and implement successful redevelopment strategies. While programs necessarily vary depending on the local context, actors know that developing core infrastructures, agricultural research programs, extension services, and agribanks are critical to ensuring a healthy agriculture sector and maximizing its growth. However, despite the fact that the developed world has followed this prescription for revitalizing agriculture and has achieved dramatic gains in agricultural productivity, post- confict countries lag decades behind their higher income peers. One of the principal reasons for this is that host nations and donors have failed to invest in developing critical capabilities and capacity. Practitioners at the CSRS workshop shared their strategies for helping post-confict countries move forward and lay the foundation for redeveloping their agriculture industries to drive production and employment and reduce the sectors contribution to the GDP, a key sign of increasing economic health. From working with national ministries to develop supportive policies and institutions, to helping agriculture educators and farmers acquire new skills and implement new systems, to expanding harvests of staple crops, workshop participants have been involved in important agricultural redevelopment initiatives around the world. Programs such as Agriculture: Promoting Livelihoods in Confict-Affected Environments afforded S&R practitioners with the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge issues that are of critical importance to their global work, share insights and strategies, and refne skills by executing complex scenarios that model real-world conditions actors face in post-confict environments. In addition, actors had the opportunity to hear from agricultural theorists and practitioners who offered a wealth of lessons learned from past initiatives and were able to develop cross-community networks they could leverage in the future. Said a contractor: We all work together in the feld, but we are under pressure to deliver all the time. It was extremely useful to learn from each other and share in such an informal environment. The knowledge and best practices practitioners acquired at the workshop will thus pay dividends in the years to come. 28 Meals, such as the group dinner pictured here in Carmel, gave participants time to build relationships with other practitioners and share perspectives gained from years of feldwork. CONCLUSION 29 29 Ms. Siti Ismah Afwan* Former Programme Offcer Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit UN Development Programme Indonesia Ms. Sharon Akanyana* Student, Agriculture Department National University of Rwanda Ms. Aishe Allen Iraq Desk Offcer Foreign Agricultural Service US Department of Agriculture Ms. Demetria Arvanitis Managing Director Winrock International Dr. Sigfrido Burgos* Coordinator, Animal Production and Health Division UN Food and Agriculture Organization Lieutenant Colonel North Charles, US Army* Agribusiness Development Team Project Offcer Offce of the Chief of Staff Missouri National Guard
Dr. Juan Estrada* Chief of Party, Economic Growth Group Development Alternatives, Inc. Major Anthony Flood, US Army Agribusiness Development Team Texas National Guard Lieutenant Stephen Goldsmith, US Army* Task Force Veterinarian Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines Mr. Said Shah Habib Habib Senior Executive Secretary United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Major Ethan Harding, US Marine Corps Civil Affairs Offcer / Detachment 10.2 11th Marine Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hartzell, US Air Force Chief, Irregular Warfare/Healthcare Engagement Division Air Force Special Operations Command Lieutenant Colonel Lynn Heng, US Army Agribusiness Development Team Commander Nebraska Army National Guard Mr. Zerihun Getachew Kelbore Doctoral Student, Department of Economics University of Trento Major Paula Kelly, US Air Force Student US Naval Postgraduate School Lieutenant Colonel Henry Kyle, US Army Global Health Veterinarian Joint Forces Command Dr. Ritumbra Manuvie* Assistant Professor of Law Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Mr. Chukwuemeka Mbah Senior Research Offcer External Confict Prevention and Resolution Institute for Peace and Confict Resolution Workshop Participants Ms. Erin Means Program Analyst, Food Assistance Division Foreign Agricultural Service US Department of Agriculture Mr. Justin Mitchell Agricultural/Veterinary