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Business Standard
08-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Bringing investment to rural sector key priority: IFAD president
"IFAD's priority is to mobilize financing, especially long-term financing for rural areas and especially to have and deliver a long-lasting impact for those who need it most," Lario told PTI Press Trust of India New Delhi Bringing investment to the rural sector is a key priority for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), President Alvaro Lario said, adding that investment in agriculture is two to three times more effective in reducing poverty than in any other sector. In an interview with PTI, Lario stressed on the importance of bringing private capital to the rural sector, and said that globally, investments worth around $ 75 billion is required to adapt to the impact of climate change. Founded in 1977 in response to a global food crisis, IFAD is a specialised United Nations agency and an international financial institution that tackles hunger and poverty in rural communities. "IFAD's priority is to mobilize financing, especially long-term financing for rural areas and especially to have and deliver a long-lasting impact for those who need it most," Lario told PTI. "So for us, finance is a means to an end and we know that investment in agriculture is two to three times more effective in reducing poverty than in any other sector," he said. He said IFAD has partnered with India for nearly 50 years and India is among its founding members, as well as one of IFAD's largest borrowers and also a donor. Lario said for India, the three big questions are, "how do we make agriculture more remunerative for farmers, how do we enhance productivity at the same time as we're tackling a lot of the climate shocks and how do we move from food security to nutrition security." The IFAD president said climate shocks are one of the biggest threats to global food security, with rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events already reducing yields and disrupting a lot of the rural livelihoods. "So we know that small-scale farmers need approximately at least 75 billion US dollars to adapt to many of these climate shocks," he said. "In case of India we're seeing seasonal water scarcity, rising temperatures, more frequent droughts, so there's a lot of investments that can actually support these small-scale farmers globally. In global climate finance, what we're seeing is that these small-scale producers, hundreds of millions of rural people, are only receiving less than one per cent of the overall global climate finance," he said. He pointed out that agriculture accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP in India and it employs around 42 per cent of the workforce. "So even though there has been a lot of progress, we believe that continuing investing in pro-poor inclusive value chain and connecting small-scale producers to markets continues to be fundamental," he said. He stressed on bringing private capital into the sector. "We're also trying to bring private capital, private local companies with the government by really bringing a partnership of the public, the private, and the producers themselves. We're also adopting agro-ecological approaches that are currently supporting commercially viable and sustainable value chains so that once more the goal is to improve the income of small-scale farmers and also the resilience to shock," he said. He said IFAD's approach is about "co-creating solutions" with the central and the state governments in India, making sure the private sector is brought in, and ensuring that small landholders, tribal communities, rural youth and women are very much at the centre of many of these investments. "This will very much translate into a more vibrant market-driven rural economy that will create the jobs and opportunities that many of these rural communities lack. For that we need to aggregate, we need to make sure that many of these investments are aggregating, scaling up, processing and really making that formal market access a reality," he said. "For this transformation we will also need a lot of the private sector enterprises, that's why we need to create the incentives jointly with the governments to make sure that this mobilization of private sector capital is happening where it matters most, which is in the first mile of where food is being produced," he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Print
07-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
Investment of USD 75 bn needed for Indian farmers to adapt to climate change impact: IFAD President
Asked about the impact of climate change on the rural sectors, especially on small and marginal farmers, Lario said it's a key focus. In an interview to PTI, Lario said for IFAD in India, the three big questions are, 'how do we make agriculture more remunerative for farmers, how do we enhance productivity at the same time as we're tackling a lot of the climate shocks and how do we move from food security to nutrition security.' Founded in 1977 in response to a global food crisis, IFAD is a specialised United Nations agency and an international financial institution that tackles hunger and poverty in rural communities. New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) Investments worth around USD 75 billion is required for small-scale farmers in India to adapt to the impact of climate change, and bringing finance to rural areas is a critical challenge ahead for rural communities across the world and in India, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Alvaro Lario said. 'Small-scale farmers need approximately at least 75 billion US dollars to adapt to many of these climate shocks,' Lario told PTI. According to the 10th agriculture census of 2015-16, small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2 per cent of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3 per cent of the farming land. 