Rural Development Overseas

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 1:16 pm on 25 March 2008.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Shahid Malik Shahid Malik Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for International Development 1:16, 25 March 2008

I congratulate Martin Horwood on securing this timely debate. Tackling rural poverty is crucial to the achievement of the millennium development goals. Some 820 million people in the developing world are hungry, and more than 500 million of them live in rural areas. The majority of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and for food security. Agriculture and rural development are clear priorities for the Department for International Development.

DFID supports rural development in more than 20 countries. Our work is supported by a cadre of 49 professional livelihoods advisers whose policy expertise covers agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, rural development, food security and natural resources management. DFID spends around £160 million each year on livelihoods programmes, much of which goes to rural areas. On top of that, our health, education, infrastructure, water and sanitation, governance, and other programmes, contribute to sustainable rural development. The £200 million that we have committed to agricultural research is a testament to our commitment to rural areas and agriculture.

I am just remembering my own recent experiences in Vietnam and Nepal. Agriculture is key in rural areas, as is the work that we do on roads development in rural areas, which has a positive impact on schooling, employment and health. We also have some health programmes in rural areas, such as one that I visited in Nepal, with midwives who get out on bicycles to assist mothers with pregnancies where, ordinarily, that would not have been so.

The Indian Government have warmly praised DFID's substantial contribution to rural development. Our support comprises five major livelihoods programmes in four states, with a total budget of more than £150 million. Our support in Andhra Pradesh has helped to lift more than 1 million people above the poverty line. Access to safe drinking water has improved; the number of children enrolled in education has increased; and people are choosing to use higher incomes to send their children to school, building for their future. In southern Orissa, farmers have been given the skills to enable them to abandon destructive slash-and-burn systems of agriculture and to take up sustainable small-scale farming.

In Bangladesh, the programme has supported communities in raising more than 30,000 homesteads above the flood level and in raising the earth plinths, and that figure will increase to 100,000 by 2011. The programme has also provided more than 20,000 latrines and 750 tube wells, which have brought substantial health gains. Under the programme, more than 30,000 households have already received productive assets, such as cattle and goats. Close monitoring of the programme shows real success in helping to lift destitute and landless households out of chronic poverty.

In the context of the alliance, the hon. Gentleman talked about the green revolution in Africa. We are considering increasing support for agriculture, supporting the alliance and providing additional support through the rural development forum. Climate change will potentially have dire consequences for the rural poor, and it will make agriculture increasingly unreliable. Glacial melting in the Himalayas will compromise water flows into the nine major river systems of Asia, and it will reduce an already stressed water supply that goes to more than 1 billion people. In Asia alone, more than 50 million people who live in coastal areas are expected to be displaced by rising sea levels. That is why we have put together £800 million for an environmental transformation fund that will hopefully provide some of the answers to the difficult questions that the hon. Gentleman has asked—such questions are also asked every day across the world.

The gloomy prognosis adds to the urgency and priority of making rural livelihoods more resilient. It is encouraging that developing countries are recognising the importance of rural development. For example, in 2003 African Governments committed themselves to spending 10 per cent. of their national budgets on agriculture and rural development by 2009 from a baseline of just 4 per cent. DFID supports the "Comprehensive African Agriculture Development" programme, which is a major initiative by the African Union and is strongly backed by African political leaders. As I have mentioned, we are working closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the alliance for a green revolution in Africa, which was recently launched by Kofi Annan.

Policy reform is delivering results—especially in Africa. In Malawi, DFID supports an innovative targeted fertiliser subsidy programme which has enabled the country to move quickly from dependency on maize imports to an export surplus at a time when the region as a whole has been experiencing a serious food crisis. In Uganda, reforms implemented in the 1990s have significantly increased the share of export prices received by farmers, which has contributed to a large reduction in rural poverty.

The hon. Gentleman also talked about rights. In all our work throughout the world, we try to embed a rights culture into programmes to ensure that the rights of many people from across a wide spectrum—irrespective of whether they are rural or urban—are protected, respected and enhanced. More focus has been put on rural and social transfer programmes for smallholder farmers and on giving cash, food and farming inputs to the poorest farmers in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.