2. Agricultural Policy and Markets

USAID Agriculture Strategy: Linking Producers to Markets

In accordance with the Monterrey consensus on aid effectiveness principles, ideal partners for USAID-supported agricultural development efforts will be countries committed to the following: ■ implementing policies that encourage greater agricultural productivity and sound natural resource management ■ investing in infrastructure that enables markets to work efficiently ■ building research institutions that ensure a flow of new and adapted technologies to producers and postharvest enterprises ■ supporting the expansion of effective training, education, and communication systems that provide producers and those in agribusiness— women and men—with information they need to be effective market participants. Published by USAID July 2004

Making Agricultural Trade Reform Work for the Poor

This paper brings together what is known about the link between agricultural trade reform and poverty alleviation, and about how developing countries can successfully manage to open their economies while reducing poverty. It highlights the channels that link agricultural growth, rural development and poverty alleviation with trade. It discusses the potential welfare impacts of policy reform and examines the recent trends of open trade in developing countries. Finally, the paper identifies reforms and flanking measures that could be effective in combating poverty in conjunction with more open trade policy. Published by International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council in June 2005

Strategy on Solutions for Harmonizing International Regulation of Organic Agriculture

This paper proposes a long-term strategic goal for the practical implementation of a harmonized system for regulating the production and international trade of organic products and defines an initial three-year work plan towards that end. The paper is the result of a process that began in February 2003 with the establishment of the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture (ITF). This Task Force was constituted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). February 2003.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Rural Investment and Enabling Policy

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most broadly supported, comprehensive and specific poverty-reduction targets the world has ever established, and the year 2005 is critical in that there are only ten years left to achieve these goals. Three quarters of the world’s more than one billion extremely poor people live in rural areas of developing countries. Fighting poverty today means first and foremost transforming rural lives and livelihoods. The majority of the rural poor depend on agriculture and agriculture-related small industries and services for their livelihoods. It is in the areas where the incidence of poverty is highest – in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – that agricultural development can have the greatest impact on inclusive growth and overall poverty reduction.