'In case of India we're seeing seasonal water scarcity, rising temperatures, more frequent droughts, so there's a lot of investments that can actually support these small-scale farmers globally. In global climate finance, what we're seeing is that these small-scale producers, hundreds of millions of rural people, are only receiving less than one per cent of the overall global climate finance,' he said. Lario lauded schemes like 'soil health card', and said it gives farmers personalised recommendations on how they can improve their soil health, as well as incentives to adopt treat irrigation and other water-saving technologies. 'The challenges remain and we're seeing that many of the farmers are still struggling to adopt some of the climate smart practices. So still we need to continue investing, we are investing with the government at the central and state levels in India,' he said. 'For example in Maharashtra, in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, where we are bringing too many of these investments climate resilient practices that combine sustainability but also with income,' he said. He said it's important to focus on how these small-scale farmers can continue increasing their income through crop diversification, improved water management, or micro irrigation systems, and also creating community seed banks or using drought tolerant seeds. 'All of this is really gonna have a translation into better lives and better incomes,' he said. Lario said IFAD's priority is to mobilise financing, especially long-term financing for rural areas and deliver a long-lasting impact for those who need it most. 'We know that agriculture accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP in India and it employs around 42 per cent of the workforce. So even though there has been a lot of progress, we believe that continuing investing in pro-poor inclusive value chain and connecting small-scale producers to markets continues to be fundamental,' he said. He also stressed on bringing private capital into the sector. 'We're also trying to bring private capital, private local companies with the government by really bringing a partnership of the public, the private, and the producers themselves. We're also adopting agro-ecological approaches that are currently supporting commercially viable and sustainable value chains so that once more the goal is to improve the income of small-scale farmers and also the resilience to shock,' he said. Lario gave the example of Meghalaya, where IFAD has promoted and incubated a number of market-driven enterprises which are offering agri-entrepreneurs incubation, mentoring, credit, and access to markets. In Mizoram, he said, IFAD is promoting integrated farming, bringing together crops, livestock, agroforestry, in community-led clusters. 'We're introducing weather-based crop planning which is also enabling farmers to align the sowing with the rainfall forecast thereby reducing climate risk,' he said. He said IFAD was the first UN funded programme which received two credit ratings, and currently they're issuing bonds that are being bought by pension funds and central banks all over the world. 'We are also bringing capital and investment, especially private capital to these rural areas,' he said. 'We're currently using our own financing to co-invest with the private sector by directly investing in agri-enterprises, in local financial institutions and in value chain institutions that are very much serving small holder farmers,' he said. Lario further said the strategy is very much aligned with the Indian government's approach and over decades. According to IFAD, it has invested over USD 1.5 billion in India in the last 45 years, reaching over 6 million families. 'Our focus has been very much on investing in women, in tribal communities, small-scale producers and also on strengthening community institutions,' he added. PTI AO HVA This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Time of India
06-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Investment of USD 75 bn needed for Indian farmers to adapt to climate change impact: IFAD President
Investments worth around USD 75 billion is required for small-scale farmers in India to adapt to the impact of climate change, and bringing finance to rural areas is a critical challenge ahead for rural communities across the world and in India, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Alvaro Lario said. In an interview to PTI, Lario said for IFAD in India, the three big questions are, "how do we make agriculture more remunerative for farmers, how do we enhance productivity at the same time as we're tackling a lot of the climate shocks and how do we move from food security to nutrition security." Founded in 1977 in response to a global food crisis, IFAD is a specialised United Nations agency and an international financial institution that tackles hunger and poverty in rural communities. Asked about the impact of climate change on the rural sectors, especially on small and marginal farmers, Lario said it's a key focus. "Small-scale farmers need approximately at least 75 billion US dollars to adapt to many of these climate shocks," Lario told PTI. Live Events According to the 10th agriculture census of 2015-16, small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2 per cent of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3 per cent of the farming land. "In case of India we're seeing seasonal water scarcity, rising temperatures, more frequent droughts, so there's a lot of investments that can actually support these small-scale farmers globally. In global climate finance, what we're seeing is that these small-scale producers, hundreds of millions of rural people, are only receiving less than one per cent of the overall global climate finance," he said. Lario lauded schemes like 'soil health card', and said it gives farmers personalised recommendations on how they can improve their soil health, as well as incentives to adopt treat irrigation and other water-saving technologies. "The challenges remain and we're seeing that many of the farmers are still struggling to adopt some of the climate smart practices. So still we need to continue investing, we