The Hindu Business Line : `Infrastructure development vital for poverty eradication'

THE poor are poor largely because they have few assets and get very little return on their assets. Social and institutional bottlenecks will further prevent them from getting their fair share.

Hence, increasing the assets, widening the opportunities for livelihood and development of infrastructure like roads and electricity are essential for eradication of poverty, according to Dr Kirit Parikh, Member, Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister.

Addressing an International Symposium on Poverty Alleviation, Rural Development and Poverty Reduction Strategies here on Thursday, Dr Parikh said that while construction of roads would reduce the transportation costs, supply of power in the rural areas would improve the irrigation facilities. This would lead to an increase in the information flow into the rural areas and enhance the bargaining power of the poor.

The symposium, attended by senior officials of the World Bank, was organised by the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat). According to Icrisat's Deputy Director-General, Dr Dyno Keatinge, the institute and the World Bank would collaborate to implement the latter's new agriculture and rural development strategy, designed to meet the goal of poverty alleviation through agricultural growth.

Stating that the activities of a large number of non-government organisations across the country had revealed that there was a vast scope for land development and increasing land productivity, Dr Parikh felt the need for formulating a large-scale land development project that could be taken up by the gram panchayats at the village level.

Dr Suresh Pal of the Delhi-based National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Research Policy said that the future strategy should focus on increasing public investment in agriculture and rural development, providing incentives for the private sector investment in the rural areas and improving the delivery of services like health, drinking water, sanitation and education.

The co-ordinator of Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project, Mr. S. P. Tucker, said that results of the State Government project, aimed at empowerment of the poorest of the poor, would be visible in a couple of years.

The President of BAIF Development Research Foundation of Pune, Mr N.G. Hegde, said that to address the problems of the poor families BAIF had taken family as a unit for development and focussed on improving the quality of life, provision of assured livelihood, empowerment of women, environmental protection, promotion of grass root level people's organisations and blending development with research and training.

Mr Nirmal Ranaweera, Additional Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, Govern- ment of Sri Lanka, said that the Sri Lankan Government was hopeful of formulating a master plan in a couple of months aimed at ensuring rapid growth of the agricultural sector and generating greater employment opportunities.

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