Agriculture is a key sector for many countries in the global south and has the potential to be a vital engine to help reduce poverty. However, this report shows that the World Bank has systematically overlooked the wide range of local food and farming systems that are essential to tackling poverty and the climate crisis.
Seeds are central to food production and the types of seeds available to farmers shape how our food is produced, what is produced and who makes a profit from its production. The report shows how farmers need access to diverse seeds, and in particular to local varieties adapted to their needs and local contexts. It shows how, across Africa, this access is under threat from the spread of an industrial model that seeks to increase the sales of agribusiness companies who sell hybrid seeds – and the chemical inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides needed to activate these types of seeds.
CAFOD’s analysis of the World Bank’s policy and funding instruments shows that it has focused almost exclusively on supporting farmers to buy hybrid seeds and fertilisers. It has ignored the role of farmer seed systems in enabling small-scale farmers to tackle poverty and enhance food security.
Our research also shows that the World Bank uses flawed metrics to measure the impact of its promotion of an industrialised agriculture model. Success has been measured by the Bank in terms of greater participation of the private sector in providing access to hybrid seeds and fertilisers, as opposed to measuring impacts based on poverty reduction or increased food security for poor farmers. As a result, large-scale agribusiness companies have been the main beneficiaries of the Bank’s involvement, profiting from increased sales and further concentrating their market share and control of agricultural systems.
This report takes a detailed look at why the current system is unsustainable. It highlights the transformational potential of agriculture to support global efforts to eliminate poverty and build a sustainable food system. It calls on the World Bank to support farmers to move toward agroecological production, which enables food to be produced sustainably and builds resilience to climate change.
