The Hindu Business Line : Icrisat plays host to World Bank meet on rural strategy

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) is hosting a meeting of top World Bank officials on the bank's new agriculture and rural development strategy from Monday.

Attending the four-day meeting are the bank's sector directors and managers for agriculture, rural development and environment from its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and country-programme managers from eight countries in Asia and Africa.

The objective of the bank's new strategy is to meet the millennium development goal of poverty alleviation. Since agriculture still contributes a significant portion to the GDP of many developing countries, this can only be achieved through an increase in agricultural productivity, it is felt.

According to Mr Shawki Barghouti, Adviser to the World Bank, there is an increased emphasis on agriculture and rural development in the World Bank.

International agricultural research institutes such as Icrisat, which operate under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), play an important role in improving crop productivity, livelihoods and food security in rural areas. Mr Barghouti, who was formerly Director-General of Icrisat, added that the meeting is a starting point in this direction, since it discusses on how the new bank strategy can be made relevant for South and East Asia.

In South Asia, the rural sector is critical to successful poverty reduction. About 290 million people in this region, constituting 76 per cent of the poor, live in the rural area. Agricultural growth is critical for poverty alleviation since this sector employs 60 per cent of the labour force and contributes 30 per cent of the GDP.

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