are investing with the government at the central and state levels in India," he said. "For example in Maharashtra, in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, where we are bringing too many of these investments climate resilient practices that combine sustainability but also with income," he said. He said it's important to focus on how these small-scale farmers can continue increasing their income through crop diversification, improved water management, or micro irrigation systems, and also creating community seed banks or using drought tolerant seeds. "All of this is really gonna have a translation into better lives and better incomes," he said. Lario said IFAD's priority is to mobilise financing, especially long-term financing for rural areas and deliver a long-lasting impact for those who need it most. "We know that agriculture accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP in India and it employs around 42 per cent of the workforce. So even though there has been a lot of progress, we believe that continuing investing in pro-poor inclusive value chain and connecting small-scale producers to markets continues to be fundamental," he said. He also stressed on bringing private capital into the sector. "We're also trying to bring private capital, private local companies with the government by really bringing a partnership of the public, the private, and the producers themselves. We're also adopting agro-ecological approaches that are currently supporting commercially viable and sustainable value chains so that once more the goal is to improve the income of small-scale farmers and also the resilience to shock," he said. Lario gave the example of Meghalaya, where IFAD has promoted and incubated a number of market-driven enterprises which are offering agri-entrepreneurs incubation, mentoring, credit, and access to markets. In Mizoram, he said, IFAD is promoting integrated farming, bringing together crops, livestock, agroforestry, in community-led clusters. "We're introducing weather-based crop planning which is also enabling farmers to align the sowing with the rainfall forecast thereby reducing climate risk," he said. He said IFAD was the first UN funded programme which received two credit ratings, and currently they're issuing bonds that are being bought by pension funds and central banks all over the world. "We are also bringing capital and investment, especially private capital to these rural areas," he said. "We're currently using our own financing to co-invest with the private sector by directly investing in agri-enterprises, in local financial institutions and in value chain institutions that are very much serving small holder farmers," he said. Lario further said the strategy is very much aligned with the Indian government's approach and over decades. According to IFAD, it has invested over USD 1.5 billion in India in the last 45 years, reaching over 6 million families. "Our focus has been very much on investing in women, in tribal communities, small-scale producers and also on strengthening community institutions," he added.
Japan Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Blistering heat and empty chairs mar U.N.'s flagship development event
Brutal heat scorched Spain this week, a blistering reminder of the climate change that is battering the world's poorest countries — stretching their finances even as government debt climbs to new heights. But at a once-a-decade U.N. development finance conference in Seville, two key ingredients were in less abundance: money and power. Just one Group of Seven leader — French President Emmanuel Macron — attended the event, where he and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed rooms with dozens of empty chairs. Organizers initially said they expected 70 heads of state; that was whittled to 50 as the conference got underway. Back in Washington, Paris, London and Berlin, rich-country leaders are slashing aid and cutting bilateral lending in a pivot to defense spending and rising debt at home. "The mood is ... I would say realistic, but also a sense of unity and of pragmatism," said Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund of Agricultural Development, adding that the question on everyone's mind this week was how to do more with less. "How can we come together, or think out of the box, or create new type of ways of really stretching it more?" The Financing For Development meeting is a flagship U.N. conference, charting the trajectory to help tackle changes the world must make to tax policies, aid spending or key areas such as debt, health and education. Its outcomes guide global aid funding and U.N. policies for the decade to come. Few disagree over the need for action. Hundred-year floods and storms are happening with alarming regularity, and rising debt-servicing costs are siphoning money away from health, education and infrastructure spending in the developing world. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers a speech during the close of the U.N. conference in Seville on Thursday. | AFP-Jiji But even top developing-world leaders such as Mia Mottley, the Barbados prime minister and a prominent global climate champion, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, currently chairing the Group of 20 major economies, backed out of the event at the last minute. The media room was stacked with Spanish press gossiping about a domestic political scandal while disillusioned civil-society leaders stalked the halls, upset with the watered-down agenda and the lack of fiscal or political firepower. "We are facing a backsliding of many agendas that we had advanced a few years ago," said Henrique Frota, director of ABONG, a Brazilian association of NGOs. "Developed countries are reducing their investment in (official development assistance) and European countries are not fulfilling their commitment ... they are giving less and less money right now for every kind of agenda." Event leaders were relieved to produce an outcome document — despite gnawing fears in the past months that Washington would torpedo any deal. In the