In March 2005 IFPRI greatly increased its level of engagement in South Asia, inaugurating a New Delhi office and sponsoring associated activities around the region in cooperation with both new and old partners. The events launched IFPRI’s plans for intensified research and outreach efforts aimed at addressing the challenges of poverty and hunger in South Asia.

The March 7 ceremony marking the opening of the New Delhi office drew hundreds of guests, including Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India. “I hope IFPRI will catalyze a new wave of research in India and South Asia,” said Singh at the ceremony. “South Asia remains far behind its potential, both in terms of human development and in terms of agricultural and industrial production. I sincerely hope that we can all work together to improve the quality of life and the living standards of the people of South Asia.”

Given IFPRI’s mission of providing policy solutions that cut hunger and poverty, South Asia is a natural place to deepen and extend IFPRI’s presence. South Asia generates less than 2 percent of world income, supports 22 percent of world population, and is home to 39 percent of the world's poor who earn less than a dollar a day. Most of the South Asian poor are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and survival. Policies affecting poverty and hunger therefore have far-reaching implications for millions of people, especially the poor.

IFPRI is no newcomer to South Asia. “Since IFPRI’s inception 30 years ago, India and the larger South Asia region have been a focal point of our research,” said IFPRI Director General Joachim von Braun at the ceremony. “From now on, our commitment to the region will be solidified by our presence here, in close proximity to our partners and colleagues.”

The opening of the new South Asia office follows the 2002 launching of IFPRI’s South Asia Initiative, a research program designed to better understand and analyze the emerging challenges to agriculture in this region and their implications for food security and poverty alleviation. IFPRI’s office in New Delhi will have representation from all of the institute’s research divisions. The office will give IFPRI a stronger presence on the ground, closer to its clients in South Asia and the issues that confront them. It will also give IFPRI better access to feedback on policy research needs in South Asia.

IFPRI’s heightened presence in South Asia is part of a wider effort to increase the institute’s presence on the ground in the countries and regions where its research, outreach, and capacity-strengthening efforts are most needed.

Besides strengthening IFPRI’s ability to conduct research in South Asia, the institute’s South Asia Initiative and office will promote communication and mutual learning among researchers and policymakers in the countries of the region. “Let us not underestimate the importance of people-to-people contact for building lasting economic and political relationships,” said Ashok Gulati, director of IFPRI’s Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, which houses the South Asia Initiative, at the opening ceremony. “The movement of people, goods, and services can help develop a common market on a pattern similar to that in Europe, which will benefit everyone in the region. IFPRI’s endeavor is to capture some of such lessons and opportunities through its New Delhi office.”

In conjunction with the office opening, IFPRI released a policy paper to Indian policymakers. The paper addressed the paradox that India’s recent agricultural growth coincides with persistent rural poverty. In the policy paper, IFPRI senior management recommended that India increase its investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research; focus on education, nutrition, and the empowerment of women; strengthen water rights and management; exploit new opportunities for high-value products, including livestock and vegetables; and push for a rules-based approach to global liberalization of agricultural trade, to provide a level playing field for developing-country farmers.

The opening of the South Asia office kicked off a full week of activities in the region, including the annual meeting of IFPRI’s Board of Trustees in New Delhi and Rajasthan. In addition, IFPRI and other local cosponsoring organizations held a number of meetings and seminars, beginning with two seminars in New Delhi.

First, on March 7, IFPRI, the Confederation on Indian Industry (CII), and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) held an international symposium called “Towards High-Value Agriculture and Vertical Coordination: Implications for Agri-business and Smallholders.” Rising incomes in India have led to heightened demand for high-value agricultural products like fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs, creating a new opportunity for farmers and agroprocessors. Panelists and participants extensively discussed the switch from a staple economy to high-value agriculture, the changing structure of agroprocessing and retailing, the vertical integration of the food industry from farmers to retailers, and the challenges for institutions and infrastructure.

Then on March 8, IFPRI joined with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to hold a seminar entitled “Vision for Policy Research and Capacity Strengthening in South Asia” in New Delhi. Speakers and participants from IFPRI, ICAR, and across the region discussed how they might work together to help inform agricultural policy and collaborate on production, technology, and consumption issues.

