Driving Forces Template
The changing nature of farm financialization
Safaa Al-Adwan Team 1.
Description/The changing nature of farm financialization
Agriculture finance empowers poor farmers to increase their wealth and food production to be able to feed 9 billion people by 2050. The work in agriculture finance helps clients provide market-based safety nets, and fund long-term investments to support sustainable economic growth. Demand for food will increase by 70% by 2050; at least $80 billion annual investments will be needed to meet this demand. There is an ever increasing need to invest in agriculture due to a drastic rise in global population and changing dietary preferences of the growing middle class in emerging markets towards higher value agricultural products. In addition, climate risks increase the need for investments to make agriculture more resilient to such risks. Estimates suggest that demand for food will increase by 70% by 2050 and at least $80 billion annual investments will be needed to meet this demand, most of which needs to come from the private sector. Financial sector institutions in developing countries lend a disproportionately lower share of their loan portfolios to agriculture compared to the agriculture sector’s share of GDP. To scale all of the financialization up, we have three components we need to focus on: - Farming of subsidies:Payments by the federal government to producers of agricultural products for the purpose of stabilising food prices, ensuring plentiful food production, guaranteeing farmers' basic incomes, and generally strengthening the agricultural segment of the national economy. - Direct to consumer sales:Refers to selling products directly to customers, bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, ... - Growth of carbon accounting:processes used to measure how much carbon dioxide equivalents an organization emits. It is used by states, corporations, and individuals to create the carbon credit commodity traded on carbon markets (or to establish the demand for carbon credits). Examples of products based on forms of carbon accounting may be found in national inventories, corporate environmental reports, and carbon footprint calculators.
Enablers/The changing nature of farm financialization
There is an ever increasing need to invest in agriculture due to a drastic rise in global population and changing dietary preferences of the growing middle class in emerging markets towards higher value agricultural products. In addition, climate risks increase the need for investments to make agriculture more resilient to such risks. Estimates suggest that demand for food will increase by 70% by 2050 and at least $80 billion annual investments will be needed to meet this demand, most of which needs to come from the private sector. Financial sector institutions in developing countries lend a disproportionately lower share of their loan portfolios to agriculture compared to the agriculture sector’s share of GDP.
Enablers/The changing nature of farm financialization
On the other side, the growth and deepening of agriculture finance markets is constrained by a variety of factors which include: 1. inadequate or ineffective policies 2. high transaction costs to reach remote rural populations 3. covariance of production, market, and price risks 4. absence of adequate instruments to manage risks 5. low levels of demand due to fragmentation and incipient development of value chains 6. lack of expertise of financial institutions in managing agricultural loan portfolios The development and commercialisation of agriculture requires financial services that can support: larger agriculture investments and agriculture-related infrastructure that require long-term funding (given that currently transportation and logistics costs are too high, especially for landlocked countries), a greater inclusion of youth and women in the sector, and advancements in technology (both in terms of mechanising the agricultural processes and leveraging mobile phones and electronic payment platforms to enhance access and reduce transaction costs). An important challenge is to address systemic risks through insurance and other risk management mechanisms and lower operating costs in dealing with smallholder farmers.
Inhibitors/The changing nature of farm financialization
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy: 70 percent of the active population is engaged in the sector that generates nearly one-third of the national gross domestic product (GDP). The GoN has prioritised agriculture in its periodic plans and annual development programmes, but these remain to be strengthened in terms of implementation. The majority of farmers, who are increasingly likely to be women as males have been migrating in search of more remunerative work, are poor and climate-vulnerable. The women workers’ share in agriculture has remained significant and dropped only marginally as compared to male workers.Agriculture has already been adversely impacted - Climate-Change Financing: The Local Context.by climate change across all regions, ethnic. income groups, and women and the poor are worst affected. - Discrepancies between Budget Allocation and Expenditure. - Budgetary gap at the district level. - Climate-Change Investment and Its Socioeconomic Impacts - Socioeconomic Impacts - Systematising Vulnerability Assessments
Paradigms/The changing nature of farm financialization
- It creates a lack of transparency of land ownership and production units. - It makes it possible to circumvent existing regulations. - It undermines farmers’ independence - It impedes the generational transition - It fosters the development of farm corporations operating solely on the basis of salaried work
Experts/The changing nature of farm financialization
- Bruno Larue: Agricultural economics, agricultural policies: bruno.larue@eac.ulaval.ca - John Reilly: Agriculture economics. Air pollution and emissions Biofuels Climate change policy
Timing/The changing nature of farm financialization
- 1800-1870: Level of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere, as later measured in ancient ice, is about 290 ppm (parts per million). - 1960: Mitchell reports downturn of global temperatures since the early 1940s.=>Modern temp's
Keeling accurately measures CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and detects an annual rise. =>CO2 greenhouse
- 1985: Ramanathan and collaborators announce that global warming may come twice as fast as expected, from rise of methane and other trace greenhouse gases. - 2000: Global Climate Coalition dissolves as many corporations grapple with threat of warming, but oil lobby convinces US administration to ignore the problem. - 2019: Increasing disasters (tropical cyclones, wildfires, etc.) join scientists' warnings to spur public demonstrations and civil disobedience
Web Resources/The changing nature of farm financialization
- https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/financialsector/brief/agriculture-finance - https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Agriculture+Subsidies - https://history.aip.org/climate/timeline.htm - https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNDP_NP-Impact-of-Climate-Change-Finance-in-Agriculture-on-the-Poor.pdf - https://www.arc2020.eu/combating-the-financialisation-of-agriculture-your-land-my-land-our-land/