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Response on Concern Worldwide’s “Unheard Voices” campaign

May 2008

Thank you for your letter to Douglas Alexander about Concern Worldwide’s campaign “Unheard Voices”. I am replying as the Minister who leads on the issues raised.

The Department for International Development (DFID) believes that smallholder farmers, if properly supported, could significantly contribute to reducing hunger by growing food for their families and the immediate community. DFID understands the critical role agriculture plays in poor countries to promote sustainable growth and contribute to Millennium Development Goal 1, halving poverty and halving the number of hungry people.

DFID’s agriculture policy addresses many of the constraints to smallholder farmers’ development. This includes: access to fertile land, fertilizer and seeds; developing and disseminating appropriate technologies; supporting markets and trade; putting in place national policies and strategies that focus on rural and agricultural growth; and ensuring farmers have a voice and a say in their own development.

On agricultural development, DFID works directly in more than 20 countries, is supported by nearly 50 professionals, and spends £120 million a year. For example, in Malawi, DFID’s support to the Government’s fertiliser and seed subsidy programme has contributed to a harvest surplus of 1 million tonnes. In Rwanda, DFID has supported the development of the Government’s national strategy for agricultural transformation. And in Zimbabwe a £10 million a year programme ensures 1.5 million people are benefiting from dramatic increases in agricultural productivity under DFID-funded NGO programmes. (We cannot work through the Zimbabwean Government). We also provide substantial help to agriculture indirectly, for example through our support for rural roads, irrigation and land reform.

Over the last 20 years, the development of new crop varieties which are appropriate to small farm producers has hugely improved agricultural yields, and poor consumers have been the main beneficiaries. DFID has recently announced a further £400 million to be spent on agricultural research over the next five years, and will work to ensure that the benefits of this work can be taken up promptly by all farmers, including smallholders. This research will also look at how climate change will affect smallholder farmers and recommend appropriate adaptation strategies.

Developing country governments are also placing more and more importance on agriculture and rural development. In South Asia, the Governments of India and Nepal are committed to developing a better understanding of the impact of climate change on the sector. And in Africa, the 2003 Maputo Declaration committed signatories to spending 10% of national budgets on the sector by 2009; a number of countries are already achieving this target. We welcome this, and much of the aid that we give to developing country governments is through Direct Budgetary Support. This allows those governments to allocate our funds to their national priorities.

An increasing amount of DFID’s funding is now going through multilateral channels, such as the EC and the World Bank, both of which are doubling the amount that they are committing to agriculture. This year’s World Development Report, published by the World Bank, supported by DFID through funding and technical inputs, is devoted to the subject of agriculture and development. It highlights the need to provide support to smallholder farmers, and to provide alternative income opportunities in rural areas. DFID is also a leading supporter of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP, an Africa-led initiative looking to find the best ways of addressing the primary MDG target of poverty and hunger.

I welcome the interest taken by Concern supporters in these issues, and can assure you that DFID will consult widely when undertaking the full review of its agriculture policy, which is due to take place later in the year.

I hope this is helpful.
 

Gareth Thomas
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development