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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> WUNRN_LISTSERVE-owner@lists.wunrn.com [mailto:WUNRN_LISTSERVE-owner@lists.wunrn.com]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>WUNRN LISTSERVE<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, October 16, 2017 4:50 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> WUNRN ListServe <wunrn_listserve@lists.wunrn.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [WUNRN] State of Food & Agriculture 2017 - Leveraging Food Systems for Inclusive Rural Transformation<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WUNRN<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.wunrn.com">http://www.wunrn.com</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">2017 STATE OF FOOD & AGRICULTURE 2017 – LEVERAGING FOOD SYSTEMS FOR INCLUSIVE TRANSFORMATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Rural areas, too long seen as poverty traps, key to economic growth in developing countries</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">But sweeping transformations needed to unlock their potential to help feed and employ a younger, more crowded planet - new report<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Direct Link to Full 181-Page FAO 2017 Report</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">:
</span></i><a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-I7658e.pdf"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">http://www.fao.org/3/a-I7658e.pdf</span></a><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="382" height="534" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D345E6.7032D310" alt="cid:image003.png@01D34352.84C1A9A0"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">9 October 2017, Rome</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"> - Millions of young people in developing
countries who are poised to enter the labour force in the coming decades need not flee rural areas to escape poverty, argues a new FAO report published today. Rural areas actually have vast potential for economic growth pegged to food production and related
sectors, The </span><a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-agriculture/en/"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#29A4D9;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">State of Food and Agriculture 2017</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"> says.
And with the majority of the world's poor and hungry living in these areas, achieving the 2030 development agenda will hinge on unlocking that oft-neglected potential, it adds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Doing so will require overcoming a thorny combination of low productivity in subsistence agriculture, limited scope for industrialization in many places, and rapid population growth and
urbanization — all of which pose challenges to developing nations' capacity to feed and employ their citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">There is ample evidence that changes to rural economies can have major impacts. Transformations of rural economies have been credited with helping hundreds of millions of rural people
lift themselves up out of poverty since the 1990s, the report notes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">However that progress has been patchy, and demographic growth is raising the stakes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Between 2015 and 2030, the ranks of people aged 15-24 years are expected to rise by about 100 million, to 1.3 billion. Almost all that increase will take place in sub-Saharan Africa —
the lion's share of it in rural zones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">But in many developing countries — most notably in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — growth in the industrial and service sectors has lagged, and they will not be able to absorb the
massive numbers of new job seekers set to enter the workforce.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Nor will agriculture — in its current form.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">So rural people who relocate to cities will likely run a greater risk of joining the ranks of the urban poor, instead of finding a pathway out of poverty. Others will need to look for
employment elsewhere, leading to seasonal — or permanent — migration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">This is why targeting policy support and investment to rural areas to build vibrant food systems and supporting agro-industries that are well connected to urban zones —especially small
and medium size cities — will create employment and allow more people to stay, and thrive, in the countryside represents a strategic intervention, today's report says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Transformed rural economies won't necessarily be a panacea that solves all the pressures that drive people to relocate, but they will generate much-needed jobs and contribute to making
out-migration more of a choice, rather than a necessity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">"Too often ignored by policy-makers and planners, territorial networks of small cities and towns are important reference points for rural people — the places where they buy their seed,
send their children to school and access medical care and other services," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva notes in his forward to the report.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">"Policy-makers are urged to recognize the catalytic role of small cities and towns in mediating the rural-urban nexus and providing smallholder farmers with greater opportunities to market
their produce and share in the benefits of economic growth," he adds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">How urban food demand can spark rural renewal</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">The State of Food and Agriculture makes the case that needed transformations in rural economies can be sparked by leveraging growing demand for food in urban areas to diversify food systems
and generate new economic opportunities in off-farm, agriculture -related activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">This includes enterprises that process or refine, package or transport, and store, market or sell food, as well as businesses that supply production inputs such as seeds, tools and equipment,
and fertilizers or provide irrigation, tilling or other services<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Already, growing demand coming from urban food markets currently consumes up to 70 percent of national food supplies, even in countries with large rural populations, the report notes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">No silver bullets</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">But while urbanization provides a "golden opportunity" for agriculture, it also presents challenges for millions of small-scale family farmers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Markets that are more profitable can lead to the concentration of food production in large commercial farms, to value chains dominated by large processors and retailers, and to the exclusion
of smallholders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">So supportive public policies and investments will be key to harnessing urban demand as an engine for transformative and equitable growth, and measures designed to ensure market participation
by small-scale, family-farmers must be hard-wired into policies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Family farmers, infrastructure, small cities and towns</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">The study lays out three lines for action:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">The first involves putting in place a range of policies designed to ensure that small-scale producers are able to participate fully in meeting urban food demands. Measures to strengthen
land tenure rights, ensure equity in supply contracts, or improve access to credit are but a few options.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">The second is to build up the necessary infrastructure to connect rural areas and urban markets — in many developing countries the lack of rural roads, electrical power grids, storage
facilities, and refrigerated transportation systems is a major bottleneck for farmers seeking to take advantage of urban demand for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">The third involves including not just mega-cities into well-connected rural-urban economies but knitting in smaller, more spread-out urban areas as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555">Indeed, the report stresses that smaller urban centres represent a much overlooked market for food. Half of all urban dwellers in developing countries live in cities and towns of fewer
than 500,000 people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;vertical-align:baseline">
<b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">_________________________________</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#555555"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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