This year, FAO is commemorating its 70th Anniversary – 70 years of action and operations.
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The report was released on the eve of World Food Day (16 October), whose focus is on social protection’s role in breaking the cycle of rural poverty.
Mr Bukar Tijani, Assistant Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has said public investment in social protection must be combined and coordinated towards strengthening the productive sectors of agriculture and rural development.
Expanding such programs in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people, the report said.
The global community has embraced a new goal, the eradication of hunger by 2030.
The report, known as the State of Food and Agriculture, is published annually by the United Nations agency, with this year’s edition launched in Rome on Tuesday.
Notwithstanding the efforts, progress has been uneven. The growing acceptance and proliferation of social protection in the developing world imply recognition of their ability to immediately address poverty and hunger.
Although agriculture plays a key role in eradicating both poverty and hunger, in these circumstances, it offers little on its own. But it is not enough, because all too often, it is not inclusive.
The FAO report also cites other successful examples of social protection programmes in Ethiopia, Ghana and Lesotho. Without such assistance, the report finds that many poor and vulnerable people will never have the opportunity to break out of the poverty trap – in which hunger, illness and lack of education perpetuate poverty for future generations. They adopt low-risk, low-return approaches to generate income.
Social protection programmes encompass activities such as social assistance, which involves providing cash or in-kind transfer to the poor; social insurance for the protection of vulnerable populations against shocks such as weather vagaries or price volatility; and providing labour market protection through unemployment payments or training.
It is true that those not reaping the benefits of social protection are living in rural areas.
“Scientists around the world are not only developing food crops that are more resistant to drought, heat, salinity and pests, they are also using genetic modification to create crops that have increased nutritional value”.
Such findings show how social protection is an investment, rather than a cost.
Social protection refers to programmes to provide basic needs. Social protection, in the form of cash, increases the purchasing power of the poor, who demand goods and services produced largely in the local economy, thereby leading to local economic growth.
According to Benjamin Davis, the Deputy-Director of the FAO’s Agricultural Development Economics Division, every dollar spent locally in social protection programmes can lead up to US$2.5 of economic impact.
However, “there are still relatively few agricultural interventions coordinated or integrated with social protection programmes”, da Silva said.
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This is why FAO chose social protection and agriculture as the theme for the World Food Day this year.
