By Karim Hussein and David Suttie
ROME and ACCRA, Dec 9 2019 (IPS)

As urbanization continues apace, coupled with rapid population growth and rural to urban migration, the challenges for inclusive rural transformation continue, and the importance of fostering improved rural-urban linkages for better food systems becomes increasingly important.. According to the UN, by 2050 some 66% of the world’s population of 9 billion is expected to live in urban areas. Such rapid urbanization is increasingly shaping the rural space and rural livelihoods (through markets, demand for agricultural goods and labour, migration, and through the provision of services to rural areas). It is therefore critical for the increasing emphasis on urban development to take into account the importance of rural development.

Karim Hussein

We were delighted to speak at the first International Forum on Rural Urban Linkages, held in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, China from November 11 to 13th, 2019. Our contributions drew on work we have led in IFAD and GFRAS on sustainable urbanization, rural-urban transformations and food systems [see, the IFAD Research Paper on ‘Rural-urban linkages and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa’].

The theme of the forum was “Rural Revitalization through Innovations and Valorisation”.

The forum probed topics of rural architecture, innovations in tourism, agriculture culture and heritage, rural economic development, among others, focusing on systems thinking and innovative practices of rural revitalization in the context of ecological conservation.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda highlight the need to “leave no one and no place behind”. This includes promoting the inclusive transformation of rural areas, allowing rural and urban areas alike to simultaneously share the fruits of development..

In the session on ‘Innovation in Agriculture; Culture and Heritage’, Karim Hussein discussed the importance of agricultural innovation and fostering mutually beneficial rural–urban linkages to contribute to a more sustainable urbanization process, strengthened food systems and ultimately the achievement of the 2030 Development Agenda.

David Suttie

The pace of innovation needs to increase to overcome the challenges faced by agriculture in the 21st century. The negative effects of climate change on agriculture, food and productivity have become increasingly visible and demand to be addressed address as a priority, particularly in the regions that will be affected the most – arid and semi-arid countries, such as those in Africa.

Innovation is fundamental to revitalising rural areas, creating attractive job opportunities and bringing prosperity to communities. Innovation is central to lifting smallholder and family farmers out of poverty, tackling unemployment for youth and rural women, and helping the world to achieve food security and the Sustainable Development Goals. Key innovations since the 1960s that have contributed to the transformation of food, agriculture and rural development issues have been summarised elsewhere (e.g. see Hussein 2019, ‘Key changes in international agriculture and rural development issues: priorities for tropical agriculture professionals’ in Ag4Dev 37 (Summer))

The potential of digital approaches to agricultural and rural development and ICTs, and the increased productivity, incomes and sustainability possible through their application have raised much interest. This is a frontier area through which urban and rural areas and people are increasingly connected. Digital approaches that enable automation, e-agriculture and ‘smart farming’, are increasingly using for example robotics, drones, self-driving machinery, sensors, digital imagery of fields and better weather and soil analysis to undertake precision farming must now be integrated into work on tropical agriculture at all levels from research through to extension and advisory services. Nonetheless, there are opportunities, challenges and risks that digital transformations bring to agriculture and rural areas that need to be constantly examined, particularly whether poor smallholders will be able to access such innovations and equally benefit from their application.

Strengthening demand driven approaches and empowering producer organisations have proven vital in all efforts to foster effective innovation development, dissemination and sharing, and uptake of innovations by producers – particularly smallholders and family farmers that constitute the vast majority of rural producers. The roles of social entrepreneurs, social and institutional innovation and public-private-producer partnerships to foster innovation are also key.

In the side event on “Innovation in the Rural Economy”, David Suttie highlighted IFAD’s work with rural youth to help them promote innovation and dynamism in rural economies. IFAD’s Youth Action Plan, commits to ensuring that 50% of future projects demonstrate benefits for young people, particularly developing youth capacities through vocational and technical training and business development services. For example: the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin, in partnership with IFAD carries out training, production and research by combining traditional and modern learning methods.

The Songhai model is based on an integrated system of production where agriculture, animal husbandry and fish farming interact with agroindustry and services, such as extension and advisory services. Young trainees learn about the importance of key values such as creativity, innovation taking initiative, competitiveness and building organizational capacity.

Social innovation is also important. For example: promoting women’s empowerment though the use of household methodologies; addressing land access and tenure issues in rural communities based on a better understanding of local institutions and customary systems of tenure; and the need to work in partnership with indigenous peoples and their communities.

One of the most effective means to ensure inclusive outcomes from growth and transformation processes is to create decent jobs that are accessible to groups who are often overrepresented among the poor, particularly rural people, women, young unemployed, migrants and disable people. This need is particularly pressing in SSA, where it has been projected that by 2025, 25 million young people will enter the labour force annually.

In conclusion, the goal of sustainable urbanization requires us to maximise the potential of agriculture and food systems as a normal part of a balanced development process.

Development policies need to systematically take into account urban-rural interdependencies. Cities, towns and other urban centres have key roles in stimulating rural development, but the connectivity of these cities and towns to their rural hinterlands and surrounding areas is often weak. Given urban dependence on rural areas and the roles of rural development in the broader process of economic transformation, development policies need to systematically integrate the rural dimensions of urbanization.

