Nearly half a billion people are chronically poor – poor for long periods of their lives, for a lifetime, and pass their poverty to their children.  A new policy guide shows how agricultural policies and programmes can benefit chronically poor people, help poor people move out of poverty and prevent the impoverishment of others.

The guide emphasises asset accumulation and protection in the context of sustainable agriculture, and the importance of farm workers for agricultural agencies. It also suggests a more rapid transition to incorporating sustainable agriculture and indigenous technologies in a pro-poor systems innovation approach.

The policy guide is part of a series published by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN).

• CPAN Agriculture Policy Guide (pdf)
• Policy brief: Meeting the challenge of a new pro-poor agricultural paradigm (pdf)

Photo: Gates Foundation on Flickr (creative commons)

An article in Development Policy Review by James Sumberg and Gountiéni Damien Lankoandé examines the ‘heifer-in-trust’ or ‘livestock-in-kind credit’ model through a social-protection lens.

Specifically it seeks to engage with debates about the use of asset-based strategies to support graduation from social protection. Drawing on project experience with dairy goats in Ethiopia and dairy cattle in Tanzania, the article concludes that while the asset-ness of livestock may in principle allow them to make a unique contribution to livelihood transformation and thus graduation, the most obvious target group is least likely to be able to handle the demands and risks associated with livestock assets.

Malawi's Green Belt Initiative aims to offer land to local and international investors, in order to increase agricultural production, productivity, incomes and food security. But it may also be facilitating 'land grabs' from smallholder farmers.

This new Policy Brief (pdf) looks at the political economy of the GBI in Malawi, and finds some important concerns about the way it is organised and its effects.

Ethiopia’s Food Security Programme (FSP) has aimed to alleviate hunger and poverty through several programmes since 2005. A new Future Agricultures report (pdf) identifies the main enablers and constrainers of resilience and graduation from food and cash support provided through the FSP.

Graduation describes a household’s move from dependence on external assistance, to a condition where they no longer need this support. The constraining and enabling factors described in the report are related to the programme itself, to beneficiaries, locations, markets and environmental factors. The report analyses these in turn, and draws a set of conclusions and implications for policy and for organisations who aim to support food security in Ethiopia. The research covers eight communities from four woredas in Tigray and Oromia regions, providing contrasting results.