Publication: Promoting Agro-Enterprise and Agro-Food Systems Development in Developing and Transition Countries : Towards an Operational Strategy for the World Bank Group
Loading...
Published
2003-05
ISSN
Date
2013-07-30
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper sets out a strategic framework for WBG assistance for the modernization of agro-food systems in client countries. The objective of this strategy is to enhance the competitiveness of food, feed, and fiber systems-as a powerful source of growth and income generation-and to do so in a manner in which the poor are major beneficiaries in their capacities as consumers, farmers, workers, and entrepreneurs. This is a major challenge, not only because of the long-standing constraints faced by developing country farmers and agro-enterprises (i.e., weak infrastructure, anti-business policies, etc.) but also because major changes in the global agro-food market are tilted toward those economic agents who have capital, superior organizational and marketing skills, and an acute understanding of consumer requirements. Those lacking such assets and capabilities risk being (further) marginalized. The focus of attention here is on those enterprises, activities, institutions, and relationships that occur off the farm-in other words, those entities and functions that deliver material inputs to the farming sector and transform, distribute and otherwise add value to food and fiber products, yet are not directly engaged in primary production and natural resource management. The shorthand term for this sphere of activity and institutions is agro-enterprise activity. As already demonstrated in a number of countries (including China, Chile, Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico and Kenya), agro-enterprise activity-sometimes also referred to as agribusiness can be a powerful source of growth, income diversification and poverty alleviation. However, competitive agro-enterprise activity does not emerge spontaneously. It requires a resourceful, market-oriented private sector which is willing and able to bear commercial and other risks, and a facilitative enabling environment comprising policies, rules, and infrastructure. With consumer demand and agricultural markets undergoing continuous change, sustained agro-enterprise success requires flexibility and the capacities to refine one's approaches, products, and services.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. Promoting Agro-Enterprise and Agro-Food Systems Development in Developing and Transition Countries : Towards an Operational Strategy for the World Bank Group. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14676 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Competitive Agriculture or State Control : Ukraine's Response to the Global Food Crisis(Washington, DC, 2008-05)World market prices for grains and oilseeds have risen dramatically over the last 24 months. Despite a recent drop, wheat prices are still about twice what they were two years ago. Given the underlying causes, this situation is likely to persist for the medium term (International Food Policy Research Institute-IFPRI and World Bank projections use a time horizon until 2015). Rising food prices are causing significant hardship worldwide and threatening to cast large numbers of people into poverty. However, the current situation is a major opportunity for Ukraine, a net grain exporter with a significant exploitable yield gap and one of the few countries in the world that are in a position to significantly increase net exports and make up for emerging deficits elsewhere. With appropriate policies and investments, Ukraine could significantly increase its grain harvest and gain global market share in an environment of rising global demand. Even relatively conservative estimates of growth in yields and acreage indicate that a regular harvest of over 40 million tons will be possible. Seizing this opportunity will require a shift in policies and corresponding increases in private and public investment. Ukraine is in a position to make a significant contribution to the international effort to deal with the food crisis, while providing attractive investment and employment opportunities in the agriculture sector (in rural areas) that are expected to yield significant income, trade, and fiscal benefits.Publication Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of : Analysis of the Agricultural Support Programs(Washington, DC, 2013-10)The report is structured to allow readers familiar with Macedonia s agriculture sector to quickly grasp the essentials needed to improve the sector, as well as to inform a general audience on how to address the challenges of a modern European Union (EU)-aspiring state. Chapter two provides an in-depth analysis of the sectoral background, illustrating the main characteristics and challenges of Macedonia s agriculture sector. The illustration takes an integrated approach to the sector, covering a vast range of inter-related topics including the prominence of the sector not only in terms of its economic and social contribution but also its implications for trade, the urban-rural poverty gap and shared prosperity, farm structure, climate adaptation, and capacity building. Chapter three draws on lessons from the European Union (EU) and provides a framework to analyze Macedonia s agricultural support programs. Further, the chapter provides a primer on the EU s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its measures to support agriculture. Chapter four presents concise empirical evidence of the coverage and institutional capacity of the agricultural programs in Macedonia under both pillar one and pillar two measures. Chapter five then builds on the primary diagnostic set out in the previous chapters and critically examines the alignment of Macedonia s agricultural programs with the government s stated objectives of poverty reduction, competitiveness, and sustainable development. The results are at best mixed, suggesting substantial pathways for scaling up and exploiting untapped opportunities. Finally, chapter six synthesizes the overall evidence and presents policy implications and recommendations.Publication Spatial Inequality and Economic Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008)Spatial inequality is an important feature of many developing countries that seems to increase with economic growth and development. At the same time, there seems to be little consensus on the causes of spatial inequality and on a list of effective policy instruments that may foster or reduce spatial inequality. This paper examines the theoretical and empirical literature on spatial inequality to learn what we know and do not know about the causes of spatial inequality, to investigate what policies may or may not ameliorate spatial inequality, and to determine whether policy makers can identify and implement policies that promote or reduce spatial inequality.Publication Berlin Workshop