This book synthesizes the findings of a longer work which sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes.

This book synthesizes the findings of a longer work which sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes.

This volume sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes which emphasises the creation of diversified rural economies with opportunities within and outside agriculture.

This volume sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes which emphasises the creation of diversified rural economies with opportunities within and outside agriculture.

Over the last twenty years the proportion of development cooperation resources earmarked for agricultural development has dwindled to between six and seven per cent of total bi- and multilateral Official Development Assistance. This is despite the fact that eighty per cent of the world's poor live in rural agricultural areas and that the poor are disproportionately affected when political, military and natural events lead to regional or global food shortages. Brandt and Otzen's key book fills a gap in current literature, undertaking a wide-ranging conceptual reorientation of development cooperation, criticizing the current orthodoxy and its bias towards urban areas, and arguing that in order to effectively alleviate poverty across the world, agricultural and rural development measures need to be implemented both by central and subnational governments, aid agencies and the private sector. The authors investigate the world food question, the current pressures it is under and its link to rural poverty, and set out the policies that need to be undertaken to reduce global poverty.

Of the estimated 1 billion people in the developing world who survive in conditions of extreme poverty, 70 percent live in Asia. The majority of these people live in rural areas and agriculture is their main occupation. Most of the rural poor are small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural workers, fisherfolk, artisans, female headed households, the aged and infirm, and children. The incidence of poverty is highest among female heads of households and children. The seminar on "Poverty Alleviation through Agricultural Projects" provided thirty development practitioners with an opportunity to consider strategies, policies, and practices that help alleviate rural poverty. The seminar discussed four key issues of relevance to policy makers: (1) poverty cannot be measured by income alone; (2) poverty cannot be alleviated through a short-term, piecemeal approach; (3) agricultural projects constitute one of the many means available to governments for alleviating rural poverty; and (4) the role of public sector in poverty alleviation needs to be reconsidered.