Suchergebnisse

Agricultural Economics

environmental economics; biodiversity; sustainable development

The a griculture and food sector in India employ a significant proportion (about 44 percent) of the workforce, the majority of whom are not very educated and lack formal or informal skill training. Hence, they are unable to make the most out of their occupation. About 67 percent of the population in India is aged 15-64 years while 27 percent is aged 0-14 years (UNFPA n.d.). This offers both a challenge and an opportunity to skill the youth as well as the existing workforce in India with the objective to improve their productivity and enhance their incomes. This paper is a scoping study of policies and institutions that are operational in this context of skill formation in India, with a focus on the agriculture and food sector. It takes stock of ongoing initiatives and programs, their design and scope in achieving skill development in general and related to the agriculture and food sector in particular. In terms of policy, skill development has been accorded high priority with an objective to make the programs aspirational for youth as well as for them to recognize the value of experience and knowledge. The focus is laid on quality of training, assessment, and certification thus ensuring standards and greater market acceptability. These are prerequisites for investments in skills to bring higher returns in terms of remunerative jobs. The government has been a catalyst of change in this area in terms of designing, implementing and financing of such programs. The role of private players including both potential employers as well as global partners (government, business and non-governmental organizations) has been widely recognized in upgrading the scope, target and outcomes as well as ensuring sustainability of the national skill development program. As technology plays a very important role in sustainable value chains, it creates demand for a better skilled workforce, and accordingly rewards them with better paid jobs and higher returns in farming. Hence designing appropriate qualification packs and training ...

The agriculture and food sector in India employ a significant proportion (about 44 percent) of the workforce, the majority of whom are not very educated and lack formal or informal skill training. Hence, they are unable to make the most out of their occupation. About 67 percent of the population in India is aged 15-64 years while 27 percent is aged 0-14 years (UNFPA n.d.). This offers both a challenge and an opportunity to skill the youth as well as the existing workforce in India with the objective to improve their productivity and enhance their incomes. This paper is a scoping study of policies and institutions that are operational in this context of skill formation in India, with a focus on the agriculture and food sector. It takes stock of ongoing initiatives and programs, their design and scope in achieving skill development in general and related to the agriculture and food sector in particular. In terms of policy, skill development has been accorded high priority with an objective to make the programs aspirational for youth as well as for them to recognize the value of experience and knowledge. The focus is laid on quality of training, assessment, and certification thus ensuring standards and greater market acceptability. These are prerequisites for investments in skills to bring higher returns in terms of remunerative jobs. The government has been a catalyst of change in this area in terms of designing, implementing and financing of such programs. The role of private players including both potential employers as well as global partners (government, business and nongovernmental organizations) has been widely recognized in upgrading the scope, target and outcomes as well as ensuring sustainability of the national skill development program. As technology plays a very important role in sustainable value chains, it creates demand for a better skilled workforce, and accordingly rewards them with better paid jobs and higher returns in farming. Hence designing appropriate qualification packs and training programs with a focus on innovations all along the value chains (that help promote technology adoption, facilitate effective value chain management, etc.) are critical. Also, innovative models of outreach (for example, classroom training for agricultural professionals, agricultural entrepreneurs, farmer field schools, and e-platforms) can add substantial value to skills at very low cost. Hence, scaling up fast is necessary to benefit the agriculture and food sector in India. While this paper gives an overview of the landscape of various programs and projects, and how they are being implemented by various actors (government, domestic private sector and international agencies), there is dire need to evaluate their outcomes in terms of increased incomes and more stable jobs of those trained through these programs.

