i) Linking small-scale farmers to markets
Farmers are defined broadly to include those who make a livelihood through crops, livestock, agro-forestry, fisheries or aquaculture. Well-functioning agricultural markets can reduce the cost of food and uncertainty of supply, thereby improving food security for both poor and non-poor households. Better markets also result in higher net returns to farmers, derived from reduced post-harvest losses, lower transaction and transfer costs, access to a broader base of consumers and potentially greater value addition. By contrast, inefficient markets and institutional constraints impede growth and lead to welfare losses for smallholders, threatening their competitiveness and often their survival.
Linking small-scale farmers to better markets requires productivity-enhancing change at the farm level that will make their products more attractive to buyers in terms of quality, consistency of supply and price. It also requires institutional innovation in the marketing system that will reduce delays, costs, service gaps, information asymmetries that prevent both availing of opportunities and achieving better market trust and reputation. Ultimately such changes reduce risk.
Under this sub-theme, institutional and organizational innovation in marketing systems are sought primarily for: (i) financial and business development services that expand opportunities for more efficient technology adoption and resource allocation by small-scale producers and market agents; (ii) effective producer organizations that can reduce transaction costs and improve efficiency in the marketing chain; (iii) innovations that improve the access of small-scale producers and market agents to transport services, physical markets, telecommunications and electricity in ways that improve supply chain logistics; and (iv) improved sourcing and selling arrangements such as contract farming that will increase access to more lucrative value chains.
ii) Improving land access and tenure for the poor
Land is the key asset for hundreds of millions of poor around the globe who work in agriculture. Land and the resources derived from it is the primary source of not only nutrition and income, but identity, wealth and credit access. Thus, the nature of rights to land and resources (including common property and aquatic resources) and the way in which they are documented and can be exchanged are key determinants for and sustainable agricultural development as well as improved livelihoods for those in the rural sector.
This sub-theme seeks innovative, low-cost and scalable ways to strengthen access to and improve productive use of land by the poor, especially women. These include: (i) legal aid/awareness campaigns and increasing access to records of land and aquatic rights through private-public partnerships to enhance transparency and reduce corruption; (ii) local resource mapping and registration to develop and codify arrangements for effective use of common property resources in a way that benefits the poor; (iii) decentralized settlement of conflicting land claims in post-conflict settings; (iv) local negotiation to allow regularization of existing occupation by marginal or poor populations or access to land through implementation of reform legislation for land and aquatic rights, or through land markets; and (v) technical and other support to enable those received land through such mechanisms to make the most productive use of it.
iii) Promoting the environmental services of agriculture in addressing climate change and biodiversity conservation
Agricultural development and environmental protection are closely intertwined. The reliance of agriculture, forestry and fisheries on natural resources means that they can create beneficial and detrimental environmental outcomes. The impact of these activities can be local (agriculture is often the largest water user, for example) as well as global (contributing, for example, up to 30 percent of greenhouse gases). Improvements in agricultural and forestry practices can thus have beneficial impacts at multiple levels: agriculture’s large environmental footprint can be reduced, farming systems made less vulnerable to climate change and agriculture harnessed to promote more global environmental improvement and produce gains locally as well. However, there are often trade-offs between local incentives and global goals.
This sub-theme seeks innovative systems that ensure local gains to battling the global environmental problems of climate change and biodiversity conservation. Innovations are sought in the following areas: (i) development and production of sustainable biofuels; (ii) methods to scale up payments to ecosystem services; (iii) increased local incentives and benefits to the poor in payment for environmental services schemes; (iv) enhancement of community-level adaptation to climate change in rural areas; (v) reducing the contribution of agriculture and fisheries to greenhouse gases; and (vi) sustainable use and promotion of biodiversity at the local level.
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