eBook

Growth and productivity in agriculture and agribusiness

World Bank. Independent Evaluation Group, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, International Finance Corporation, World Bank

2011

Overview

The report assesses the World Bank Group?s support for growth and productivity in the agriculture sector. Enhancing agricultural growth and productivity is essential to meeting the worldwide demand for food and to reducing poverty, particularly in the poorest developing countries. Between 1998 and 2008, the period covered by this evaluation, the World Bank Group (WBG) provided 23.7 billion in financing for agriculture and agribusiness in 108 countries (roughly 8 percent of total WBG financing), spanning areas from irrigation and marketing to research and extension. However, this was a time of declining focus on agricultural growth and productivity by both countries and donors. The cost of inadequate attention to agriculture, especially in agriculture-based economies, came into focus with the food crisis of 2007-08. The crisis added momentum to an emerging renewal of attention and stepped-up financing to agriculture and agribusiness at the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as at several multilateral and bilateral agencies. World Bank financing rose two and a half times from 2008 to 2009, though that increase in lending seems to have been accompanied by a decline in analytical work, which this review finds valuable for results. This evaluation seeks to provide lessons from successes and failures to help improve the development impact of the renewed attention to the sector. Ratings against the World Bank?s stated objectives and IFC?s market-based benchmarks for agriculture and agribusiness projects have been equal to or above portfolio averages in East Asia, Latin America, and the transition economies in Europe, with notable successes over a long period in China and India. But performance of WBG interventions has been well below average in Sub-Saharan Africa, where IFC has had little engagement in agribusiness. Inconsistent client commitment and weak capacity have limited the effectiveness of WBG support in agriculture-based economies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and constraints on staffing and internal coordination within the WBG have also hurt outcomes. Financial sustainability has been constrained by insufficient government funding and the difficulty of maintaining agricultural services and infrastructure. The WBG has a unique opportunity to match the increases in the financing for agriculture with sharper focus on improving agricultural growth and productivity in agriculture-based economies, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa. Greater effort will be needed to connect sectoral interventions and achieve synergies from public and private sector interventions; to build capacity and knowledge exchange; to take stock of experience in rain-fed agriculture; to ensure attention to financial sustainability and to cross-cutting issues of gender, environmental and social impacts, and climate; and to better integrate WBG support at the global and regional levels with that at the country level.

• Publisher: World Bank,World Bank Publications,The World Bank,Washington, DC: World Bank
• Subject: ACCESS TO CREDIT / ACCESS TO MARKETS / ACCOUNTABILITY / ADVISORY SERVICE / ADVISORY SERVICES / ADVISORY WORK / AGRIBUSINESS / AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES / Agricultural assistance / Agricultural assistance -- Developing countries / AGRICULTURAL CREDIT / AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT / AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS / AGRICULTURAL GROWTH / AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES / Agricultural industries -- Developing countries -- Finance / AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION / AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENTS / AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE / AGRICULTURAL LAND / AGRICULTURAL LANDS / AGRICULTURAL MARKETING / AGRICULTURAL POLICY / AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT / AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION / AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY / AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS / AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH MANAGEMENT / AGRICULTURAL SECTOR / AGRICULTURAL SECTORS / AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS / AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY / AGRICULTURAL YIELDS / AGRICULTURE / Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Developing countries / AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION / AGRICULTURE POLICY / AGRICULTURE PROJECTS / AGROCHEMICALS / Agroindustrie / ANIMAL DISEASES / ANIMAL PRODUCTION / ANIMAL PRODUCTS / ANIMAL PROTEIN / APPROVAL PROCESS / ARABLE LAND / BANK FINANCING / BANK MANAGEMENT / BANKS / BIODIVERSITY / BORROWING / BORROWING COSTS / CAPACITY BUILDING / CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS / CGIAR / CGIAR CENTERS / CGIAR RESEARCH / CGIAR SECRETARIAT / CLIENT COUNTRIES / CLIMATE CHANGE / COFFEE / COMMERCIAL LENDERS / CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH / COOPERATIVES / COTTON / CREDIT AVAILABILITY / CROP / CROP PRODUCTION / CROP VARIETIES / CROP YIELDS / CROPPING / DAIRY PRODUCTS / DECENTRALIZATION / DEMAND FOR FOOD / Developing countries / DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE / DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS / DISCRIMINATION / DRAINAGE / Economic aspects / ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT / ECONOMIC GROWTH / ECONOMICS / EMPLOYMENT / EMPOWERMENT / ENTREPRENEURS / Entwicklungshilfe / ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY / EXCHANGE RATE / EXPENDITURE / EXTENSION / EXTENSION SERVICES / EXTREME POVERTY / FAO / FARMERS / FARMING / FARMLAND / FARMS / FERTILIZERS / Finance / FINANCIAL AGENCIES / FINANCIAL CRISES / FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS / FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES / FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY / FISHERIES / FOOD COMMODITIES / FOOD CROPS / FOOD DEMAND / FOOD POLICIES / FOOD PRICES / FOOD PRODUCTION / FOOD SAFETY / FOOD SECURITY / FOOD SHORTAGES / FOOD SUPPLY / FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT / FOREIGN INVESTMENT / FORESTRY / GENDER / GENDER EQUALITY / GENDER ISSUES / GENDER MAINSTREAMING / GOVERNMENT FUNDING / GRAIN / GREEN REVOLUTION / GROUP LENDING / GUARANTEE AGENCY / HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY / ICRISAT / IFAD / IFPRI / IITA / INCOMES / INSURANCE / INTEGRATION / INTERNATIONAL BANK / INTERNATIONAL FINANCE / International Finance Corporation / INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE / IRRIGATION / LACK OF ACCESS / LAMB / LAND ADMINISTRATION / LAND RIGHTS / Landwirtschaft / Landwirtschaftsberatung / LEGISLATION / LIMITED ACCESS / LIVELIHOODS / LIVESTOCK / LIVESTOCK FEED / MAINSTREAMING GENDER / MARKET DEVELOPMENT / MEAT / NATURAL RESOURCES / NEW TECHNOLOGIES / PALM OIL / PESTICIDES / POLICY ENVIRONMENT / POPULATION GROWTH / POVERTY REDUCTION / PRIVATE EQUITY / PRIVATE INVESTMENTS / PRIVATE SECTOR / PRODUCTIVITY / PUBLIC INVESTMENTS / PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS / PURCHASING POWER / R&D / REORGANIZATION / RICE / RISK MANAGEMENT / RURAL ACCESS / RURAL CREDIT / RURAL DEVELOPMENT / RURAL FINANCE / RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE / RURAL ROADS / SMALLHOLDER / SMALLHOLDER ACCESS / SMALLHOLDER PARTICIPATION / SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT / SOIL MANAGEMENT / SUBSIDIARY / SUGARCANE / SUPPLY CHAIN / SUPPLY CHAINS / SUSTAINABLE FINANCING / TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE / THE CONSULTATIVE GROUP / TRACEABILITY / TRANSITION ECONOMIES / TRANSPORT / UNION / UNITED NATIONS / URBANIZATION / USAID / VEGETABLES / WATER USE / WATER USE EFFICIENCY / Welt / WHEAT / WOOD / World Bank / WORLD BANK LENDING
• ISBN: 9780821386064, 9780821386460, 0821386468, 0821386069