Role of agricultural research in poverty reduction: lessons from the Asian experience

Abstract

The poor spend much of their income on food, depend primarily on labour earnings, and tend to reside in marginal agricultural areas. To reduce poverty, agricultural research should aim to ensure adequate food supplies by developing yield-increasing technologies, to increase labour demand by developing labour-using technologies and to develop technologies suitable for marginal areas. This article seeks to identify “appropriate” technologies that agricultural research should generate for poverty reduction. The identification is based on a review of the experience of the Green Revolution in rice production in Asia and an assessment of the changing structure of income sources among rural households in the Philippines.