JEDDAH – The success of rural development hinges on poverty alleviation and sustained economic growth that can only be achieved by ensuring government’s greater accountability and transparency, said Dr. Turki Faisal Al Rasheed, founder and CEO of Golden Grass, Inc. in his speech on Tuesday delivered at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The success of rural development hinges on poverty alleviation and sustained economic growth that can only be achieved by ensuring government’s greater accountability and transparency,
“It it is clear that the global community needs to focus on developing the rural economy to encourage the sustainable shared growth vital to provide food security, alleviation of poverty and promotion of economic growth in the rural areas. The question is how best to achieve this,” he noted.
For food security, he said adopting new technological innovation, using crop per drop, and cross-country investment can be implemented.
In alleviating poverty, Al Rasheed said “building human capital by ensuring that the rural settlers have access to education, health care, employment and social safety nets” is a necessity.
And in for fostering economic growth, he said “ensuring greater accountability and transparency of governments by building the capacity of legislative bodies and supreme audit institutions in their budget overseeing roles” must be adopted.
Therefore, we must look to sustainable agriculture for the enhancement of food security, alleviation of poverty and promotion of economic growth in the rural areas.
The growing need for sustainable agriculture around the world has fuelled a search for effective ways of delivering it. Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, and is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities, he said.
According to USDA (1990), sustainable agriculture can be defined as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term, satisfy human food and fiber needs; enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends; make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls; sustain the economic viability of farm operations; and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
Moreover, Al Rasheed said while there have been many efforts to foster economic development in rural areas, involving substantial public and private investments, most have failed. There is a pressing and widely recognized need for new approaches to rural economic development, drawing on broader learning about the sources of competitiveness in the global economy. A rural region needs a distinctive strategy that reflects its unique strengths, its particular mix of clusters, and which integrates its economy with the closest urban centers. FAO 2013 report noted that for 70 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas, agriculture is the main source of income and employment. But depletion and degradation of land and water pose serious challenges to producing enough food and other agricultural products to sustain livelihoods here and meet the needs of urban populations.
The percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell in South Asia from 61 percent to 36 percent between 1981 and 2008. The proportion of poor people is lower now in South Asia than at any time since 1981. Yet the South Asia region is home to many of the developing world’s poor (World Bank). – SG