Other Agriculture Study
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Publication
Transforming Agriculture in South Sudan: From Humanitarian Aid to a Development Oriented Growth Path
(Rome, Italy; Washington D.C., United States of America : FAO; World Bank, 2022)FAO teamed up with the World Bank on this strategic analysis of the investment, policy and institutional support needed to shift South Sudan’s agriculture sector from humanitarian relief to a development-oriented growth path. The team carried out a thorough review of lessons learned in South Sudan and other conflict-affected countries and held consultations with a wide range of stakeholders in the country. As a result, four complementary investment strategies were identified: agriculture production and food security; community resilience and social capital; value chain development and jobs; and peace consolidation. The authors advocate for combining these four strategies in a flexible way, depending on how the shocks currently affecting agriculture (conflict, violence, macro-economic instability, governance, natural disasters) evolve in the coming years. The Government of South Sudan and the World Bank consider this analytical work a milestone that will pave the way for future investments in agriculture and rural development in the country. This publication is part of the Country Investment Highlights series under the FAO Investment Centre’s Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme. -
Publication
Nigeria Transforming Agribusiness for Inclusive Recovery, Jobs Creation, and Poverty Reduction: Policy Reforms and Investment Priorities
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-30)Modern economic policy making in Nigeria has placed enormous emphasis on diversification of the economy to non-oil productive sectors. With the aim to restore economic growth following the 2015-16 recession and lay the foundations for long-term structural change, the economic growth and recovery plan (ERGP) recognized the need to diversify the economy to non-oil productive sectors such as agriculture and agro-allied industries, in order to build an economy that can generate inclusive growth and create jobs. This report aims to improve understanding of the potential of the agribusiness sector (primary agriculture plus off-farm agribusiness) to accelerate inclusive recovery from the 2020 recession, create jobs, and reduce poverty. A key early finding of the report is that the agribusiness sector is critical to accelerating inclusive recovery and creating jobs. The report builds on this evidence to identify the specific value chain groups that have most potential to create jobs, reduce poverty, and improve nutrition outcomes. Next, the report offers to highlight the complex set of factors that mediate the performance of agricultural value chains, distinguishing between issues that pertain to upstream primary agriculture, those that affect downstream off-farm agribusiness and cross-cutting challenges. The agribusiness enabling environment takes center stage in this part of the report, focusing on policy reforms around seed regulations, fertilizers quality control, warehouse receipts, and agricultural trade. Finally, the report takes deep dives to identify reforms to increase competitiveness in the value chains that were found to have the most potential to create jobs, reduce poverty, and improve nutrition outcomes. -
Publication
Lesotho Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan: Opportunities for Transitioning to More Productive, Climate-Resilient, and Low Carbon Agriculture
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12-01)Lesotho's agricultural system faces a growing number of climate-related vulnerabilities with droughts, floods, pests, and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. In response, the Government of Lesotho is collaborating with the World Bank to integrate climate change into the country’s agriculture policy agenda through the Lesotho Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan (CSAIP). -
Publication
Local Sourcing in the Cabo Verde Tourism Food Supply Chain: Opportunities and Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-10)The objective of this research report is to assess the market potential for local sourcing in the Cabo Verde tourism food supply chain, with a particular emphasis on traditional sectors such as agriculture and fisheries. As tourism continues to expand rapidly in Cabo Verde, the sector creates a growing market potential for locally sourced produce. The number of inbound tourists in the country has steadily increased from 428,000 in 2011 to 710,000 in 2018 - a 7,5 percent CAGR in the period - causing with it a rise in the direct economic contribution of travel & tourism activities to GDP, now estimated at near 20 percent. The islands of Sal and Boa Vista dominate the market, attracting together 76,4 percent of all arrivals, who visit overwhelmingly under the all-inclusive resort segment. In addition, higher average lengths of stay in these two islands imply that they account for proportionally more room nights (89,9 percent of the total bed nights) than the rest of the country. The level of linkages between the primary sector and tourism has long been a debated topic, particularly the untapped potential of additional positive spillovers and impact on poverty reduction. A World Bank study commissioned in 2013 estimated that more than 80 percent of food and beverage products consumed by all-inclusive resorts were imported. While these resorts have been decisive in pushing infrastructure development and promoting job creation, the level of linkages with local businesses is seen as being below potential. The study found that the low level of local food sourcing stemmed from a range of challenges related to sanitary and quantity standards, volumes, reliability of supply, and connectivity. Since then, very little research has sought to quantify the market potential in supplying tourism or assessing which products could be prioritized at local production level, on comparative and competitive advantages vis-à-vis imports. The methodology for this research comprised a quantitative and qualitative survey with a representative sample of large hotels in Sal and Boa Vista, in addition to in-depth follow-up interviews and desk review of pertinent data. The type of commercially sensitive information required from the surveyed participants severely undermined participation, despite guarantees of confidentiality. A substantial effort was invested in following-up, and the team was able to gather consumption data covering a small representative sample of large hotels, as well as relevant information on market characteristics and trends from the leading hotel supplier wholesalers. -
Publication