Series 2008 : Agriculture and Development(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)The workshop brings diverse perspectives from outside the World Bank, providing a forum in which to exchange ideas and debate in the course of developing the World Development Report (WDR). Participants at the 2006 Berlin Workshop gathered to discuss challenges and successes pertaining to agriculture and development. Agriculture is the major sector contributing to economic development in many poor countries. Three out of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas. As globalization accelerates, development policies should tackle future challenges in agriculture arising from the scarcity of natural resources and globalization. The author highlights the paramount importance of redefining the framework for agriculture, providing us with food for thought and putting forward suggestions that need greater reflection and more detailed discussion. The contribution focuses on three main topics. First, the author presents some considerations on global agricultural development and trade. The author describes the different approaches to agricultural development, outcomes and effects of these approaches and evaluates which nations or which population groups are benefiting, as this could help to develop target group oriented strategies in poverty alleviation and agriculture. Second, the author takes a critical look at how agriculture and the rural sector can be an effective engine for growth. Another issue on the agenda is to determine what agriculture needs in the way of technology, infrastructure, and financial support to become a growth engine? These new insights should contribute to an appropriate formulation and implementation of tailored agriculture for development programs. Finally, the author looks at development in connection with systematic capacity building and training, pointing out the need to define sound capacity-building measures in terms of agriculture as well as to determine how these could be used more effectively.Publication From Flying Geese to Leading Dragons : New Opportunities and Strategies for Structural Transformation in Developing Countries(2011-06-01)Economic development is a process of continuous industrial and technological upgrading in which any country, regardless of its level of development, can succeed if it develops industries that are consistent with its comparative advantage, determined by its endowment structure. The secret winning formula for developing countries is to exploit the latecomer advantage by building up industries that are growing dynamically in more advanced fast growing countries that have endowment structures similar to theirs. By following carefully selected lead countries, latecomers can emulate the leader-follower, flying-geese pattern that has served well successfully catching-up economies since the 18th century. The emergence of large middle-income countries such as China, India, and Brazil as new growth poles in the world, and their dynamic growth and climbing of the industrial ladder, offer an unprecedented opportunity to all developing economies with income levels currently below theirs --including those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Having itself been a "follower goose," China is on the verge of graduating from low-skilled manufacturing jobs and becoming a "leading dragon." That will free up nearly 100 million labor-intensive manufacturing jobs, enough to more than quadruple manufacturing employment in low-income countries. A similar trend is emerging in other middle-income growth poles. The lower-income countries that can formulate and implement a viable strategy to capture this new industrialization opportunity will set forth on a dynamic path of structural change that can lead to poverty reduction and prosperity.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises : A Toolkit(Washington, DC, 2014-10-04)This Toolkit provides an overall framework with practical tools and information to help policymakers design and implement corporate governance reforms for state-owned enterprises. It covers the key elements of corporate governance, including legal and regulatory framework, state ownership arrangements, performance management systems, financial and fiscal discipline, boards of directors, transparency and disclosure, and protection of shareholders in mixed ownership companies. Experience shows that no one approach is universally applicable and the choice of measures depends on country and enterprise circumstances. The Toolkit thus provides a range of frameworks, concepts, case examples, checklists, and model documents that together aim to help government officials make the appropriate choices for their circumstances. The Toolkit concludes with guidance on managing the reform process, in particular how to prioritize and sequence reforms, build capacity, and engage with stakeholders.Publication Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)This book represents an effort to present an easily accessible framework to readers, especially those for whom empowerment remains a puzzling development concern, conceptually and in application. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explains how the empowerment framework can be used for understanding, measuring, monitoring, and operationalizing empowerment policy and practice. Part 2 presents summaries of each of the five country studies, using them to discuss how the empowerment framework can be applied in very different country and sector contexts and what lessons can be learned from these test cases. While this book can offer only a limited empirical basis for the positive association between empowerment and development outcomes, it does add to the body of work supporting the existence of such a relationship. Perhaps more importantly, it also provides a framework for future research to test the association and to prioritize practical interventions seeking to empower individuals and groups.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication World Development Report 1984(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984)Long-term needs and sustained effort are underlying themes in this year's report. As with most of its predecessors, it is divided into two parts. The first looks at economic performance, past and prospective. The second part is this year devoted to population - the causes and consequences of rapid population growth, its link to development, why it has slowed down in some developing countries. The two parts mirror each other: economic policy and performance in the next decade will matter for population growth in the developing countries for several decades beyond. Population policy and change in the rest of this century will set the terms for the whole of development strategy in the next. In both cases, policy changes will not yield immediate benefits, but delay will reduce the room for maneuver that policy makers will have in years to come.