Other Agriculture Study
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Myanmar: Agricultural Resilience Amid Deepening Food Insecurity
2024-08-29, World Bank
This report is a product of the World Bank’s monitoring efforts in Myanmar and examines the country’s agricultural sector performance and food security status. The report assesses the performance of the agricultural sector and food security in Myanmar, focusing on developments in main crops (cereals and legumes) and the livestock subsector, along with factors and risks affecting farm households’ productivity. It also analyzes variations and price trends along the value chain, considering factors influencing production costs and constraints on accessing markets, such as conflict and transport disruptions. Additionally, it examines food trade trends, including the export and import flows of key commodities such as rice, legumes, and palm oil. The report also assesses local food security dynamics in conflict-affected communities and communities traditionally dependent on non-timber forest products (NTFP). The report draws from primary and secondary data sources. A series of farmer phone surveys that reached up to 1,200 rural farm households is the primary data source, with survey rounds spanning the last four years. The report provides an update on Myanmar’s agricultural sector and food security from July 2023 to June 2024. It builds upon previous monitoring reports released in June 2022 and June 2023 and provides essential insights for stakeholders addressing these pressing issues. The report also draws from key informant interviews with food vendors, fertilizer dealers, and rice millers; desk reviews of secondary data from agricultural news, official data, and policy documents on agriculture and food security, and market prices from various sources. Quantitative evidence from the survey represents the status of farm households in rural areas around food security, food access, dietary diversity, shocks and coping mechanisms, credit and indebtedness, farming costs, and difficulties. The annex presents further details on the methodology.
Mozambique - Agriculture Support Policy Review
2024-07-26, World Bank
Various efforts have been made to comprehensively assess agricultural policies in countries worldwide using diverse methodologies, including some generated by several international organizations. Since first applied in the 1980s, the OECD’s methodology has been regarded as a practical policy monitoring and evaluation tool. It has been frequently used as a reference to establish a dialogue at the national and international levels since it allows comparisons among countries and their economies, measuring the impact of policies on the gross income of both consumers and producers. The OECD methodology focuses on estimating the value of monetary transfers made by taxpayers and consumers, specifically to agricultural producers, as a direct result of the implementation of agricultural policies. This study aims to apply the OECD methodology to measure monetary transfers to the agricultural sector and the producers between 2019 and 2022.
Aquaculture Dynamics: Constraints and Opportunities for Aquaculture Development in Southern Mozambique
2024-06-17, World Bank
This report provides insights on the challenges faced by Mozambique’s aquaculture sector, with a particular focus on Southern Mozambique, and proposes actions to overcome them. After providing a snapshot of the state of fish production, the availability of inputs, and techniques and production systems across the region’s value chain, it sheds light on key constraints and opportunities for the development of the aquaculture industry in Southern Mozambique by examining six components, namely, the area’s geography, local production and commodities demand, access to inputs and production costs, the agroecological situation, technical governance structures, and the environment and ecosystem. Based on these observations, a series of recommended actions is proposed to support the development of Southern Mozambique’s aquaculture sector in line with the government of Mozambique’s development objectives.
Enhancing Climate-Smart Outcomes from Livestock Systems: A How-To Guide Following the Project Cycle
2024-05-23, World Bank
The program on climate smart livestock (PCSL), jointly implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the World Bank, aims to ensure that key actors in the livestock sector increasingly include climate-change adaptation and mitigation in their farming practices, sector strategies and investment projects. Building on lessons learned through the implementation of PCSL, the objectives of this guidance note are to: (1) enable project task teams from the World Bank and other institutions to enhance and track project contributions to climate-smart livestock outcomes; and (2) improve the capacity of project teams to leverage existing products and tools to support climate-smart livestock development. This guidance note can contribute to increasing the level of climate ambition (including through Paris Alignment) and to guiding investments from the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) towards more sustainable livestock portfolios. The note covers the three objectives of CSL: productivity enhancement, adaptation to climate change, and mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental impacts. Chapter 1 gives introduction. In chapter 2, each objective is described, and methodological elements are provided for assessing CSL performance, including relevant indicators. The next chapters provide guidance along the project cycle, starting with project preparation and then moving to implementation stage and evaluation. The annexes provide practical examples and templates to assist project teams in incorporating CSL into their practices.
Ecosystem Assessment for Harnessing Digital Agriculture Technologies in Cambodia
2024-08-01, World Bank
Digital agriculture technologies (DAT) are digital tools and technologies used in agriculture to increase production, market, sustainability, and efficiency. Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Cambodian economy, along with garment production, construction, and tourism. Despite the sector’s importance, agriculture faces key challenges like low productivity, inefficiency, and vulnerability to climate change. Despite enhanced DAT innovation support, analysis shows Cambodia still faces hurdles to macro-environmental growth. This report evaluates Cambodia’s digital agriculture landscape, to identify how it can be mainstreamed. It uses stakeholder insights to assess key value chain players, their struggles, and the potential of technology adoption to overcome these hurdles. This assessment aids in identifying and prioritizing important technologies, thus helping investors maximize their impact by focusing on high-potential opportunities. Once these enabling factors are understood, digital agriculture in Cambodia can be mainstreamed and grow.
