Oak Room, Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Sri Lanka January 29, 2008 Opening Address Naoko Ishii, Country Director, World Bank, Sri Lanka Hon. Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Services Mr. Maithripala Sirisena; Senior officers from the Ministry of Agriculture and other Government of Sri Lanka Ministries; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you for joining us today as we share with you the World Development Report [WDR] for 2008 focusing on “Agriculture for Development”. This report conveys the key message that, in the 21century, agriculture will continue to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction, not only for agriculture-based countries such as Sub-Saharan Africa, but also transforming countries like Sri Lanka. An important concern in transforming countries, is the widening income gaps between rural and urban areas and between progressive and lagging regions. The report states that addressing income inequality will require a comprehensive approach, including maintaining the productivity growth of food staples, while promoting high-value added agriculture, decentralizing non-farm activities to rural areas, and providing assistance to help move people out of agriculture. This message comes at a time when the Government of Sri Lanka has commendably articulated in its 10 year vision that the agriculture sector should contribute to regionally equitable economic growth, rural livelihood improvement and food security. In its vision, the government places high priority to increasing productivity and competitiveness, through fostering growth of high value agriculture and agribusiness. Rising incomes in Sri Lanka are changing the pattern of consumer demand, from cereals to higher value products, such as fruits, vegetables, and livestock products. This creates significant market opportunities for farmers to meet the expanding consumer demand for these products. More rapid growth of the high value sector, however, is hampered by limited availability of market infrastructure and services, such as markets, cold chains and market information needed to handle these perishable commodities. Technological innovation, however, has been a blind spot in Sri Lanka’s agriculture for the past decades. Taken as a whole, Sri Lanka’s agriculture, except perhaps the poultry sector, has hardly benefited from the adoption new production/process technologies. For example, while Bangladesh adopted hybrid maize more than 10 years ago, which contributed to a large increase in maize output, Sri Lankan farmers were only allowed access to these hybrid maize varieties about 3-4 years ago. Sri Lanka is not unique in this regard. Experiences from other developing countries show that often the research and extension system are top-down and supply driven rather than market or farmer-driven. The Report tells us that many countries have tried to improve the technological base of agriculture only by using public sector efforts and failed. Best practice experiences show that the private sector, both small and large, as well as that university research institutions can play a major role in agriculture by generating innovative and productive solutions. With low productivity and growth in agriculture, the rural non farm sector has also become an important source of income and employment in rural areas. In Sri Lanka today, incomes from rural non-farm activities already account for a little over half of total rural household incomes. The growth of rural enterprises and of opportunities for rural non-farm employment, however, is hampered by several rural investment climate constraints. Promoting more rapid growth of the rural non-farm sector will require addressing these constraints, such as improving access to transport, electricity, credit, land and rationalizing labor policies. Even though the contribution of agriculture to GDP has halved in the last two decades, the sector still plays a key role to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Sri Lanka. It can help Sri Lanka to embark on the higher trajectory of growth path, if a comprehensive set of policies are designed and implemented. This is what WDR suggests to us and we will be happy to assist the Government of Sri Lanka to further deliberate these issues. Let me now introduce, Dr. Derek Byerlee, co-author and one of our senior staff members, who will present the report today. He is a world authority in agriculture development strategies and he brings with him extensive knowledge of what has worked and what has not in many countries. I hope you find the deliberations stimulating. Let me close by thanking the government officials, academics, and private sector participants, as partnership among those sections of the society is vital for placing agriculture at the center of development. Thank you. |
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