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`Investment in agriculture key to poverty eradication'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Dec. 1. Improving resources in rural areas, imparting modern agriculture technology to rural farmers and increasing investment in agriculture and other allied activities are essential for eradication of poverty in developing countries, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Lennart Bage, said here today.

Addressing the millennium lecture on `Eradicating Rural Poverty: Lessons Learnt and Way forward,' sponsored by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation here, Mr. Bage said there was a high concentration of hungry and poverty in Asia and the Pacific. The international agencies and the developed countries had committed themselves to end poverty in the next 25 years and agreed to mobilise funds for poverty eradication programmes in the developing countries.

The IFAD had been extending assistance to rural poverty alleviation programmes in developing countries and its programmes had so far reached about 500 million poor people. In India, it was supporting such programmes in different States to the tune of about $ 1.26 billion.

Regretting that there was a sharp fall in investment on agriculture, the IFAD chief said public investments on the farm front had come down from 35 to 25 per cent. International assistance for agriculture too was on the decline. Without increasing agriculture production, it would be difficult to eradicate poverty, he said.

Empowerment of rural women was necessary for poverty eradication in rural areas. In this connection, he lauded the success stories of women self-help groups, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. He was for replicating such success programmes in other States also. He was confident that given the necessary support, the rural poor would rise to the occasion to enhance their livelihood.

The MSSRF chairman, M.S. Swaminathan, said the contribution of agriculture to the GDP was on the decline. A majority of farmers in rural areas did not have proper access to marketing, resulting in poor returns for their investment.

The trade must be friendly to poor farmers in helping them get a fair price for their produce. There must be a shift from trade patronage to partnership of farmers, he said.

N. Ram, Editor, Frontline, said hunger could no longer be challenged by traditional and conventional approaches and new ways had to be found out.

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