end, U.S. officials backed out altogether. "The entire community was very afraid of coming here because one country wasn't attending," said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Marcos Neto. "But the document ended up working out ... I'm leaving happy, with more optimism than I thought I would leave with." Neto highlighted significant steps toward implementing climate and development goals, including the Seville Platform and multiple agreements from public and private sectors to leverage funds for the biggest possible impact. A woman carries an umbrella near Las Setas during a heat wave in Seville on July 2. | REUTERS The Seville Commitment included tripling multilateral lending capacity, debt relief, a push to boost tax-to-gross domestic product ratios to at least 15%, and get more rich countries to let the International Monetary Fund use "special drawing rights" money for countries that need it most. But in Seville, only host nation Spain signed on to commit 50% of its special drawing rights funds for the purpose. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed acknowledged that the attendance was not as star-studded as hoped, and that public funds are under pressure. "But there's innovative financing, there's the private sector, there's the triple lending of MDBs... so the resources are there," she said, referring to multilateral development banks. "We just have to have the political will to leverage through these mechanisms that have come out of the platform of action and continue moving with them." U.S. President Donald Trump, despite his country's absence, loomed large over the event; his climate change skepticism, hostility toward diversity initiatives and pledge to review U.S. participation in multilateral organizations made some keen to strip out references to climate change and rebrand initiatives as focused on resilience, education or health. Still, some said the gloomy backdrop should not deter leaders focused on progress. "Ultimately the important thing is doing it," said Jose Vinals, a former group chairman of Standard Chartered and cochair of both the FFD4 Business Steering Committee and the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. "The private sector is, for the most part, still willing to walk the talk."
Business Recorder
03-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Aurangzeb engages global partners at FFD4 in Spain
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held a series of high-level bilateral meetings and strategic engagements on the sidelines of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), currently underway in Seville, Spain. These meetings were aimed at fostering deeper strategic cooperation with partner countries and institutions across areas such as development finance, trade, climate resilience, and institutional capacity-building, read a statement released by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday. Aurangzeb, who is representing Pakistan in the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), met with Eelco Heinen, Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, for a detailed bilateral exchange. Aurangzeb urges global push to revive development cooperation at FfD4 As per the statement, the meeting focused on further strengthening the long-standing and cordial ties between the two countries, particularly in the domains of trade, development cooperation, climate resilience, and institutional capacity-building. Both sides shared perspectives on enhancing economic engagement, technical collaboration, and the potential for deepening partnerships in areas such as blended finance, climate finance, and digital transformation. The Pakistani side expressed keen interest in leveraging Dutch expertise in agri-tech, water management, and the digitization of public services. During the meeting, the Dutch Finance Minister reaffirmed his country's support for Pakistan's structural reform agenda and emphasised the importance of policy continuity, transparency, and facilitation of investment flows. Aurangzeb also held a detailed meeting with Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director of the World Bank, on the sidelines of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. The minister appreciated the World Bank's continued support for Pakistan's development agenda and shared updates on the successful review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program and ongoing reforms under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). He also highlighted the launch of Pakistan's National Green Taxonomy, developed with World Bank support, which aims to guide sustainable investments and is expected to be approved soon. Aurangzeb welcomed the World Bank's endorsement of the new 10-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF 2026–2035), which focuses on key areas including child stunting, learning poverty, climate resilience, fiscal space, decarbonization, and private investment. In a separate meeting, the finance minister held in-depth discussions with Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized UN agency focused on rural development and food system transformation. The two sides reviewed the long-standing collaboration between Pakistan and IFAD. Aurangzeb acknowledged IFAD's ongoing support through six active projects in Pakistan. The meeting covered a wide range of IFAD-supported initiatives in Pakistan, including policy support, vocational training, community infrastructure, access to finance, climate-smart agriculture, value chain development, and resilience against climate shocks. Additionally, Aurangzeb met with John W.H. Denton AO, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The two discussed avenues for enhanced cooperation in trade facilitation, SME development, investment promotion, and the role of the ICC in supporting Pakistan's economic transformation. Particular emphasis was placed on private sector engagement, international best practices, and institutional capacity building to unlock new opportunities for sustainable growth and inclusive development in Pakistan.
