International Conference on “Governance in Agriculture and
Allied Sectors-Issues and Way Forward”
18-19th December 2014, Hyderabad, India
Title of the paper:
Understanding the
Problems of Agricultural
Governance that directly
Affect Small-Farmers’
Wellbeing and Strategy to
Improve Governance in
Crop Sector
The Setting
Describe the concept of governance and
agricultural governance in the context of
smallholder farming
 Describe the structure of governance at different
levels
 Highlight governance challenges in smallholder
agriculture
 Strategy to improve agricultural governance for
smallholder-dominated agricultural production
 Recommendation

Governance defined
Governance, in a broad sense, refers to exercising power and
decision-making for a group of people by a group granted this
authority
- The UN outlines good governance as instances where authority and
its institutions are accountable, effective and efficient; participatory,
transparent, responsive, consensus-oriented and equitable
- Governance is the manner in which power is exercised in the
management of a country’s economic and social resources for
development (ADB)
- Governance is the exercise of political, economic, and
administrative authority in the management of a country’s affairs
(UNDP)
- Governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which
authority in a country is exercised (WB).
How governance differs from government?
Governance
State
Power/Authority
Non-State
Government
Civil bureaucracy,
Public sector organizations
Local government
institutions
Non-government
organizations, Civil society
organizations, Media
Producer organizations,
Cooperatives, Private sector
•Government is one of the actors in executing the
functions of governance.
• Governance is aimed at harnessing interactions and
partnerships between the state, the society and the
market to efficiently deliver public goods and
services.
Governance
New institutional
arrangements
are emerging to
increase the
capacity and
contribution of
this sector.
NGO
CSO
The size is
shrinking;
roles,
approaches
and methods
are being
redefined and
recalibrated
PO
State/
Government
Cooperatives
Private
Sector
Factors shifting emphasis from government to
governance
1. Decentralization
a. Deconcentration
Shifts administrative responsibilities to subordinate units in regions, districts, field
offices or local administrations under supervision of the central government
ministries
b.
Delegation
Transfers functions and decision making to semi-autonomous organizations
accountable to , but not controlled by, the central government
c. Devolution
Transfers decision-making, finance, and management authority, usually to local
units with elected executives and legislative bodies with independent fiscal
authority
d. Market decentralization
A shift of responsibility from the public sector to private sector via privatization of
services or deregulation of public sector activities.
2. Globalization
It is a process of phenomenal increase in:
• the volume of capital inflows,
•trade in goods and services, and
• investment .
As a result, geographic boundaries of nation
states are being increasingly blurred making them
economically more integrated and more
interdependent.
Levels of agricultural governance
Local:
-Farmers’ groups, associations and cooperatives,
-field units of extension and research organizations, local government
institutions, NGOs, microfinance institutions, agricultural and farm
workers’ units of political parties
National :
-Government
-Private sector
-Civil society
International:
-Interaction with the Global Governance System for Food and
Agriculture through:
-MoUs,
-bilateral agreements,
-collaboration and partnerships
Agricultural governance
It is the exercise of authority to manage the natural and economic
resources for development of a country’s agriculture sector
It is achieved through synchronization of the following:
•Effective functioning of its constituent institutions;
• Application of modern technology and innovations to stimulate and
sustain growth in production and productivity;
• Implementation of policies;
•Monitoring of policy implementation process;
•Adherence to relevant acts and regulations, and
• Active participation of all concerned stakeholders.
Global Scenario of Food Security
• Seven billion people live in the planet
• 842 million people are hungry (one in every 8 persons)
• Nearly two-third of them are undernourished
• Over 60 % of the undernourished live in Asia and the Pacific
• More than 1 billion people are living below 1.25
USD/day
• One billion people are overweight
• 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year
Future Prediction
• World population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050
• Food production must be increased by 60 %, it has
to be increased 77% in developing countries
• The world needs an extra 4 million tons of edible
oils every year
• According to FAO estimation, by 2050, the world
will need an additional 150 million tons of edible
oils and fats.
From where it will come
Global agricultural production must increase 60% by
2050
100%
70%
Sources of
future
production
growth
60%
Increased yields
90%
80%
50%
40%
Increased cropping
intensity
30%
Land expansion
20%
10%
0%
Sub-Saharan Latin America South Asia
Africa
& Caribbean
Source: FAO
East Asia
13
Structure of World Farm holdings by region
570 millions farms
in the world
73 % in Asia
417 millions in
Asia
78% below 1ha
1% above 10 ha
Structure of Family farms
- Out of more than 570 million farms in the world, over 500 million are family owned
-They are responsible for at least 56% of agricultural productions
• Asia 85 %
• North & Central America
83%
• Europe
68%
• Africa
62%
• South America 18%
Why is the focus on good governance in the
context of smallholder farming?
•Small farms constitute the backbone of Asian farming.
About 87% of the world’s 500 million small farms (<2
ha) are in Asia and the Pacific region (IFPRI, 2007).
•China and India alone account for 193 million and 93
million small farms, respectively.
•Three other Asian countries with a large number of
small farms are Indonesia (17 million), Bangladesh (17
million) and Viet Nam (10 million).
