Other Agriculture Study
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Publication
Myanmar: Analysis of Farm Production Economics
(World Bank, Yangon, 2016-02-26)This report was prepared by the World Bank in partnership with the Livelihoods and Food Security Multi-Donor Trust Fund (LIFT). Both the World Bank and the LIFT are actively involved in supporting Myanmar’s agriculture sector given its significance in poverty reduction and food security, and they both consider the lack of reliable farm data to be a significant constraint to designing effective programs and policies. This report fills some of the data gaps. In addition to presenting the collected data, the report offers the first analysis of these data. It focuses on the assessment of the extent of crop diversification and an analysis of farm production economics, in particular (partial factor) productivity of agricultural land and labor and crop profitability. This focus was chosen to study Myanmar’s commercial production areas and to facilitate international comparisons, as most international studies follow a similar approach, focusing on advanced farmers in commercial production areas. The four main findings of the report are as follows: (i) Myanmar’s farming systems are diversified and during the monsoon season most farms produce paddy, during the cool and dry seasons most farms produce crops other than paddy, mainly beans and pulses, oilseeds, and maize; (ii) the analysis reconfirmed that agricultural productivity in Myanmar is low, irrespective of what indicators are used, limiting the sector’s contribution to poverty reduction and shared prosperity; (iii) low productivity is a result of multiple factors, many of them associated with the undersupply of quality public services such as research, extension, and rural infrastructure, in delivery of which the government has a key role to play; and (iv) going forward and given that paddy is less profitable and more costly to produce than other crops in most agro-ecological zones, especially during the cool and dry seasons, it is desirable to redesign public programs from exclusive support of paddy production to support for broad-based agricultural development. -
Publication
Kazakhstan Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-02)Agriculture is among the most risk-prone sectors in the economies of Central Asia. Production shocks from weather, pests and diseases and adverse movements in agricultural product and input prices not only impact farmers and agri-business firms, but can also strain government finances. Some of these risks are small and localized and can be managed by producers. Others are the result of more severe, exogenous shocks outside agriculture that require a broader response. Failure to respond adequately to these more severe risks leads to a perpetual cycle of ‘shock-recovery-shock’ which reinforces poverty traps and compromises long-term growth. A broad-based program to improve livestock productivity is recommended to strengthen the resilience of livestock production systems and rangeland use in Kazakhstan. Proposed interventions include measures to: (i) reverse degradation of water, soil and vegetation cover; (ii) safeguard the long-term viability of rangeland ecosystems, while ensuring sustainable access to grazing land; and (iii) strengthen livestock services (veterinary, animal health, feed and fodder supply, destocking, water and grazing access, and weather and market information). These measures will enable farmers to manage their resources better, to respond to climate and market signals and to protect their resource base in times of drought. The recommendations developed under these three solution areas continue the underlying emphasis on mitigation as the foundation for risk management. They also highlight the mutually reinforcing benefits of measures to improve crop and livestock productivity for both risk management and sector growth. -
Publication
Malawi Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12)With more than three-quarters of its workforce employed in agriculture, Malawi is highly vulnerable to any adverse events affecting the agriculture sector, and agricultural risks are ever present in the country. Agricultural risks can obstruct development and enforce poverty traps, particularly for a country as reliant on agriculture as Malawi. Because of the size of the sector in the economy and the importance of agricultural products for export, agricultural growth correlates closely with gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Malawi’s effort to manage risks and to provide relief in response to adverse events diverts significant resources from longer-term development investments. To better understand the dynamics of agricultural risks and identify appropriate responses, incorporate an agricultural risk perspective into decision making, and build the capacity of local stakeholders in risk assessment and management, the agricultural risk management team (ARMT) of the agriculture and environment services department of the World Bank conducted an agriculture sector risk assessment. The purpose of this report is to assess existing agricultural risks, prioritize them according to their frequency and impacts on the sector, and identify areas of risk-management solutions that need deeper specialized attention. Three levels of risks were assessed: production risks, market risks, and enabling environment risks to selected supply chains. The report takes a quantitative and qualitative approach to assessing risk. This report is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction and context. Chapter two provides an overview of the agriculture sector and the selected crops. Chapter three maps the production, market, and enabling environment risks to food crops and export crops. Chapter four looks at the adverse impacts of agricultural risks in terms of losses, both at the national level and for different regions. Chapter five prioritizes the risks in terms of their frequency and the severity of their impacts, and discusses solutions based on this prioritization, ongoing risk-management activities, and the feedback from the consultative workshop. -
