Resource information
Critical choices must now be made if
growth is to be sustained. Significant potential exists for
future growth, but bringing out this potential poses a major
challenge for government policy. Agricultural strategy must
shift its focus towards support for continuous productivity
growth by peasant farms in a conducive marketing
environment. Key priorities include completion of land
reforms (especially in the North); fundamental restructuring
and reorientation of public agricultural services, with
greater emphasis on private service delivery and cost
recovery; and a shift in agricultural public expenditures
toward support for private commodity markets and
private-sector based systems for technology transfer. In
addition, irrigation rehabilitation, operation and
maintenance, and cost recovery should continue to receive
attention and support. These measures will need to be
complemented by broader rural development measures - most
importantly the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure in
rural areas - in a manner that supports the
Government's policy of fiscal and administrative
decentralization. Development of rural infrastructure that
is locally planned, financed, and maintained, will
contribute to both farm and rural non-farm development over
the medium and long-term. This report notes discusses the
unfinished agenda that must be completed, and is organized
as follows: Chapter 1 provides the background and sums up
the issues to be fleshed out. Chapter 2 describes the
structural changes that have occurred in agriculture and in
rural households since 1995, the sources of agricultural
growth, and constraints to future growth. Chapter 3
discusses agriculture in the broader context of rural
household incomes and livelihoods. The final chapter
identifies policies and sector strategies conducive to
pro-poor growth, and evaluates the role of public
expenditures in advancing the growth agenda.
