Introduction
More than 20 percent of the world’s population lives in poverty. Poverty is a big problem in the
whole world, because thousands of people die each year due to this big issue
In most developing countries a large proportion of the poor are in rural areas and
their poverty is generally far more severe than in urban areas more than developed countries The
causes of rural poverty are complex and multidimensional, involving the forces of nature,
markets, and public policy
What is rural poverty?
Rural poverty refers to poverty in rural area, including factors of rural society, rural economy,
and political systems that give rise to the poverty found there. Rural poverty is often discussed in
conjunction with spatial inequality, which in this context refers to the inequality between urban
and rural areas. Both rural poverty and spatial inequality are global phenomena, but like poverty
in general, there are higher rates of rural poverty in developing countries than in developed
countries.
Who are the rural poor?
Many of the rural poor are family farmers, subsistence producers, or landless agricultural
workers. They include fisherfolk, pastoralists, and forest-dependent peoples with limited access
to productive means.
Rural families increasingly depend on non-farm incomes. When infrastructure or basic
services are lacking, credit is difficult to get and institutions are weak, small rural enterprises and
earners of non-farm wages are the hardest hit.
Without social protection, the poor are the most vulnerable especially those with disabilities
and the elderly. Rural women and members of female-headed households also struggle to
maintain substantive livelihoods as they tend to face discrimination in accessing productive
resources, such as land, extension services, such as technical training, and markets
Rural poverty in Somalia
Somalia is among the five least developed of 170 countries listed in the 2012 Human
Development Index. It faces several obstacles, including long-term civil conflict, the lack of a
fully functioning government, and natural disasters. More than 70 per cent of the population is
under the age of 30. Almost 20 per cent of children do not survive past their fifth birthday
. About 40 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty; in rural areas this figure exceeds
50 per cent. In 2012, 62 per cent of the population was rural. Overall, where there is less
instability – such as in the northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland – the rural poverty and
food security situation is less critical. In much of the country, insecurity and lack of functional
infrastructure have exacerbated already low crop yields.
Poor access to irrigation is another contributing factor. Somalia
IFAD’s strategy in Somalia
Somalia’s poverty and food security situation remains critical after years of conflict and natural
disasters. Since the 1980s, IFAD has supported nine programmers in the country for a total of
US$140 million. There is currently no country strategic opportunities programmer for Somalia.
However, the strategic objectives of IFAD interventions in Somalia can be summarized as
follows:
• Increase incomes and food security by supporting agriculture and related activities, improving
access to water, sanitation and health care, strengthening the natural resource base and building
rural financial services;
• Identify and promote pro-poor investment mechanisms in rural areas for dissemination,
replication and scaling up; and
• Build the capacity of the diaspora and promote the transformation of people in the diaspora into
agents of development through remittances – the portion of their earnings that migrants outside
the country send home.
Content of the paper
After explaining what is rural poverty, who are rural people and factors that contribute
rural poverty, next will talk the following topics
1: Agricultural transforming the economy
• Agricultural and rural development
•Agricultural production
2: Evaluation of agricultural in least developed countries
The effects of agricultural technological innovation on poverty
International trade
3: Poor agriculture policies
4: Failure institutions in sub-sahara
5: Contabutiong factor of lower income and poverty in ruler area
6: Rural Poverty Reduction policy
7: summary and conclusion
8: reference
Agricultural transforming the economy
Agriculture is key for economic transformation, food security, and nutrition
One of the central goals of every developing country is to reach high-income status. Agriculture
plays a critical role in transforming economies to reach the goal, along with achieving other
essential development goals like ensuring food security and improving nutrition. Therefore, in
order to end hunger and under nutrition while accelerating economic growth, agricultural
transformation must become a reality.
Nearly all countries started off poor, and only a handful have achieved high-income status.
As agriculture becomes more productive, excess labor moves from rural farm jobs to urban
manufacturing jobs. While the result of this stage is a decreased share of agriculture to GDP and
the labor force, the process of agricultural modernization is critical for economic transformation
and achieving food security and improved nutrition.
There are two key areas to make agricultural transformation a reality.
First, it is critical to make modern technologies available. While modern agricultural
technologies can come from private and public sectors, national governments need to play a big
role in investing in agricultural research and development (R&D). This is due to the difficulty for
a private enterprise to fully capture the benefits of developing such technologies.
The next key area for agricultural transformation is adoption of modern technologies, as
farmers may not use such technologies even if they are available. Many technologies such as
high-yielding seeds require stringent conditions for water, inputs, and knowhow. Therefore,
governments must prepare conditions including irrigation and improved market infrastructure for
farmers to access these inputs and sell their agricultural produce. Governments will also need to
build human capital to ensure a skilled labor force to master new technology, handle logistics
and boost each node of the value chain.
Agricultural and rural development
This guide is primarily concerned with rural extension and with the livelihoods of farmers and
their families. The concept of rural development must therefore be considered with particular
reference to agriculture, since agriculture is the basis of the livelihood of most rural families. In
the past two decades there has been increasing emphasis on rural development programmes and
projects, and recognition that the development of rural areas is just as important as the building
up of urban, industrial complexes. Development must have two legs: urban industrialization and
rural improvement.
