Strategies and Investment to Increase Income of the Small

Commercial Farmer – and Thereby Increase Food Security

John W. Mellor (John Mellor Associates, Inc.)

26-27 May 2010

BANGLADESH FOOD SECURITY INVESTMENT FORUM 2010

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Definition – Small Commercial Farmer

A. The 40 percent of rural people who produce 80 percent of agricultural output.

B. Does not include holdings so small that only part-time farmers, e.g. 0.25 hectares.

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Relation to Food Security

A. The food insecure earn income from employment in the rural nonfarm sector

B. They produce non-tradeables – only salable locally

C. The small commercial farmer generates the income that expands demand for what they produce.

D. Thus, is it rising income of the small commercial farmer that is responsible for 80 to 90 percent of rural poverty reduction

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What is Required to Raise Incomes of the SCF?

A. The core requirement is five sets of public services (government)

1. Higher agricultural education to train myriad technical persons

2. Agricultural research3. Extension services4. Specialized agricultural credit institutions5. Analysis and regulation of water resources

B. Private sector – of course – but bottleneck is public

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What are the Priorities for Foreign Assistance for Food Security?

A. Recognize that the core to food security is raising incomes of SCF

B. Major, sustained, technical assistance to agricultural universities. This drives all else – shortage of trained people = shortage of impact

C. Major sustained assistance to the agricultural research system – in agriculture, income growth is driven by improved biological technology

D. Technical assistance in the specialized agricultural credit agencies tremendous amount learned over past 20 years need to spread that

E. In-depth analyses of irrigation potentials and needs – serious problem on Bangladesh