innovation, incentives & inclusion essential ingredients...

Innovation, Incentives & Inclusion –

Essential Ingredients to Ensuring Global

Food Security

Prem Warrior

Senior Regional Advisor, South Asia

Senior Program Officer

Agricultural Development

ICRISAT, September 24, 2012

September 28, 2012 © 2011 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | 2

“Poor farmers are not a problem to be solved; they are the best answer for a world

that is fighting hunger and poverty, and trying to feed a growing population.”

-Bill Gates

“We have also learned that smallholder farmers, many of whom are also poor and food

insecure, can be enabled to benefit from higher food prices and become part of the

solution by reducing price spikes and improving overall food security. “

-Joint statement from FAO, IFAD and WFP on international food prices, Sept. 04, 2012,

“Tackling the root causes of high food prices and hunger”

-José Graziano da Silva, Kanayo F. Nwanze and Ertharin Cousin

Constraints to Agricultural Productivity

• Abiotic factors: intercropping, lack of inputs,

poor soil fertility, drought, poor genetic

potential and plant types of local varieties

• Biotic factors : insects, bacteria, viral and

fungal diseases, and parasitic weeds

• Market logistics: Weak market linkages, value

addition, access to capital, storage,

information, local infrastructure

• Political instability, weak policies and risk of

investment

• Other social factors affecting rural livelihoods

Goals

By 2030

Sub-Saharan Africa: Increase sustainable agricultural productivity for 30 million poor farming households by an average of 170%, contributing to a 40% reduction in the $1/day poverty rate.

South Asia: Increase sustainable agricultural productivity for 45 million poor farming households by an average of 115%, contributing to a 25% reduction in the $1/day poverty rate in India and Bangladesh.

Compatible with MDG1a, targeting a 50% reduction in the $1/day poverty rate by 2015.



Global/Continental Investments Investments in public goods to

increase productivity growth

potential . . .

1

2 Focused Geography Investments …paired with targeted, country-level delivery systems practices and policies to realize sustainable productivity goals

Global public goods with highest potential to impact

productivity growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and South

Asia

Deeper engagement in the regions of Sub-Saharan

Africa and South Asia where most farmers live will

help increase productivity, creating a ripple effect of

self sufficiency across communities

Our Strategy: a two-pronged approach

Focus on the staple crops and livestock with the greatest impact on the poor

Focusing Our Strategy


Building on the previous work of others

Learning from our work to date

Input from experts, partners,

grantees, donors, farmers, and

critics

Guiding principles

We need to sustainably intensify the use of existing agricultural land in order to halt deforestation and the encroachment of agriculture into fragile environments unsuited for agricultural production

Restoring degraded soils and maintaining productivity levels requires a judicious combination of inorganic and organic inputs to realize optimal productivity growth

Biotechnology can offer solutions faster and less expensively than conventional techniques. GM approaches to increase yield, nitrogen fixation and resistance to stresses from a changing climate will be prioritized

Equipping and empowering all farmers, women and men, with data and knowledge is essential to the long-term adoption and use of practical, economically-viable solutions; and strong social capital systems is necessary to achieve technology adoption and local adaptation

We invest in livestock health and nutrition, as they are a critical asset to farming systems of the poor. We monitor soil health and water quality in these investments to ensure minimal negative environmental impacts

A supportive policy environment is key to changing incentive structures for farmers that lead to the implementation of sustainable intensification practices

Who Are Smallholder Farmers?

Most are women

Most live on less than $1 per day

Most farm plots less than one hectare

Most grow a diversity of crops and raise livestock



Facing uncertain rainfall and access to resources

To optimize her productivity, she would need:

• Weather information

• Soil diagnostics

• Access to improved inputs and technologies

• Access to knowledge of improved management practices

• A mechanism to coordinate water use and planning with her neighbors

• Effective rights to land and water

Global

Nation

Ecosystem

Community

Farm Family

We start with the farmer and her family

10

Our framework for achieving the objectives of our strategic

initiatives, and the „scope‟ and „scale‟ of our strategy ‘Scope’ is driven by our choice of anchor countries and products, ‘scale’ is driven by our target number of beneficiaries

[...]

