Posted on December, 18, 2018 at 09:34 am
By Michael J. Ssali
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report titled “The state of Food and Agriculture 2017” makes some important revelations about what could be done to unlock the problem of youth migration from rural areas to urban centres in search of employment.
It says that rural areas, too long seen as poverty traps actually are key to economic growth in developing countries if some sweeping transformations are made.
“Rural areas actually have vast potential for economic growth pegged to food production and related sectors,” the report says.
“And with the majority of the world’s poor and hungry living in these areas, achieving the 2030 development agenda will hinge on unlocking that oft-neglected potential.”
It further notes that transformations of rural economies have been credited with helping hundreds of millions of rural people lift themselves out of poverty since the 1990s but the development has been patchy because in many countries the efforts to drive transformations have been sluggish.
It mentions low productivity in subsistence agriculture, limited scope for industrialisation in many places, and rapid population growth and urbanisation as some of the challenges to developing nations’ capacity to feed and employ their citizens.
It says that the transformation efforts in rural areas should include putting in place enterprises that process, package, or transport, store, market or sell food, as well as businesses that supply production inputs such as seeds, tools and equipment, and fertilisers or provide irrigation, tilling or other services.
It further states that the emerging cities should provide opportunities for rural farmers to market their produce and it calls upon policy makers to promote the creation of rural based agro-industries to absorb the massive numbers of new job seekers.
It emphasised the need to strengthen land tenure rights, ensure equity in supply contracts, or improve access to credit.
The second is to build up the necessary infrastructure to connect rural areas and urban markets — in many developing countries the lack of rural roads, electrical power grids, storage facilities, and refrigerated transportation systems is a major bottleneck for farmers seeking to take advantage of urban demand for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy.
Source: Daily Monitor