Strengthening Higher Agricultural Education in Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06-27)Over the last decade African governments’ and regional economic organizations have increasingly recognized the need to reshape higher agricultural education to meet the changing needs of the agri-food sector. There is a strong appetite for change but a need for a better understanding of the challenges that universities face in transforming into institutions that can be more dynamic and responsive, especially to the needs of the private sector, that is more relevant by the public sector and meet the rapidly growing demand for university places. The study is being prepared at a time when the World Bank along with other development partners are considering possible approaches to address these challenges. It follows regional dialogue on this theme in Africa in recent years involving African governments, regional agro-innovation and education networks including Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), under the umbrella of the African Union Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program. (CAADP). The study is structured as follows: section two describes the role of higher agricultural education in the wider agro-innovation system and the means through which higher education can drive transformation of the agri-food sector and economic development in Africa; section three describes global trends in agriculture that will drive changes in employers’ knowledge and skills needs; section four describes the implications of these trends for skill and knowledge needs; section five describes the core challenges that universities face in transforming to be more responsive to needs; and the final section six provides recommendations on reforms and investments to strengthen higher education in Africa. -
Publication
South Sudan: Linking the Agriculture and Food Sector to the Job Creation Agenda
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)This report seeks to support the larger jobs study by examining how investment in South Sudan’s food sector can not only address food security needs, it can generate income and lay the foundation for livelihood and job creation in the country. It argues that applying a value chain lens to investments in the sector can contribute to creating direct, indirect, and induced labor in the food system. The goal is to move the country from a dependency on humanitarian aid to building recovery and resilience in the short term in a way that can produce stable jobs over the medium to long term. More specifically, it looks at the potential technology and organizational arrangements that investment programs can start supporting now to stimulate value chain development for increased economic activity and job creation. The assumption is that significant donor support will still be necessary for the short to medium term to support investments in reconstruction and food security. As security spreads, public sector capacity to support development can grow, private actors can establish or expand their operations, and the donor community can begin to disengage, addressing only the neediest communities while development organizations continue to work with the public and private sector actors to support development and economic transformation. -
Publication
The Gambia: A Look at Agriculture
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02)Agriculture is a vital sector in the Gambia. It accounts for about 17.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), ranking behind the services sector, which recorded 68.8 percent of GDP. Employment in agriculture appears to be mainly driven by women, who are more likely to engage than men. In general, more than two-thirds of Gambians reside in rural areas and derive their livelihoods from agriculture and related activities. Therefore, the sector is a prime area for investment to achieve poverty reduction as stated in the country’s vision 2020 document. Agriculture is an important source of income for households, behind wages and salaries and petty trading. The agriculture sector plays an important role in ending hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty. In rural areas, the agriculture sector’s role in poverty reduction and shared prosperity policies is particularly important. -
Publication
Productive Diversification of African Agriculture and Its Effects on Resilience and Nutrition
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-25)The agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the backbone of national economies, sustaining rural and urban livelihoods alike, and providing food and income for the majority of households. Recent agriculture growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been solid and has supported improvements in nutrition outcomes and poverty rates.Despite some relative gains, food insecurity and malnutrition in absolute terms continue to be major public health challenges in most African countries south of the Sahara, and most recent data are cause for concern. Many countries are still highly reliant on the production of one crop for national food security, which largely determines the total caloric intake of the rural population. Farmers in Sub-Saharan African are vulnerable to market risks and weather-related risks and shocks. Decisions on whether to diversify or to specialize production impact resilience, and thus their capacity to cope with and adapt to these risks. Market- and climate-related risks to smallholders in SSA are compounded by predictions that both the suitability of crop area for staples such as maize, and crop nutrient content could be substantially lowered with rising average temperatures. This report highlights that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in fostering diversification and provides a selection of policies available to governments that can promote or constrain diversification. -
Publication
Closing the Potential-Performance Divide in Ugandan Agriculture
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-19)Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of employment, overwhelmingly on small farms; occupies half of all land area, and provides half of all exports and one-quarter of GDP in Uganda. It is considered a leading sector for future economic growth and economic inclusion in the current National Development Plan. Yet despite having very favorable natural resource and climate conditions for production of a wide variety of crops and livestock, average Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth--the difference between aggregate output growth and the growth of all inputs and factors of production that produced it--in Ugandan agriculture has been negative for the last two decades. This suggests that on balance the country is now getting less for equal or greater effort. While drought and pest issues likely have played a harmful role, other plausible explanations are a combination of the following: weakening over time of the public institutional base for promoting agricultural productivity at the level of small farms, inefficiencies in agricultural public expenditures, inadequate agricultural regulation and policies, and a lack of collateralizable farm assets. National agricultural output has grown at only 2 percent per annum over the last five years, compared to agricultural output growth of 3 to 5 percent in other EAC members and 3.3 percent per annum growth in Uganda's population over the same period. -
Publication
Zambia Jobs in Value Chains: Opportunities in Agribusiness
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017)This study analyzes from a jobs perspective two high potential value chains (VCs) in Zambia’s agribusiness sector poultry and aquaculture. With more than 50 percent of workers and over 80 percent of poor Zambians recording themselves in agriculture in the 2010 population census, raising agricultural productivity is a determinant to reduce poverty. Yet small-scale farmers (SSFs) and modern commercial operations in large farms exist in parallel, as SSFs typically use backward production systems with scant capitalization. Zambia’s challenge is to overcome the persistent disconnect between low productivity smallholder agriculture and high productivity modern agribusiness firms. Developing market linkages will enable the agribusiness sector to meet the growing urban demand for food products, while connecting more people to jobs.