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THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEAST-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND THEIR INTEGRATION INTO THE WORLD ECONOMY

Commodities and Trade Division







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    How did the Asia-Pacific region rescue over 700 million people from extreme poverty between 1980 and 2005? What policy lessons can we learn and implement to improve conditions for the nearly 1 billion people in the region who continue to live in poverty? Examining Asia's recent agricultural reform and trade liberalization experiences, in the context of current global crises, presents an occasion to reflect on past achievements and consider future opportunities. This publication synthesizes the proceedings and presents technical papers from a policy forum convened by FAO and China's Ministry of Agriculture. The first part summarizes key points from presentations, panel discussions and deliberations which sought to capture the essence of three decades of Asia's agricultural policy experience. The second part incorporates eight technical papers which addressed the forum's main themes: Chinese agricultural policy reforms and performance over the past 30 years; Asia's changing agricultu ral policy landscape; agricultural trade liberalization; and the implications of the global food and financial crises for food and agriculture.
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    The State of Food and Agriculture, 2005
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    Can trade work for the poor? The State of Food and Agriculture 2005 examines the many ways trade and trade liberalization affect the poor and food-insecure. It is found that trade can be a catalyst for change, promoting conditions that enable the poor to raise their incomes and live longer, healthier and more productive lives. But because the poor often survive on a narrow margin, they are particularly vulnerable in any reform process, especially in the short run as productive sectors and labour markets adjust. Opening national agricultural markets to international competition especially from subsidized competitors before basic market institutions and infrastructure are in place can undermine the agriculture sector with long-term negative consequences for poverty and food security. Among the many important lessons from this analysis is the need for policy-makers to consider carefully how trade and complementary policies can be used to promote pro-poor growth. The report recommends a twin-track approach: investing in human capital, institutions and infrastructure to enable the poor to take advantage of trade-related opportunities, while establishing safety nets to protect vulnerable members of society.
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    World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030. An FAO perspective 2003
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    World agriculture: towards 2015/2030 is FAO’s latest assessment of the long-term outlook for the world’s food supplies, nutrition and agriculture. It presents the projections and the main messages. The projections cover supply and demand for the major agricultural commodities and sectors, including fisheries and forestry. This analysis forms the basis for a more detailed examination of other factors, such as nutrition and undernourishment, and the implications for international trade. The repo rt also investigates the implications of future supply and demand for the natural resource base and discusses how technology can contribute to more sustainable development. One of the report’s main findings is that, if no corrective action is taken, the target set by the World Food Summit in 1996 – of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015 – is not going to be met. Nothing short of a massive effort to improve overall development performance will free the developing world of its mos t pressing food insecurity problems. Making progress towards this target depends on many factors, not least of which are political will and the mobilization of additional resources. Past experience underlines the crucial role of agriculture in the development process, particularly where the majority of the population still depends on this sector for employment and income.

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