Specialist Agribusiness Development Team Texas Army National Guard Ms. Nadejda Mocanu Country Director, Farmer to Farmer Program CNFA, Inc. Ms. Essra Mostafavi Intern Global Majority Major Daniel Munter Student US Naval Postgraduate School Ms. Emily Mushen All-Source Afghan Analyst Afghanistan Branch Marine Corps Intelligence Activity Ms. Adele Negro Adjunct Professor and Program Director Monterey Institute of International Studies Mr. Bertrand Ngama Gne-Kamba Vice President Centre dExploitation et de Formation Agricole Mr. Peter OFarrell Senior Program Offcer, Afghanistan and Pakistan Mercy Corps Mr. Caleb OKray International Economist Western Hemisphere/Country and Regional Affairs Foreign Agricultural Service US Department of Agriculture Mr. David Odigie* Program Offcer/Financial Services Specialist Field Operations MARKETS Dr. Catherine Phiri* Senior Project Coordinator, Agribusiness ACDI/VOCA Lieutenant Commander William Poage, US Navy Action Offcer, Agriculture and Industry Development Interagency Action Group US Central Command Captain Dina Poma Agriculture Offcer, Civil Affairs Group Socio-economic Development, Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) Lieutenant Colonel Benny Richardson Agriculture Specialist Kentucky Army National Guard Mr. William Simpson Agribusiness Development Team Afghanistan Texas Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sindler, US Army* Veterinary Offcer Army Reserve Medical Command Mr. Mark Smith* Program Director, Middle East Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture Texas A&M University Major Kurt Soholt, US Army Information Operations Chief 1st Battalion, 1st Information Operations Command Mr. David Speidel Offce of Capacity Building and Development Foreign Agricultural Service US Department of Agriculture Lieutenant Colonel Brian Stevens Texas National Guard Colonel Earl Wood 364th Civil Affairs Brigade Ms. Calita Woods UN World Food Programme CSRS TEAM Ms. Graseilah Coolidge** Program Coordinator Mr. Jesse Darling Multimedia Designer Dr. Sophal Ear* Workshop Co-facilitator Ms. Roseann Johnson Program Coordinator Ms. Holly Larson Report Writer Mr. Jeff Lewis* Workshop Co-facilitator Mr. Nico Mavris Event Photographer Dr. John Mellor* Workshop Co-facilitator Mr. Nicholas Tomb Program Coordinator Ms. Miriam Turlington Program Assistant Mr. Matthew Vaccaro* Program Director * Workshop speaker ** Workshop coordinator 30
1 Uma Lele, Jules Pretty, Eugene Terry and Eduardo Trigo, Transforming Agricultural Research for Development, The Global Forum for Agriculture Research, (Report for the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development, Montpellier, France, 28-31 March 2010), xv, 24. http://gcardblog.fles.wordpress. com/2010/03/gat-report-for-gcard- 2010-version-11-0.pdf. 2 W. Erskine and H. Nesbitt, How Can Agriculture Research Make a Difference in Countries Emerging from Confict? Experimental Agriculture 45 (24 March 2009): 1. http://journals.cambridge. org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=o nline&aid=5856120#. 3 Lele et al., 17. 4 Figures 1 and 2: How to Feed the World 2050, (Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2008, October 8, 2009), 1. http://www.fao. org/fleadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/ Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Investment. pdf. Figures 3, 4, and 5: Subhash Mehta, Om Rupela, Sonali Bisht, Amar KJR Nayak and Narain G. Hegde, Improving the Livelihoods of the Resource-Poor Smallholder Farmers and Producers in Developing Countries: An Urgent Appeal for Action by GCARD, (Report for the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development, Montpellier, France, submitted March 4 2010), 2. 7. http://www.fao.org/ docs/eims/upload/273459/White%20 Paper%205Mar2k10.pdf. Figure 6: Feeding the World: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, (Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Environmental Assessment and Management Unit, April 2008), 1. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/ fao/010/ai549e/ai549e00.pdf. 5 How to Feed the World 2050, 1. 6 Lele et al., 2. 7 How to Feed the World 2050, ibid. 8 Implementing Agriculture for Development: World Bank Group Agriculture Action Plan: 2010-2012, (Washington, DC: The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, July 2009), xiv. http://siteresources. worldbank.org/INTARD/Resources/ Agriculture_Action_Plan_web.pdf. 9 A Guide to Economic Growth in Post- Confict Countries, (Washington, DC: US Agency for International Development, Offce of Economic Growth, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, January 2009), 35. http://pdf. usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADO408.pdf. 10 Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffer, Civil War (Oxford, England: University of Oxford, March 2006), 24. 11 Erskine and Nesbitt, 314. 12 World Food Summit Plan of Action, quoted in Erskine and Nesbitt, 314. 13 Historic Dialogue Between Agricultural Scientists, Farmers, Policymakers, and Other Key Development Actors Charts New Path Towards Ending Hunger and Poverty, Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development press release, March 31, 2010. http:// gcardblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/ fnal-press-release/. 14 Bernard Carreau, ed., Lessons from USDA in Iraq and Afghanistan, PRISM 1 no. 3 (in production): 141, http:// www.ndu.edu/press/lib/images/ prism1-3/Prism_139-150_Carreau. pdf. 15 World Bank Calls for Renewed Emphasis on Agriculture for Development, World Bank press release, October 19, 2007, on the World Bank website. http://web. worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21513382~pag ePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSite PK:4607,00.html. 16 Data drawn from a table presented by Dr. John W. Mellor. For more information, please see: Dr. John W. Mellor and Paul Dorosh, The Economic Transformation of Agriculture in Ethiopia (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute paper, 2010). http:// www.ifpri.org/sites/default/fles/ publications/esspwp010.pdf. 17 World Bank, World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development online graphs and fgures, http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/ EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2008/0,,contentMD K:21509993~pagePK:64167689~piPK:6 4167673~theSitePK:2795143,00.html. (October 19, 2007). Endnotes 31 All online resources were accessed between April 1 and May 30, 2010, during the development of this report. 18 Historic Dialogue Between Agricultural Scientists. 19 Feeding the World, 3. 20 A Guide to Economic Growth, 69. 21 Feeding the World, 12. 22 Ibid. 23 Elaine Zuckerman and Marcia Greenberg, The Gender Dimension of Post-Confict Reconstruction: An Analytical Framework for Policymakers, Gender and Development, 12, No. 3 (2004): 3. http://www.genderaction.org/ images/ez-mg%20oxfam%20g&d%20 gender-pcr.pdf. 24 African Farmland Deals Need Rules, Grass-roots Warn, Reuters press release, March 30, 2010, on the AlertNet website, http://www. alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ LDE62T0YO.htm. 25 A Guide to Economic Growth, 56. 26 Ibid, 69. 27 Ibid, 15. 28 Ibid, 53-54. 29 Mehta et al., 7. 30 Ibid, 8. 31 Lele et al., 17. 32 A Guide to Economic Growth, 67. 33 Lele et al., 6. 34 A Guide to Economic Growth, 61. 35 Lessons from USDA in Iraq and Afghanistan, 147. 35 Feeding the World, 4. 37 Erskine and Nesbitt, 315. 38 Ibid, 316. 39 Feeding the World, 6. 40 Gregg Easterbrook, Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity, The Atlantic Monthly (January 2007): 7-8. http://www.theatlantic.com/past/ issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm. 41 Ibid, 1-2, 7. 42 Lele et al., 19. 43 Ibid, xviii. 44 Feeding the World, 6. 45 Nigerias Harvest, MARKETS AgBiz Update, USAID Markets for the American People Fact Sheet, US Agency for International Development, February 1, 2010. Not available online. 46 Lessons from USDA in Iraq and Afghanistan, 141. 47 Ibid. 48 Glen C. Shinn and Gary E. Briers, Agriculture Development in Post- Confict Environments: Building Capacity to Beat Swords into Ploughshares in Eight Provinces of Southern Iraq, chapter in H. Young and L. Goldman, Strengthening Post-Confict Peacebuilding through Natural Resource Management, Livelihoods, Volume 4. 13 (Word fle). Not available online. 49 Agribusiness Teams Help Afghan Farmers Find Simple Solutions, National Guard press release, October 6, 2009, on the National Guard website, http://www.ng.mil/ features/ADT/default.aspx. 50 Ronny Adhikarya, Strategic Extension Campaign: a Participatory-Oriented Method of Agriculture Extension, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (Rome, Italy: 1994), Chapter 10, 2 of online version, posted in 1996. http://www.fao.org/SD/EXdirect/ EXan0003.htm. 32 For more information about CSRS, its philosophy, and programs, please visit www.csrs-nps.org