Critical choices must now be made if growth is to be sustained. Significant potential exists for future growth, but bringing out this potential poses a major challenge for government policy. Agricultural strategy must shift its focus towards support for continuous productivity growth by peasant farms in a conducive marketing environment. Key priorities include completion of land reforms (especially in the North)
fundamental restructuring and reorientation of public agricultural services, with greater emphasis on private service delivery and cost recovery
and a shift in agricultural public expenditures toward support for private commodity markets and private-sector based systems for technology transfer. In addition, irrigation rehabilitation, operation and maintenance, and cost recovery should continue to receive attention and support. These measures will need to be complemented by broader rural development measures - most importantly the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure in rural areas - in a manner that supports the Government's policy of fiscal and administrative decentralization. Development of rural infrastructure that is locally planned, financed, and maintained, will contribute to both farm and rural non-farm development over the medium and long-term. This report notes discusses the unfinished agenda that must be completed, and is organized as follows:
- Chapter 1 provides the background and sums up the issues to be fleshed out.
- Chapter 2 describes the structural changes that have occurred in agriculture and in rural households since 1995, the sources of agricultural growth, and constraints to future growth.
- Chapter 3 discusses agriculture in the broader context of rural household incomes and livelihoods. The final chapter identifies policies and sector strategies conducive to pro-poor growth, and evaluates the role of public expenditures in advancing the growth agenda.