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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
In this section:
Technology and Training Boost Agriculture’s
Output
Technology and Training Boost Agriculture’s Output
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Agriculture accounts for one of every two jobs in the
world. Many USAID field missions are implementing programs
to promote increased agricultural exports and access
to the marketplace.
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Agriculture in the developing world is slowly shifting away
from rural farmers tending their homesteads to business-savvy
producers accessing the marketplace.
Even the definition of agriculture has expanded to include
not just sowing and reaping, but also processing; marketing;
distribution; and trading in food, feed, and fiber.
Producers include people who fish in oceans, rivers, and
other bodies of water, as well as those who harvest products
from forests.
“In many countries, agriculture is the primary source
of income for the rural sector. But that’s changing,”
said John Thomas, acting director of USAID’s agriculture
office. The Agency is working to get producers to “think
in terms of producing for the market. I think the hard part
is helping these producers understand the changing consumer
demand. That’s where we can really make a contribution.”
In 2004, USAID published its Agriculture Strategy: Linking
Producers to Markets with the intent of raising the profile
of the role agriculture plays in development.
Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, accounts for
one of every two jobs in the world. And, in the next 40 years,
population growth will demand that developing countries do
more.
“It’s pivotal,” Thomas said of the strategy,
“because it has the focus on markets and recognizes access
to markets is essential for agriculture—for food producers
to expand their incomes and generate growth in rural economies.”
The strategy focuses on four themes:
- developing domestic, regional, and global trade opportunities
- using science and technology, driven by market demand,
to reduce poverty and hunger and increase producer competitiveness
- increasing training and outreach to reduce the knowledge
divide
- promoting sustainable agriculture and sound environmental
management
Work is underway on several of these themes. Many field
missions, with Agency support, are implementing programs to
promote agribusiness development and increased agricultural
exports.
An important element of this assistance is an emphasis on
improving food quality and safety to meet internationally
recognized and accepted quality standards.
In October 2004, the Global Crop Diversity Trust became
an independent international organization. USAID backed the
effort to preserve crop varieties from around the world with
a $5 million donation. The trust hopes to create a $260 million
endowment, and has already raised about $51 million. The trust
is part of Agency efforts to use science and technology to
help producers increase their yields at lower cost.
USAID is also reinvesting in degree-training programs, which
were active in the 1970s and 1980s, but were curtailed in
the 1990s because of shifting priorities.
“We realized that there is a gap in the countries we
work in, especially Africa,” Thomas said. There are fewer
scientists and agriculture faculty members who can conduct
research and pass on their knowledge to current and future
generations of agriculture specialists.
The Agency is piloting “sandwich programs”—educational
programs that divide instruction between U.S. institutions
and institutions in the student’s home country—in
Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Soon Zambia and Ghana will
be added to the list.
Another objective of USAID’s training efforts is “to
look for innovative ways to do long-term training and to create
training and capacity building alliances with the private
sector,” Thomas added.
This way, developing countries gain the expertise they need
in the agriculture sector, and major agribusinesses find new
consumers and learn how to market to them.
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