IF governments invest an additional $36.9 billion in agriculture research and development, rural development and water management annually, countries will be able to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
This was according to an Asian Development Blog authored by ADB Rural Development and Food Security Thematic Group Chief Akmal Siddiq, and Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department Natural Resources and Agriculture Specialist Abul Basher.
This amount covers a $1.3-billion annual increase in agricultural research and development investment; water management, $20 billion; and rural infrastructure, $15.8 billion.
“[This] will reduce the number of food-insecure people in the countries studied by another 3 million due to the interlinkage of multiplier effects of these subsectors. As a result, total food-insecure people in 2030 will be at 180 million, which will be 4.2 percent of the projected population,” Siddiq and Basher said.
“However, some of the poor will benefit slowly, if at all, from these investments. Some of them will remain vulnerable to economic shocks to become food-insecure again. These groups will need targeted income-generating measures and safety nets, at least during economic shocks,” they added.
Based on the estimates, an additional investment in agricultural research and development would reduce the number of malnourished children by an additional 2.2 million in the developing countries.
This would be greater compared to increased investments in irrigation development and expansion along with improvement of water efficiency.
The impact would more “modest” since irrigation affects only a limited area of crops compared to research and development, which also directly impacts livestock.
An annual increase of investment in irrigation infrastructure by $7 billion, and water efficiency by $13 billion, will reduce the number of food-insecure people by 28 million and reduce agricultural water use by 7 percent; thus making more water available for alternative uses.
Investments in rural infrastructure that facilitate transport, processing, storage and marketing of food also contribute to food security.
The results suggested that South Asia can reduce the number of food-insecure people by 29 million by increasing annual investment in rural roads by about $2.4 billion, in rails by $0.5 billion, and in rural electricity by $1.71 billion.
Further, East Asia can also reduce the number of food-insecure people by 22 million by increasing annual investment in these sectors by $4 billion, $0.8 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.
The authors also said developing countries in the study can reduce the number of food-insecure people by 67 million through increasing annual investments in rural infrastructure by about $16 billion distributed over rural roads ($8 billion), rail ($2 billion), and rural electricity ($6 billion). These increases will also reduce the number of malnourished children by about 2 million.
“[Our study analyzed] the impacts of investments in agricultural research and development, improvement of water management, and infrastructure to reduce marketing costs and postharvest losses,” Siddiq and Basher said.
“The results indicate it is possible to achieve SDG 2 by reducing the number of food-insecure people to below 5 percent of the total population by nearly doubling annual investments in these areas by 2030,” they added.
Under the current growth trend, Siddiq and Basher said the number of undernourished people in developing Asia will decline to 362 million. Even neutralizing climate change would only bring the number to 324 million by 2030.
However, the reductions in the number of malnourished people would not be enough to meet SDG 2. The number of undernourished people in the region would still be higher than 5 percent of total population.
This is also higher than the goal put forward by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) and World Food Program (WFP).
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