This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation is especially severe on livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) and lower cropland and rangeland productivity is estimated to be about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22%) of the total global cost of land degradation. Only about 38% of the cost of land degradation due to LUCC - which accounts for 78% of the US$300 billion loss - is borne by land users and the remaining share (62%) is borne by consumers of ecosystem services off the farm. The results in this volume indicate that reversing land degradation trends makes both economic sense, and has multiple social and environmental benefits. On average, one US dollar investment into restoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. The findings of the country case studies call for increased investments into the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded lands, including through such institutional and policy measures as strengthening community participation for sustainable land management, enhancing government effectiveness and rule of law, improving access to markets and rural services, and securing land tenure. The assessment in this volume has been conducted at a time when there is an elevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives have intensified. In this regard, the results of this volume can contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts to design strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and related efforts to address land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Extreme poverty is an immense political and market failure, wasting the potential of hundreds of millions of people. Investing in the creation of markets that include the extreme poor and marginalized should thus not only be considered as a charitable activity, but promises high returns on investments - in financial and humanitarian terms. However, while the potential of innovative business approaches to target the poor that live close to the poverty line is increasingly being recognised, the question remains how far these approaches can push the margin to also include those that are extremely poor. And how can those that are marginalized from development opportunities be brought into and benefit from market-based systems to improve the quality of their lives? The impressive rise of business approaches to combating poverty stems from a long history of debates on the role of businesses in society. From an initial focus on social objectives as an external add-on, leading business thinkers have increasingly been stressing the benefits for companies of integrating social considerations into their core business strategies, for instance by targeting lowincome consumers (or 'bottom of the pyramid' markets) or strengthening supply and distribution chains through the involvement of local communities as part of inclusive business strategies. Others - most notably Muhammed Yunus along with other social entrepreneurs - are taking this argument one step further, advocating the use of business strategies primarily to address social goals rather than for financial gains. Thus, in discussions on the role of business in society, profit maximisation as the primary objective of business operations is increasingly making way for business initiatives that are guided by social objectives. This trend is also being supported by growing interest among investors in financing enterprises that promote social or environmental objectives, either as their primary aim or in parallel with seeking to generate financial returns. How suitable these different approaches are to engage the poorest and marginalized depends in part on the extent to which they are able to involve the extreme poor themselves, their flexibility to direct business objectives towards the reduction of extreme poverty and marginality, and their ability to successfully operate with non-business public and civil society partners and in sectors of particular interest to the extreme poor. Further research and action is needed to identify outcome-focused indicators and measurement tools for social value creation, examine possible government measures to support business activities for the poorest, and consider complementarities between the different business approaches. While we recognise that it is unrealistic to expect businesses to be able to reach all of the extreme poor, we believe that the boundaries of innovative business operations can be pushed much further to include a far larger number of the poorest and marginalized.

At the Ministerial Conference in Doha, WTO member countries acknowledged the need to further correct the prevailing restrictions and distortions in agricultural world markets. The Ministerial Declaration of Doha reaffirms the commitment of creating a fair agricultural trading system that will recognize the special needs of developing countries and foster their full integration and participation in agricultural world trade. It has been widely discussed who the winners and losers of further trade liberalization may be, considering particular country groups such as the Cairns Group or the group of Net Food Importing Developing Countries. Although many developing countries may gain from both increased access to OECD markets and the elimination of own trade barriers, the most vulnerable economies within the international trading system are likely to be left behind. Therefore, it has been argued that the current WTO negotiations have to be held under the motto of a development round and multiple proposals have been made towards the creation of a Development Box. In this context, our paper emphasizes the heterogeneity of developing countries as a group and the regional diversity within particular economies and puts a special focus on people rather than countries. We suggest a conceptual design of a potential Development and Food Security Box within the WTO Agreement on Agriculture that would address the most pressing issues of hunger and poverty in food-insecure, low-income countries/regions. We also suggest conceptual measures to further integrate the poorest of the poor into the existing trading system and to stimulate their economic development. Finally, we make a first attempt to identify possible actors as well as financing and implementation mechanisms for a viable Development Box that would reach beyond conventional Green Box and Special and Differential Treatment measures. We conclude that direct action for food security remains necessary. The complementary potentials of trade, finance, and political reform, and the multiplicity of instruments needed for sustainable development, including food security, are to be utilized. A rule-based Development Box that is complementary to trade liberalization in the long run is called for.