Priorities for Agricultural Support in Ukraine
2024-07-19, World Bank
This report presents the priorities for agricultural support in Ukraine in the short run, until the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and medium run, aftermath of Russia’s invasion. While the war persists, an access to affordable finance, export logistics, demining of farm fields, and other support that helps farmers and agribusinesses quickly adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances will remain the short-term priorities for agricultural support, as outlined in the recently completed third Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA). After Russia’s invasion ends, however, the agricultural support will need to realign to address challenges and capitalize on opportunities to enable Ukraine’s agrifood system transformation, including preparation of Ukraine for European Union (EU)’s accession. Objectives for agricultural policy will need to shift from simply producing and exporting more agrifood products to producing it in a more inclusive and climate resilient manner with lower environmental footprint. This report presents key aspects to consider for this realignment, building on the knowledge about Ukraine’s agriculture's historical reliance on private financing, the imperative for improved land governance, the impacts of climate change, unique challenges encountered by small-sized farms, the EU integration, and Ukraine’s constrained fiscal space.
International prices and food security: An analysis of food and fertilizer price transmission in Central America
2024-06-06, Perego, V.M.E., Brown, M., Ceballos, F., Hernandez, M., Berrospi, M.L., Flores, L., Mora, E.
This report explores the dynamics between domestic food security in Central America and global price inflation. The report analyzes the extent to which international food and fertilizer prices have been passed through to Central American countries, their impacts in terms of household expenditure and income, and the effectiveness of government’s domestic policy responses in the face of high food prices. The report also explores the historic evolution of agriculture and food public policies in Central America during previous instances of international food price hikes, so as to derive lessons for Central American policymakers on the adequacy of the policy ecosystem to prevent the emergence of, and respond to, food security crises.
Understanding the Role of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Carbon Sequestration: White Paper
2024-07-26, World Bank
This white paper Aprovides the current state of scientific understanding of the field and suggests next steps forward in terms of how modeling can contribute to filling this gap. The report is structured to support the future development or enhancement of models, featuring a map of the key stocks and flows, an analysis of how fish transform and ‘produce’ carbon, an exploration of the carbon biochemical transformations in the marine environment, and an examination of physical transport within the marine ecosystem. Additionally, it includes dedicated sections on the implications of sediment interactions with mobile demersal fishing gears for carbon sequestration, the significance of marine macroalgae-kelp ecosystems in the biological carbon pump, and noteworthy policy initiatives related to marine carbon sequestration. The research conducted here identified general gaps, such as the need to better characterize how different fish contribute to and consume the various carbon flows identified in the marine realm, or the need to better characterize the interrelation between trawling activities and sedimentary ecosystems. Specific difficulties have been identified arising from the fact that most fishing activities take place on the marine shelf, where key physicochemical and biological processes are often more complex than in the open ocean where carbon flows are better understood, leading to a higher level of complexity in evaluating carbon sequestration times in coastal areas. This white paper concludes with a summary how existing models could be enhanced to overcome some of the identified knowledge limitations. To accomplish this, the development of coupled food-web models with carbon sequestration models is proposed, aiming to attain a more realistic understanding of the implications of fishing activities for carbon sequestration. In the final section, this vision is elaborated on with recommendations for next steps.
Greening Agriculture in the Western Balkans
2024-07-09, Zhang, Fang, Zorya, Sergiy, Zivkov, Goran
The report analyzes the reasons for the slow green transition and identifies the main challenges and opportunities for enhancing the climate resilience and sustainability of the sector and for further convergence with the European Union (EU)'s environmental and climate objectives. The report also discusses the implications of the European Green Deal, the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development(IPARD) III program, the evolving nationally determined contributions (NDCs) commitments, and the WB6 Green Agenda for the WB6 countries' agricultural sector. It then reviews the global experiences and strategies for greening agriculture, drawing lessons from the EU and other countries that have implemented innovative policies, programs, and technologiesto promote CSAs, and proposes recommendations.
Repurposing Agricultural Support Policies for Sustainable Food Systems -Toolkit
2024-06-03, World Bank
The global agrifood system can no longer deliver the ‘triple wins’ of a healthy planet, healthy people, and healthy economies. The current system is associated with high ‘hidden costs’ and urgently needs transformation to provide better livelihoods, raise farm productivity, and become more sustainable, equitable, resilient, and healthy. Achieving such transformative change requires a systemic shift in how the agrifood system are supported. We need to recognize that hundreds of millions of atomistic and rational economic decision-makers make up the agrifood system. Actors on the farm and along food value chains respond to economic incentives, and a core priority for food system transformation should be ensuring that economic agents receive appropriate incentives to guide meaningful change. Studies show that agrifood system transformation has the potential to bring climate change under control, increase biological diversity, ensure healthier diets, and create new business opportunities worth up to US4.5 dollars trillion a year (FOLU 2019). Building better systems requires tackling multiple distortions, including the complex agriculture-energy nexus. Energy is a key input to the agrifood system as fossil fuels and electricity are used directly in agriculture production to operate machinery, power water pumps, manufacture fertilizers, cool or dry crops and livestock products, and fuel transport. Subsidies for both fossil fuels and energy, which is also generated from fossil fuel in most countries, increase the environmental footprint of the food system as they encourage overuse and waste at the cost of other economic activities. For example, fuel and electricity subsidies in India are reducing the marginal cost of pumping for farmers and incentivizing over pumping and a rapid depletion of groundwater resources. Wasteful overuse of cheap energy in agriculture also has a large opportunity cost in terms of foregone economic activity in other sectors, including the development of downstream processing and value addition activities in agri-food supply chains themselves. Finally, energy subsidies undermine the competitiveness of alternative types of energy (such as renewable energy) and efficient energy technologies such as solar energy, with negative long-term impacts on the environment. Repurposing these distortive agricultural policy support towards policy measures that promote increased efficiency, increased resilience, and enhanced positive environmental impacts offers an opportunity to accelerate the transformation towards environmentally sustainable agrifood systems.