The multi-stakeholder approach and process of IFURL is timely and will prove to be of critical importance to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda over the long term in order to leave no-one, and no place, behind. We look forward to the next IFURL, planned for 2 years’ time!

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Transformations in international agricultural and rural development issues

Some major changes in international agricultural and rural development over the last 30-40 years need to be taken into account in efforts to promote sustainable development and an inclusive rural transformation (IFAD 2016) as we approach the third decade of the millennium. This opinion piece, drawing on a longer article published in Agriculture for Development Journal (Summer 2019 Issue), seeks to stimulate reflection and debate on how work to support agricultural and rural development can evolve to address key challenges and opportunities related to migration, sustainable urbanization and youth in a changing global policy context.

Karim Hussein

While key themes have remained on the agenda such as enhancing productivity, environmental sustainability, inclusion and participation, availability and access to food and addressing trade issues, since the 1980s the global development landscape has evolved. The transformations occurring in the global economy and society are moving at a rapid pace, particularly in the context of the application of new technologies and innovations, information and communications technologies (ICTs) and digital approaches in agriculture or ‘digitalisation’ (Dahlberg Advisers and CTA 2019), all in an increasingly complex and globalised development context. A key question has become how do agricultural and rural development adapt in a world of rapid globalisation and urbanization to reduce hunger, food insecurity and contribute to eliminating poverty FAO 2019 and Jacquet et al, 2011)?

The roles of partnerships among all stakeholders to address food systems challenges and build resilience to shocks among smallholders are key. Smallholders constitute the majority of the world’s rural producers, and among these special attention is needed to empower women and youth and to address the challenges faced by vulnerable groups, including migrants, in the context of rapid transformations in the global economy and food systems.

Major challenges to an inclusive and sustainable rural transformation in the 21st Century are reviewed in more detail in the paper published in Agriculture for Development cited above. Clearly, the pace of innovation has to increase to address these challenges. Here, I will highlight just three areas: migration; rapid urbanization; and youth (https://taa.org.uk/publications/journals/).

Migration is a dramatic global and regional phenomenon shaping the policies and decisions of governments and populations around the world. The roles of mobility in agriculture and rural development require more attention than they have received to date. They are increasingly significant given rapid growth in youth populations in developing countries, along with dynamic rural-urban connectivity, and the impacts of climate change and spread of conflict (Suttie 2018, ‘Migration and rural advisory services’, GFRAS Issues Paper 2). Tailored, context-specific approaches to promoting agriculture and access to advisory services for young people and women is critical to the 2030 Agenda, especially SDGs 1, 2, 5, 8 and 11. There is a need to work on how to adapt technical agricultural analysis, advice and rural advisory services to respond to the needs of mobile populations in both rural and urban areas.

Rapid urbanisation. A rapid rate of urbanization has occurred and will likely accelerate in the coming years such that in 2050 some 66% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas (see FAO 2019 cited above). In 2013, over 58 % of the total population in developing countries was considered to live in rural areas with most involved in agriculture, mainly smallholder farming (Hussein and Suttie, 2016). Given the major transitions related to the global trend of urbanization, the roles that rural economies and societies will have to play in creating sustainable and inclusive food systems require more attention in the years ahead. Rural-based populations are increasingly connected to urban areas and markets, but many are primarily engaged in informal sector economic activities and low productivity agriculture and lacking access to basic services. The incentives for people in rural areas and for those engaged in agriculture to migrate to towns, cities and abroad in search of better jobs and income earning opportunities are very powerful, particularly for young people.

Youth. In many developing countries, the population of young people is growing and youth have become the centre of attention for development practitioners and decision makers. Addressing the challenges related to a bulging population of young people seeking better work and incomes in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, will be vital in the years ahead. This is critical to work to strengthen rural-urban linkages and food systems to facilitate youth migration for real job opportunities but also to ensure they have attractive economic opportunities in agriculture and rural areas.

Suttie argued that higher incomes, urban growth, increasing demand for food, the spread of technologies and greater rural-urban connectivity have created new opportunities for skilled remunerative work in agri-food systems (Suttie 2018). In this context, skills development tailored to opportunities for young people (particularly smallholder family farmers, rural workers and rural women) in agriculture – whether in urban or rural contexts – is strategically important for making progress towards achieving the SDGs.

Concluding remarks

Hunger, poverty, environmental crises and sustainability remain as important if not more important than they were 40 years ago. While the issues have perhaps not changed so much over this period, the context has in this rapidly changing, fluid and globalised world where technology and innovation are leaping ahead. In order to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and an inclusive and sustainable agricultural and rural transformation, special attention needs to be paid by development actors to addressing issues related to migration, rapid urbanization and youth.

This opinion piece is drawn from a longer article published in Agriculture for Development journal, No. 37, Summer 2019 (see: https://taa.org.uk/publications/journals/)

Women farmers clearing farmland in Northern Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Karim Hussein
ACCRA, Dec 3 2018 (IPS)

In mid-2018 the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) that brings together key development partners  and 17 multistakeholder Regional Networks and country fora across six continents, published a new book :  What Works in Rural Advisory Services: Global Good Practice Notes .