Governance systems for food and agriculture in developing countries
are plagued with the same category of challenges that imperil the
overall governance systems in these countries
These are:
1. Low institutional capacity;
2. Lack of political and economic stability;
3. Weak democratization process;
4. Poor accountability and transparency;
5. Corruption;
6. Limited voice of the poor, women, and minorities
particularly in rural areas;
7. Lack of participation and access to information; and
8. Poor rule of law.
Increasing globalization of the agri-food system poses
specific governance challenge at the national level
- low institutional capacity to formulate appropriate policies
and regulatory guidelines for agribusiness companies,
trans-boundary movement and local testing of exotic
genetic resources and biotechnology products;
- inadequate capacity to frame appropriate national policy
responses to ongoing processes in the complex system of
international treaties like WTO, TRIPS, CBD, etc.;
- low capacity to effectively interface with the global
governance systems for food and agriculture that are
becoming increasingly complex with the entry of new
players in this field.
Agricultural governance – Challenges facing
developing countries of the Asia-Pacific
 Reversing slowdown in growth of agricultural
productivity and stimulating sustainable growth to
meet present and future demands;
Developing policy options to deal with volatility
of food prices and keep them affordable for a vast
majority of limited-income and poor people;
Devising adequate scientific, technical, policy,
and institutional options to effectively address the
constraints arising from a degraded and shrinking
natural resource base – water, soil, land, biological
diversity;
 Building resilience through adaptation and
mitigation against the increase in frequency of
extreme weather events impacting agriculture and
rural livelihoods on unprecedented scales;
-.
 Upgrading the administrative and technical
capacity of the public sector agricultural
administration services for:
- effective participation in the global system
of governance for food and agriculture so as
to harness the maximum benefit for their
agricultural systems
 Refocusing on small-holder farmers and
increasing the productivity of small holder farming
as the concept of sustainability occupies the centre
stage of the evolving paradigm of agricultural
development.
Way Forward
A main challenge of the agricultural governance systems in many
countries of the Asia-Pacific region is to refocus on small-holder
farmers and increasing the productivity of small holder farming as
the concept of sustainability occupies the centre stage of the
evolving paradigm of agricultural development.
Guiding the transition of their agricultural systems from the paradigm
of Green Revolution to one that takes a holistic view of agricultural
growth and its sustainability, equity, and efficiency with a focus on
improving the productivity of smallholder farming
Changes in the mindset
From
GROW and SAVE
To
SAVE and GROW
Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production
Ecosystem approach
External inputs complement natural processes
– better up-take of nutrients
– pollination
– natural pest control
Sustainable agricultural management systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Conservation agriculture
Fertilizers use
Improved crop varieties
Water use
IPM
IPNS
IWM
Specific Governance Requirement for Sustainable Crop
Production Intensification (SCPI)
-improved coordination across different ministries;
- strengthening institutional capacity for efficient performance in new roles of
facilitator and coordinator, agricultural policy formulation and policy
reform;
- strengthening participation and deliberation;
- effective decentralization of technology development and assessment and
input provision services embedded in a web of participatory and
consultative mechanisms;
- improved access to information; and
- control of corruption.
Creating new and strengthening existing local level institutions in the
form of coordination committees, farmer field schools, or any structure that
best suits specific country contexts will provide an organizational basis for
handling participatory processes and deliberative mechanisms
Recommendations
• Improving governance in the food and agriculture sector as a key
element in implementing the strategy of sustainable agricultural
development (SAD) in the context of their political systems, social
norms, and unique experiences of administrative reform in public
sector services
• Addressing specific governance challenges in SAD with a focus on
smallholder farmers as key players in accelerating the transition to
this new paradigm of intensification of agricultural production
• Boosting institutional capacity of public agricultural services to
upgrade their managerial and technical competence to efficiently
handle multipronged initiatives for change with engagement of a
broad range of national and international stakeholders
Recommendations
• Building adequate national capacity for policy analysis, formulation and
change as a key governance tool to efficiently manage a knowledgeintensive process of agricultural transformation and effectively participate
in global governance systems for food and agriculture
• Modernizing the regulatory framework consisting of laws, rules, codes,
and regulations to create incentives for the private sector to make
investment and assume greater role in providing farmers with quality
inputs and services
• Encourage investment in developing institutional structures at the local
level including community-based organizations and farmers’ associations
to facilitate participatory processes at the grassroots level that lend
primary stakeholders a larger voice and greater influence over decision
making and programme implementation by the public sector agricultural
services.
Recommendations
• Taking steps to delegate adequate authority, in the framework of ongoing
processes of administrative reform, to local units of the public agricultural
service for effective decentralization of participatory technology
development and assessment and service provision to farmers
• Making greater use of information and communication technologies to
empower farmers with access to information in the broad framework of
evolving digital governance for transparency, accountability, and efficiency
of providing services to citizens
• Effective steps in controlling corruption in the public agricultural services
to make efficient use of public resources in implementing programmes
and approaches of sustainable crop production intensification in a process
that will see greater interaction among farmers, research and extension
workers and input providers.
Thanks!
Subash Dasgupta
Email: Subash.Dasgupta@fao.org
and
Indrajit Roy
Email: royindrajit@hotmail.com