World Bank focuses on making agriculture more viable, doubles agribusiness commitment

The World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, has remarked at the AgriConnect Flagship Event in Washington, D.C., that it is focused on making agriculture “a driver of jobs, income, and food security at scale.”

Banga, who said that agriculture has always been central to development, noted that going forward, the challenge before the World Bank would be how to turn agricultural growth into a business that produces higher incomes for smallholder farmers, and more opportunity across entire economies.

He explained reasons driving the latest efforts by the World Bank, and added that the World Bank Group has made job creation their central mission.

“Over the next 10-15 years, about 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will come of age, but current trends suggest only 400 million jobs will be created. That delta—hundreds of millions—will either power the global economy or spill over into unrest and migration.

“That is why the World Bank Group has made job creation our central mission,” he said.

Concerning jobs created by both the private and public sectors, Banga said the World Bank takes the lead when it comes to building infrastructure and skills, creating predictable regulations and a business-friendly environment, as well as backing investors with risk tools that crowd capital.

Although Banga said the World Bank saw potential in five sectors, namely: infrastructure, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing, he said, “Today, we’ll focus on agribusiness – central both to jobs and to meeting global food demand that is projected to rise more than 50 percent in the coming decades.”

Banga, however, noted that emerging markets in the developing world, that is, in Africa, Latin America and across Asia, and which has the ingredients: land, sun, water, and people, are at the centre of both objectives.

He said, Africa holds 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land and can boost yields on land already farmed.

“Latin America already produces enough food for well over a billion people, but infrastructure is a challenge.

“Across Asia, smallholder farmers manage most farmland—an enormous base to lift with better technology, finance, and market access.

“Globally, 500 million smallholders produce 80% of the world’s food, yet most remain stuck in subsistence farming —lacking electricity, storage, training, and market access. Fewer than 1 in 10 have access to commercial finance.”

Banga said the World Bank’s ability to organise at scale to shape the future of food security, nutrition, growth and employment, was changing, and that last year, the group began executing a strategy that recognised that reality.

“We set out to help smallholders raise productivity and scale.

“Connect them to structured value chains that lift incomes; And guard against exploitation so farmers aren’t forced to sell land for lack of credit, insurance, or market access.

“At the same time, we’ve set a target to double our agribusiness commitments to $9 billion annually by 2030—aiming to mobilize an additional $5 billion. It is grounded in what we’ve tested in the field and in lessons borrowed from others. Steal shamelessly and share seamlessly—that is how we succeed together.

“Today, we are looking to push this effort closer to scaled execution,” he said.