Rural Poverty

Independent Films

How big of problem is rural poverty?
Is it improving or getting worse?
Have rises of commodity prices including foods helped small farmers or is price surge only benefiting big producers and speculators?

The International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) “Rural Poverty Report 2011” says that over the past decade, the developing world’s overall rate of extreme poverty, measured by those living on less than 1.25 dollars a day has dropped from 48 percent to 34 percent as more than 350 million rural people have been lifted out of extreme poverty.

Much of that decline is due to dramatic gains in East Asia, particularly China.

But, other regions have not done as well, according to IFAD’s Ed Heinemann, who led the team that wrote the report.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ed Heinemann, Team Leader, IFAD:
“In Asia we are seeing slow reductions in the levels of rural poverty. But what’s alarming is the sheer scale of the number of poor rural people. There are something like 500 million poor rural people living in South Asia today. The second region we’re concerned about is sub-Saharan Africa and there what’s worrying us is although rates of rural poverty are starting to decline, the absolute numbers are actually increasing and we still have a very high rate of 62 percent of all rural people living on less than $1.25 a day.”

Increasingly volatile food prices, the uncertainties and effects of climate change, and a range of natural resource constraints will only complicate efforts to reduce rural poverty in the future, according to the report.

All this becomes particularly urgent as the world’s global population is expected to reach nine billion people by 2050 and require 70 percent more food.

Accordingly, “there remains an urgent need to invest more and better in agriculture and rural areas” based on “a new approach to smallholder agriculture that is both market-oriented and sustainable,” the report says.

SOUNDBITE (English) Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, IFAD:
“We must see smallholder agriculture or agriculture in general irrespective of the size or scale is first and foremost a business. Treating small holder farmers as entrepreneurs who want to enter into the marketplace and become profitable, calls for a sea change in the mind set of the way we look at these people.”

In addition to the overall decline of extreme poverty in rural areas of the developing world, the “Rural Poverty Report 2011” points to other significant gains which include a drop in the overall 2.00 dollars a day poverty rate in rural areas of the developing world, from 79 per cent to 61 per cent over the past decade.

In rural areas of East Asia, primarily China, where the number of extreme poor fell by about two-thirds over the past decade, from 365 million to 117 million, as did the rate of extreme poverty, which fell from 44 to 15 per cent. And in the Middle East and North Africa, rural poverty rates fell nearly by half while in rural areas of Latin America the extreme rural poverty rate fell by more than half.

Even so, the IFAD report makes clear that rural poverty continues to be a massive phenomenon throughout much of the developing world, and especially problematic in two key regions, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the South Asian subcontinent.

The report also warns of new challenges that could make matters worse.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ed Heinemann, Team Leader, IFAD:
“Rural people in developing countries face a range of new challenges, issues such as climate change, and problems of land, land deterioration, water scarcity, which are going to make their lives more difficult in the years to come. And governments need to support them to overcome the risks they face and seize the opportunities.”

Whether they are longstanding risks related to ill-health and natural disasters, or new and emerging challenges related to climate change and greater volatility of food prices, understanding how to help poor rural people avoid and manage the risks they face is essential.

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey UNTV-IFAD

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey