Boosts in Harvests Can Fight Poverty

Investments in agriculture in developing countries can yield six times more in productivity than investments in manufacturing or services, says the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“In order to make extreme poverty history, we must increase global agricultural production in precisely those places where poverty, hunger and child nutrition are most prevalent,” Rajiv Shah told an audience of mostly graduate students in international relations and development at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington.

To care about fighting poverty, “one should care about agriculture,” he said April 17 at the school’s Year of Agriculture Conference. He said 75 percent of the world’s poor people depend on agriculture to make a living and that most farmers are women who cultivate one hectare.

• Continue reading the article on the U.S. Deparment of State’s IIP Digital website
• Listen to an audio recording of Shah’s talk on the SAIS website
• Read Shah’s full remarks, as prepared, on the USAID website