There are very strong reasons why resources should now be put into rural development. More
than half the people of the world and the vast majority of the people in developing countries
(Asia, Africa and Latin America) live in rural areas and gain part or all of their livelihoods from
some form of agriculture. Most of these people are also still very poor and dependent on
agricultural practices that have benefited little from modern technology. They live in isolated and
often inhospitable places, with little access to the resources they need to improve their
agriculture. Many lead their lives barely at subsistence level. Solely in terms of numbers of
people, there is a very strong case for giving high priority to rural development.
Agriculture's important role is one of production, both of food for the rural and the urban
population and of cash crops for the export market, to earn foreign currency. In this process
demand is stimulated for other products and services, and employment opportunities emerge to
absorb the society's work-force. As the cycle develops, the increasing agricultural production
causes an increasing demand for inputs, which ensure the resources required to maintain the
agricultural production. Land is a basic resource for most countries and the exploitation of that
resource in the interest of its citizens is one of a country's main responsibilities.
Evaluation of agricultural in least developed countries
The level and growth of agricultural productivity are critical both to the wellbeing of the
population of the least developed countries (LDCs) and to the structural transformation of their
economies.
Poverty and well-being. Since agriculture is the dominant (and in some countries increasingly
dominant) source of employment in LDCs
Agricultural productivity is in most cases the main determinant of the incomes of the majority of
the workforce. Low productivity in agriculture is thus a major reason for the prevalence and
persistence of poverty in most LDCs, keeping much of the rural population trapped in a vicious
circle of poverty, in which poverty results in undernutrition, poor health, poor cognitive
development and limited adoption of new technologies, which in turn lead to low productivity
and low earnings
Agricultural productivity growth is therefore an essential precondition for poverty reduction in
the short and medium term, contributing through several channels
Food prices. Rising agricultural productivity helps to lower food prices, effectively raising real
rural and urban wages, since food is a major component of wage goods, and benefiting landless
and other rural food-deficit households
By limiting increases in agricultural prices, this also prevents rural-urban terms of trade from
turning against urban activities, which might otherwise stall the process of structural
transformation
The effects of agricultural technological innovation on poverty
one of the key drivers of productivity growth in agriculture is the adoption of innovation and new
technologies. These can potentially reduce poverty through several channels (Hazell and
Haddad, 2001): • Technological advances can benefit poor farmers directly through an increase
of own-farm production, allowing greater production both of food for home consumption and of
marketed products, increasing farm income.
• They can benefit small farmers and landless labourers through greater agricultural employment
opportunities and higher wages.
• They can benefit poor rural and urban households by developing higher value added non-farm
activities, which generate more and better-paying jobs.
• They can reduce food prices for urban consumers and rural food-deficit households.
Poor agriculture policies
Agriculture is the main driving force of rural economies so there is a need to promote sustainable
rural development and hence improve the living conditions of local communities.
Policy to improve poor agriculture policies
(1) Strengthening institutions to regulate the food market and agricultural inputs, as well as to
promote macroeconomic policies and favourable trade policies that incentivize farmers to adopt
new and sustainable technologies.
(2) Implementing measures to ensure the improvement of living conditions of rural populations
(i.e., education, health, housing etc.).
(3) Creating the conditions to allow diversification of production towards high-value crops,
which will increase incomes and reduce poverty of households living from agriculture.
(4) Making water available for irrigation, building roads and bridges to transport the output and
input at all times.
(5) Encouraging banks to provide credit at preferential rates and terms, crop insurance at low
cost to small farmers and technical advice to assist in and promote local farmers’ organizations
and rural development.
Failure institutional in sub-sahara
This essay aims to understand the causes behind the failure of nearly every postcolonial African state,
despite the presence of great differences throughout the continent. The explanation proposed is that the
failure of Africa’s states originates from the seizure of an oppressive political structure, the colonial state,
by an alliance of elites during a period where African polities had been completely new to the concept of
a modern sovereign state.
The Colonial State
Reasons for the general failure of the African state must involve an inquiry of the region’s colonial
predecessor. The colonial state was a military and administrative entity, aimed nearly exclusively at
extracting resources for the economic development of the metropolitan area
Elites
The movement for independence was spearheaded by a small group of educated Africans, who had been
kept away from good jobs and political power by the racist bias of the colonial state (Gordon, 2007). The
majority of Africans, engaged in subsistence farming, were not initially involved in this struggle for
independence. The rural masses would follow later, when the above-mentioned elites would decide to
mobilize them
And also used to an unfair system of rule and confronted by the attractive possibilities of private
accumulation offered by the state, the new rulers have not resisted the temptation of “privatising” the state
for their own means, continuing a tradition of plunder and injustice .
Contributing factors of rural poverty
Lack of infrastructure
Rural poverty is often a product of poor infrastructure that hinders development and mobility.
Rural areas tend to lack sufficient roads that would increase access to agricultural inputs
and markets. Without roads, the rural poor are cut off from technological development and
emerging markets in more urban areas.
Poor infrastructure hinders communication, resulting in social isolation among the rural poor,
many of whom have limited access to media and news outlets.