The events in New Delhi were followed by country seminars in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan on topics of particular interest in those countries. From March 11 to 13, IFPRI and the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation held a meeting in Chennai, India, called “New Biotechnology: Implications on Food, Health, and Nutrition Security,” in conjunction with other collaborators. Recent advances in biotechnology have raised the possibility of using these scientific tools to help meet Millennium Development Goals in food security and health. Participants at the seminar highlighted the issues and challenges emerging in biotechnology for health and food and nutrition security, including how genomics can be used to improve crop productivity and human nutrition, how biotechnology can help address challenges in water resource management for agriculture, what the implications of nanobiotechnology are, and how to handle regulation of biotechnology and public-private partnerships in biotechnology. The seminar drew representatives of the Indian government, research institutions, the biotech industry, and international organizations.

On March 13, Dhaka, Bangladesh, was the site of a seminar entitled “Food Policy in Bangladesh: Issues and Perspectives,” sponsored by IFPRI, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, and the Bangladesh Rice Foundation. More than 90 participants from government and nongovernmental organizations, universities and research institutions, and international organizations attended the seminar to consider policy approaches to alleviating this country’s chronic food insecurity. Although Bangladesh has made commendable progress in economic development and food production since independence in 1971, about half of the country’s population cannot afford an adequate diet. The seminar highlighted three types of food insecurity: (1) serious undernutrition among the ultra poor, who make up about one-fifth of Bangladesh’s 140 million people; (2) acute food insecurity among low-income people as a result of shocks such as floods, cyclones, and droughts; and (3) “hidden hunger” among a large percentage of the population owing to a poor-quality, micronutrient-deficient diet. Whereas the price of rice has been falling in Bangladesh, the prices of other, nutrient-rich foods are on the rise. “If policies are not undertaken to increase the supply of noncereal, nutrient-rich foods such as pulses, fruits, vegetables, and fish,” said IFPRI senior research fellow Akhter Ahmed, “the prices of these foods will continue to increase in the face of income and population growth. Consequently, the diet quality and nutritional status of the poor are likely to deteriorate further.” Participants noted that IFPRI can play an important role in Bangladesh in researching the policy angles of social safety nets, agricultural research, education, rural infrastructure, and public investments.

As elsewhere in South Asia, poverty remains a persistent problem in Pakistan—in fact, the poverty rate has risen there in recent years even as the country achieved remarkable agricultural growth. This was the central topic discussed at a seminar on “The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction in Pakistan,” organized by IFPRI and Beaconhouse National University with assistance from Innovative Development Strategies (IDS) Ltd., and held in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 12. “Why has this correlation between agricultural growth and poverty reduction broken down? This is an issue that we must seriously debate and find out whether we need a different pattern of agricultural growth to reduce poverty,” said Sartaj Aziz, vice chancellor of Beaconhouse National University. Discussions at the seminar centered on four main themes: the rising poverty trends in Pakistan, key agricultural policy issues, rural industrialization, and Pakistan’s prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. About 120 people representing the academic and research community, international organizations, the federal and local government, media, and farmers’ organizations attended the seminar. One answer to the problem of growth that fails to reduce poverty was offered by Syed Akmal Hussain, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Beaconhouse National University. “The greatest potential for yield increases is in fact in the small farm sector,” said Hussain. “If we could increase yields in this sector, we could simultaneously accelerate growth and improve the distribution of income to achieve poverty reduction.”

All of the IFPRI seminars and workshops held in South Asia, designed in collaboration with local partners, featured free and frank exchanges of perspectives and ideas, helping to identify key issues for future research in the region. Through these exchanges, IFPRI not only launched relationships with new partners, but also deepened its contacts with existing partners. IFPRI’s concerted effort to engage with a broad range of actors in the region sets the foundation for a new style of interaction there, one that will, it is hoped, enable IFPRI to provide information that can contribute to accelerating progress in reducing poverty and hunger among the people of South Asia.