marker-assisted selection in wheat - ictsd

Chapter 22 – Marker-assisted selection: policy considerations and options for developing countries 445areas where people’s livelihoods dependon agriculture (including fisheries and forestry)and the non-farm small and mediumagro-industrial processing and servicingindustries that are connected to it, meansthat investing in agriculture and morebroadly in rural development must beat the heart of any strategy for hungerand poverty reduction. While the measuresneeded certainly go well beyond theissue of producing more food and agriculturalproducts, achieving greater yields andhigher value products from the same plotof land or enterprise must be a key ingredientfor the great majority of developingcountries.How to do this at a lower cost toimprove household access to food andthe competitiveness of small-scale farmerswhile maintaining or improving producerincentives, the sustainability of farmingsystems, and the many services providedto societies by both managed and naturalland and aquatic ecosystems, poses hugechallenges. Particularly challenging is tacklingsituations where agricultural potentialis low, resources poor and markets distant.Any investment in MAS needs to bejustified on the basis of its potential to contributein an effective and efficient mannerto these challenges.The evolving context of agriculturalgrowth and policyThe situation facing rural producers,households and public institutions now isquite different from that of 20 years ago.Political support and consequently publicsector investments in agriculture and ruraldevelopment have fallen both nationallyand from international donors and financialinstitutions. Privatization has been theoverarching policy response, but often theprivate sector has failed to fill the gaps,leaving many producers with no or significantlyreduced flows of the inputs andservices critical for both production andaccess to markets such as technologies,extension and credit. Additionally, marketaccess for poor producers has deteriorateddue to greater integration of the globaleconomy and other market distortions,and the need to conform to internationalsanitary, phytosanitary and food safetystandards as well as to product accreditationschemes established by supermarketchains and others. Complicating the situationfurther are pests and diseases, naturalresource degradation and climate change.On the positive side, there is irrefutableevidence of a deepening politicalcommitment within governments and theinternational community to tackle poverty,hunger and environmental degradationurgently and in a concerted manner. Atthe global level, this includes the Plan ofAction that emerged from the WFS in1996, the set of eight MDGs that followedthe United Nations Millennium Summitin 2000, and the Plan of Implementationfrom the World Summit on SustainableDevelopment in 2002. Regionally, itincludes the vision and strategic frameworkdocument for the New Partnershipfor Africa’s Development (NEPAD) andits underpinning Comprehensive AfricaAgriculture Development Programme(CAADP) (NEPAD, 2002).Nationally, the most notable examplesare: the development of revised countrydrivenPRSPs, which aim to link nationalpublic actions, donor support and theresults needed to support the MDGs, andwhich provide the basis for World Bank andInternational Monetary Fund’s concessionallending and for debt relief under the heavilyindebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative;national development strategies, plans