Geographic barriers
Moreover poverty is often a result of geographic barriers certain places are located in such rigid
geographic areas that development is not possible there and not only that the people living there
lack access to their basic requirements, often the government in economically weaker countries
takes no interest in the development of these areas and thus the people living here have to suffer
from the ill effects of poverty
Insufficient access to markets
A lack of access to markets - whether due to poor infrastructure or productivity, limited
education, or insufficient information - prevents access to both labor and capital. In many rural
societies, there are few job opportunities outside of agriculture, often resulting in food and
income insecurity due to the precarious nature of farming.
Opening up of economies to international trade
Some macro-level economic changes have been associated with an increase in spatial
inequalities. There have been numerous studies showing a link between more open trade,
accompanied by other neoliberal policies, and higher incidences of rural poverty and spatial
inequalities In China, for example, greater trade openness provides at least partial explanation for
more pronounced rural-urban disparities, and in Vietnam, trade liberalization has resulted in
higher poverty rates in rural areas.
Education and social service inadequacies
In many rural societies, a lack of access to education and limited opportunities to increase and
improve one's skillset inhibit social mobility.[3] Low levels of education and few skills result in
much of the rural poor working as subsistence farmers or in insecure, informal employment,
perpetuating the state of rural poverty. Inadequate education regarding health and nutritional
needs often results in under-nutrition or malnutrition among the rural poor.
Rural Poverty Reduction
Since 1990, the world has more than halved the number of extreme poor. However, there are
still 736 million people living under USD 1.90 a day (World Bank, 2015). Extreme poverty is
mostly a rural phenomenon and they depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and food security
Here is some policy to increase income and produce poverty
In low-income countries, investing in agriculture has a greater impact on reducing poverty than
investing in other sectors, as it offers the most direct route for rural people to benefit from their
main assets: land and labour. Investment in small-scale family farming and in the livelihoods of
fishers, forest dwellers and herders, is an engine for sustainable poverty reduction.
However, promoting agriculture is not enough. Key policy approaches to end poverty also
include boosting social policies, promoting coherence between agriculture and social protection;
strengthening the capacity of producer organizations and rural institutions; and increasing
investment in rural infrastructure, research and services to create new income generating
opportunities in the off-farm sector for the rural poor.
Integrate policies to reduce rural poverty: it is crucial to provide policy support across
government ministries, including Ministries of agriculture, public infrastructure and services,
social affairs, employment, health, education, finance, planning and environment.
Globally, 60% of employed women work in the agricultural sector. Policies to achieve rural
poverty reduction must be gender-equitable and gender-sensitive and strengthen rural women’s
economic empowerment.
Leave no one behind: FAO helps family farmers, small fishers, forest dwellers, pastoralists, rural
women and youth, and indigenous peoples make a living through agriculture.
Summary and conclusion
In this page, I will conclude my writing with thanking Allah who allowed me to end this assignment
successfully.
I am happy to conclude it as good as possible. And I hope to reach the goal that I had.
In conclusion as I told above rural poverty is refers to poverty in rural areas, including factors of rural
society, rural economy and the Rural families increasingly depend on non-farm incomes
There are many factors that contribute the rural poverty one of the main factors is Lack of infrastructure
In Somalia – the rural poverty and food security situation is less critical. About 40 per cent of the
population lives in extreme poverty
One of the central goals of every developing country is to reach high-income status. Agriculture plays a
critical role in transforming economies to reach the goal, along with achieving other Agriculture is key for
economic transformation, food security, and nutrition
Agricultural productivity is in most cases the main determinant of the incomes of the majority of the
workforce. Low productivity in agriculture is thus a major reason for the prevalence and persistence of
poverty
in most LDCs one of the key drivers of productivity growth in agriculture is the adoption of innovation
and new technologies as agricultural is the most way to improve rural poverty there are many polices that
are made to improve agriculture one of that policies is Strengthening institutions to regulate the food
market and agricultural inputs
In conclusion if we want to reduce poverty in rural area the best way to do it is investing agriculture
investing in agriculture has a greater impact on reducing poverty than investing in other sectors ,
.
Reference
Rural poverty , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_poverty
Rural poverty in Somalia (2015): research date from International Fund for Agricultural
Developmenthttp://www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/40961687/Investing+in+rural+people+in+Somali
a.pdf/ad7d8cef-de46-4692-864a-
Agricultural transforming the economy article (2018)
BY JUSTIN YIFU LIN HTTPS://WWW.IFPRI.ORG/BLOG/AGRICULTURE-KEY-ECONOMIC-
TRANSFORMATION-FOOD-SECURITY-AND-NUTRITION
The evolution of agricultural transformation in least developed countries:, (The Least Developed
Countries Report 2015 Transforming Rural Economies) Chapter 2
Poor agricultural policies: Article (2017) by : Alayde Serruto Díaz carried ( Agricultural Policies and
Their Impact on Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries)
Factors contribute rural poverty, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_poverty
policy to increase rural area income and reduce poverty ,FAO policy http://www.fao.org/policy-
support/policy-themes/rural-poverty-reduction/en/