Publication
Agriculture in Nicaragua: Performance, Challenges, and Options
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11)This work summarizes background papers prepared for the World Bank Group with significant input from government counterparts and other development partners. It takes stock of major recent developments and argues that a lot has been achieved in the last decade in terms of production of commodities for export and food consumption, with favorable impact on rural poverty reduction. It also argues that the two factors driving the recent agricultural performance, namely favorable international prices and expansion of the agricultural frontier, have reached their limits. So while trade policies are broadly on target, much can be done by focusing on the productivity of small family agriculture and improving competitiveness by reducing transaction costs (logistics) affecting small, medium, and large commercial farms. In the short to medium term, the household income of the rural poor will continue to depend largely on agriculture. Thus interventions will need to take into account the heterogeneity of smallholder agriculture while simultaneously increasing its resilience to climate risks through climate-smart agriculture. -
Publication
Kenya: Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11)Despite myriad challenges, Kenya has emerged in recent years as one of Africa’s frontier economies, with headline growth in the most recent decade propelling the country toward middle-income status. Less well understood is how risk dynamics associated with production, markets, and policy adversely impact sector performance, in terms of both influencing ex ante decision making among farmers, traders, and other sector stakeholders and causing ex post losses to crops, livestock, and incomes - destabilizing livelihoods and jeopardizing the country’s food security. The present study was commissioned in part to bridge this knowledge gap. It is the first step in a multiphase process designed to integrate a stronger risk focus into sector planning and development programs. It seeks to learn from and build on a range of broad initiatives by the Government of Kenya (GoK) and its development partners purposed to enhance Kenya’s resilience and response to natural disasters. The ultimate objective is implementation of a holistic and systematic risk management system that will reduce the vulnerability and strengthen the resiliency of Kenya’s agricultural supply chains, and the livelihoods that depend on them. This sector risk assessment is the primary output of phase one. The study’s main objective is to identify, assess, and prioritize principal risks facing Kenya’s agriculture sector by analyzing their impacts via quantitative and qualitative measures. The study’s main findings highlight an agriculture sector increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather variability. Chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of Kenya’s agriculture sector and a discussion of key growth constraints. Chapter three assesses the main agricultural risks (production, market, and enabling environment). Chapter four analyzes the frequency and severity of the major risks identified and assesses their impact. Chapter five presents some stakeholder perceptions of these risks and the potential to improve their management. Chapter six concludes with an assessment of priorities for risk management and a broad discussion of possible risk management measures that can help to strengthen the resiliency of agricultural supply chains and the livelihoods they support. -
Publication
Rwanda Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10-06)Agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy, contributing a third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and about half of Rwanda’s export earnings. The government of Rwanda has therefore made agricultural development a priority and allocated significant resources to improving productivity, expanding the livestock sector, promoting sustainable land management, and developing supply chains and value-added activities. At the same time, Rwanda’s agriculture sector faces a series of challenges. Agriculture is dominated by small-scale, subsistence farming under traditional agricultural practices and rain-fed agriculture. As a result, average crop yields are low compared with potential yields, and exposed to risks such as weather related shocks and pest and disease outbreaks. The purpose of this report is to assess existing risks to the agriculture sector, prioritize them according to their frequency and impacts on the sector, and identify areas of risk management solutions that need deeper specialized attention. Three levels of risks are assessed: production risks, market risks, and enabling environment risks to selected supply chains. The report takes a quantitative and qualitative approach to risks. The report is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of Rwanda’s economy and the role and structure of the agriculture sector. Agriculture sector risks (production, market, and enabling environment risks) for the selected food crops, export crops, and livestock are analyzed in chapter three. Analysis of the adverse impacts of agricultural risks at aggregate and provincial levels, along with a stakeholder risk assessment and a discussion of particularly vulnerable groups, is presented in chapter four. Chapter five prioritizes identified risks, discusses potential solutions areas, summarizes feedback from consulted stakeholders, and recommends solutions areas for further assessment. -
Publication
Ghana Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment: Risk Prioritization
