Agricultural development for inclusive growth : a strategy for achieving the millennium development goals

One of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations is to reduce the global level of “extreme poverty” (the roughly 1.5 billion people whose income is less than $1 a day) by half by 2015. How can such a goal be reached? This paper argues that since the vast majority of the people living in extreme poverty depend either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood, sustained growth in agricultural production and productivity is one of the most important ways to alleviate poverty and hunger. However, for this to happen, the pace of rural and agricultural development must be greatly accelerated. Public investments in rural services and infrastructure, the application of modern science and technology, and the use of new biotechnologies ­ the so­called “second generation green­revolution” ­ will be critical to boost and sustain agricultural growth and reduce global poverty.