Oct 31, 2014
Why Agricultural Interventions are a Multi-faceted Form of Effective Aid
Seventy five per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. This provides local and international aid agencies and governments with an opportunity to effectively reduce global poverty levels whilst addressing a number of other crucial issues such as climate change, malnutrition and environmental protection.
This opportunity presents itself in the form of agricultural interventions. Smallholder farmers already produce 80% of the food in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa[1]. 86% of the world’s rural poor also currently depend on agriculture as their source of livelihood, whilst also living on arable land which is in most instances suitable for both crop and livestock production, with the bulk of this arable land being found in Africa[2]. Therefore, these rural families are perfectly situated, with the right knowledge, skills and inputs, to feed their families and earn a decent annual income through farming. As previously mentioned, with the vast majority of the rural poor living on arable land, a large portion of these families also own varying forms of livestock. This allows Aid agencies and governments to provide minimal capital inputs whilst bringing the largest amount of families above the poverty line.