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06)Improved agricultural risk management is one of the core enabling actions of the Group of Eight’s (G-8’s) New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. The Agricultural Risk Management Team (ARMT) of the Agriculture and Environment Services Department of the World Bank conducted an agricultural sector risk assessment to better understand the dynamics of agricultural risks and identify appropriate responses, incorporate agricultural risk perspective into decision-making, and build capacity of local stakeholders in risk assessment and management. -
Publication
Agribusiness Indicators : Synthesis Report
(Washington, DC, 2014-12)The need for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to build more productive, modern, and market-oriented farming sectors is one of our most pressing development challenges. In coming years, African agriculture will have to increase food production and expand and intensify value chains in order to meet changing demand on the part of a rapidly expanding and urbanizing consumer base. The process of doing this will enable African countries to begin pushing back against their currently growing reliance on food imports. An essential precondition for bringing this transformation to pass is to increase and improve the information on which farmers and agribusinesses base their production and investment decisions, and on which public sector institutions base their policies. The purpose of the Agribusiness Indicators (ABIs) Project is to provide this kind of empirical information in the form of a series of metrics and indicators that can be used to measure change over time and to make direct comparisons between countries, especially policy makers. These indicators will be used to inform policy dialogue, including dialogue between representatives of the private and public sectors. It will provide a common framework of reference with which to communicate their respective concerns, priorities, and intentions. This will facilitate better communication that leads to constructive interaction between public officials, farmers producer organizations, private investors, civil society organizations (CSOs), and others. Ultimately, it will be their decisions that determine the course of agricultural development and commercialization in their respective countries. The Agribusiness Indicators are intended to furnish them with information from sources within both the private and public sectors which can be cross-referenced and correlated. This type of information has generally not been available in the past. Some of the indicators are particularly useful in revealing the attributes of countries with policy portfolios that are supportive of agribusiness investment. -
Publication
Improving Animal Welfare in Livestock Operations
(Washington, DC, 2014-12)In the past decade, animal welfare has been increasingly recognized in importance in commercial livestock operations. Governments, academic institutions, and animal welfare professionals are addressing animal welfare at different points in the agricultural supply chain, while consumers are demanding higher standards for food safety and animal welfare. Meanwhile, regional and global initiatives to provide guidance on acceptable animal welfare practices have emerged. IFC is committed to working with clients to reduce losses, increase productivity, and/or access new markets through the application of sustainability principles, including animal welfare standards. This Good Practice Note (GPN), which supersedes the 2006 edition, contributes to IFC s continued commitment to supporting clients in a responsible and forward-looking approach to traditional livestock production (dairy, beef, broiler chickens, layer chickens, pigs, and ducks) and aquaculture in intensive and extensive systems to, among other things, help producers access and maintain entry to high quality and value market segments. This GPN describes a range of animal welfare good practice and complements IFC s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability (2012), in particular animal husbandry requirements for IFC clients as reflected in Performance Standard (PS): biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of living natural resources. The note also describes IFC s approach to animal welfare, including details on IFC s approach to due diligence. For more publications on IFC Sustainability please visit www.ifc.org/sustainabilitypublications. -
Publication
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Agricultural Sector Review: Revitalizing Agriculture for Economic Growth, Job Creation and Food Security
(Washington, DC, 2014-06)Economic growth, job creation, and development are central to the decade of transformation (2015-25) and long-term security for the people of Afghanistan. The Bank and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) recognize that agriculture and rural development are a key to inclusive growth, and hence need renewed vigor and strategic long-term investments. Further, the Bank and the GoIRA acknowledge that increases in agricultural productivity and market access for smallholders are critical for rural development, job creation, and food security in Afghanistan. Sections two and three of this report describe the agricultural sector and its current and potential roles in the Afghan economy, and present the rationale for choosing certain areas and subsectors for a selective 'first mover' strategy to achieve early gains. Section four outlines the constraints and potential in each of the three value chains proposed for the selective strategy, irrigated wheat, intensive livestock production, and horticulture. Section five describes cross-cutting constraints and how best to address them, and Section six proposes measures to help the rural poor who will not benefit much from the first-mover strategy. Section seven summarizes the recommendations of the review and their expected results for jobs and incomes.