Research & Development Crop improvement

Livestock health & improvement

Discovery research

Local adaptation

Agricultural Policy Country policies

Data & diagnostics

Multilaterals

Trade-offs and synergies

Access & Market Systems Input delivery

Crop management

Knowledge exchange

Post-harvest and markets

Regions

Other Areas Strategic partnerships

Rural infrastructure

Finance

etc

Farmer

households Ramp up to

the # of farmer

households

targeted in our

strategy over

time

Countries BMGF’s anchor

countries

Other donors’

anchor

countries

(which we call

‘spillover’

countries)

Other countries

Products BMGF’s priority

crops and

livestock

Strategic initiatives Scope Scale

Unit

costs

Total investment over time

Average cost per farm

2030

$

2011

$ per

farm

# of farms

Analysis of strategic choices

Total

costs

ROI / trade-offs

Income

per

farm,$

# of farms

Farm-

level

Global

National

Maize

Rice Ethiopia Mali

Policy

R&D

A&M

$ People Voice

AgDev Innovation Framework

Our

Grants Strategic Partnerships

Trading

Processing Basic

research

Adaptive

research

Input

production

Input

delivery

On-farm

production On-farm

post-harvest

Marketing

Consumer

Transforming Value Chains: Architecture From molecules to markets - Innovative technologies, Delivery, Market pull mechanisms and Policies needed

• Tropical Legumes

• Drought Tolerant Maize

• N2Africa

• HOPE

• AGRA Seed Program

• Africa Farm Radio

• WFP Purchase for Progress

• East Africa Dairy

The Potential for Genomic Optimization

© 2012 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | 12

soybean

Chick pea

Green gram

Lentils microbiome

cattle breeds

Innovations to increase farm productivity, market opportunities, reduce risk, improve natural resources

and nutrition

Soil

Gut

“Orphan” crops

Livestock

13

Revolution in Plant Breeding

Protein

Profiles

Plant Physiology:

Precise

Trait Description

Metabolite

Profiles:

Small

molecules

in the plants

RNA Profiles:

Genes turned

“on” and

“off”

Imaging

Genome

Sequence

Protein

Interactions

Field

Performance

Plant Breeding in

the 21st century

The Power of Information Access

Markets

Soils

Weather

VHR imagery

Financial

Services

Integration: Location x Time

(Example – Digital Soil Map of Africa)

ICT Extension

(Example – Digital Green)

A Digital Revolution in Agriculture?

9/28/2012 16

• > 60% of farmers are women, but mostly excluded from decision-making with less access to resources

• More likely to spend money on children, household, than men

• We ask our grantees to put both women and men at the heart of their programs

What do women want? • Women know what they want

(e.g. seed traits) – be inclusive! • Technologies must be woman-

friendly • Varieties that are easier to cook • Nutrition for her family • Tools that she can use • Access to information • Access to financial tools

Innovative Partnerships for “Catalytic” Change

We won‟t succeed on our own. We rely on partners to carry out the work.

• From developed and non-developed worlds

• From public, private and nonprofit sectors

• We need to continue to create and strengthen partnerships

• Ensuring a Farmer-centric approach is key to our success


Private

Sector Academia

Can She move out of poverty?

Revive agricultural research and local capacity building in the context of our work

Innovate to address persistent problems (e. g., plant breeding coupled with molecular biology tools) and appropriate, proven crop management practices for pest/disease control – reduce risk

Institutional reforms that promote farmer investments in land, water and forest resources

Incentivize and promote private sector engagement; new market mechanisms may need to be developed

More public good investments in education and information access

Inclusive approaches empowering rural communities, especially women, to design and develop their own change pathways & coping strategies



South Asia – A Context-based Approach

South Asia has the second highest poverty prevalence in the world (40%) and is home to 45% of the world’s poor

The majority of the poor in South Asia are in rural areas and they largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods

South Asia’s rural poor are concentrated in the mid and lower Gangetic plain (in the eastern states of India and Bangladesh) where farmers have lower agricultural productivity rates

Based on key trends/issues in agriculture, a few strategic themes for our role in South Asia emerge; a role based on these themes can create tremendous opportunities for leverage and tap into the Foundation’s comparative advantages


The South Asia Enigma

India, an “economic powerhouse and

a nutritional weakling,” has one of the

highest rates of child malnutrition in

the world and nearly double the rate

of Sub-Saharan Africa.

IDS, 2007

Agricultural development in India A strong focus on small-holder productivity growth is

critical to ensure inclusive development in India

• To achieve this goal, we need an agricultural development

strategy that:

1. Focused effort to increase small-holder agricultural productivity

in the lagging regions – Rice & legumes especially in Bihar &

Odisha

2. Leverages technologies including the power of biotechnology

and digital revolution

3. Reduce crop losses at farm and postharvest

4. Create innovative partnerships to engage at community level

5. Link smallholders to supply chains to feed the growing urban

middle class

6. Consider integrative delivery models with Ag – Nutrition linkage


Thank you

Success is possible if we work together

innovation, incentives & inclusion essential ingredients...

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