This book includes over 30 Notes on a wide range of essential topics for strengthening agricultural  extension and rural advisory services, drawing on contributions from the GFRAS family of experts, practitioners, governmental and non-governmental  stakeholders, facilitate access to know-how and support RAS organisations, managers, and individual field staff with easy-to-understand overviews on key approaches, principles and methods.

It is a unique effort drawing on the experience of more than 90 people involved in agriculture and advisory services drawn from 6 continents.

What are Rural Advisory Services and how are they relevant to the 2030 Development Agenda?

When agricultural and rural advisory services, whether public or private, are properly resourced and have the right skills and capacities, they play vital roles in enabling agricultural producers to access the services and advice they need to improve skills, productivity and incomes.

They are vital in order to achieve the 2030 Development Agenda, particularly SDG 2 that seeks to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. The important roles of rural advisory services for inclusive development and rural transformation have indeed been recognised by the OECD, the UN, the G7 and G20.

However, agricultural extension and advisory services have in many countries suffered over many years from inadequate policies, underinvestment, weak institutions, limited opportunities for capacity development and learning across regions and an insufficient uptake of responsive, demand-driven approaches. This has particularly been the case in lower income countries.

This book compiles Notes on a variety of critical issues for strengthening RAS to serve development, including an overview of extension philosophies and methods, innovative financing, roles of the private sector and producer organisations, capacity development and professionalization, a review of advisory methods (from farmer-to-farmer approaches, farmer field schools, community knowledge workers to ICT and mobile phone extension) and key cross-cutting issues (such as gender and nutrition).

RAS as brokers and facilitators in sharing new technologies, approaches and knowledge

The Notes highlight the roles of advisory services as facilitators in sharing new agricultural technologies, practices and knowledge. They show how such services have the potential to play critical roles in improving the livelihoods and well-being of farmers, particularly rural smallholders worldwide, and to enable them to contribute to sustainable development.

They highlight the need to address three levels of capacity development in RAS: (i) building a good policy environment that enables RAS to do their work effectively; (ii) strengthening institutions and organisations involved in RAS (including producer organisations, civil society and private sector operators); and (iii) building the capacities of individuals involved in providing advisory services.

Knowledge needed for RAS to be able to play new roles

RAS providers are being asked to fulfil a wider range of tasks with very limited capacities and resources. To fulfil expectations and undertake these tasks, a wide range of approaches, methods and principles exist.

The success or failure of particular approaches is always closely linked to the context in which they are applied and therefore it remains critical to strengthen the capacities of all stakeholders in RAS, from farmers and rural producers through to private and public service providers, to select and adapt approaches to specific contexts.

Without adequate skills development it will be extremely difficult for RAS to achieve the hoped-for development impact and results.

Limitations of the book and areas for further work

This book addresses a vital topics for capacity building in RAS. However, it could go further in addressing the question of how RAS can better demonstrate their capacity to respond to local,  national and international development challenges that are at the top of development agendas.

For example, they need to engage more with youth, women and poor smallholders, consider ways in which to take account of the challenges posed by migration and urbanisation in their work to foster more inclusive, safer and more efficient food systems and they need to review the challenges RAS face in responding to fragile and conflict-affected situations.

The GFRAS Issues Paper Series launched in early 2018 begins to address such challenges and more work is needed here.

The sustainability of the Forum and knowledge network model in agricultural and rural development: making it more relevant, demand driven and sustainable

Lastly, true, effective and efficient subsidiarity between the global, regional, national and subnational levels remains an enormous challenge for all knowledge sharing networks and for a given resource and capacity constraints.

These reviews of existing practices need to be complemented by consistent policy and advocacy efforts and a tighter connection to programmes that invest in inclusive rural transformation in order to persuade decision-makers to mobilise new resources for extension.

The global networking approach taken by GFRAS needs to change focus to mobilise investments in concrete programmes that ensure RAS generate positive impacts on the lives of rural people in a shorter timescale.

Information sharing, knowledge development and networking are not sufficient. This will involve assessing the real demand for services and networks by the ultimate users and intended beneficiaries and the value they place of the advice and support they receive.

Otherwise it would be fair to reflect on whether resources should be directly made available to ultimate users, such as farmers and their organisations, who then decide how best to use these to serve their needs.

GFRAS was established in 2010 to nurture a global network of agricultural extension and rural advisory services (RAS) to enhance their performance so that they can better serve farm families and rural producers, thus contributing to improved livelihoods and the sustainable reduction of hunger and poverty.

Rural advisory services help to empower farmers and better integrate them in systems of agricultural innovation. GFRAS reaches smallholder farmers through its regional RAS networks, which in turn have national-level platforms or country fora.

The country fora bring together stakeholders from all sectors working in RAS, and work directly with smallholders. Country fora help prioritise national-level issues relevant to extension and RAS, and formulate requests and proposals to be taken to the regional and global levels.

Following more than 10 years in rural development research and a wide range of publications, Karim Hussein served in several senior technical and advisory roles at the OECD and the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development he was appointed  Executive Secretary of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services from 2016-2018.

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