Resource information
The Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) is a national strategy with a cross-sectoral approach with a duration of twenty years (1995-2015). Its goal is to add two percentage points to the country’s agricultural growth which would expand per capita agricultural growth sixfold, from its current 0.5% to 3% per year. The APP strategy is based on the acceleration of the agricultural growth rate sufficiently to obtrain strong multiplier effect on growth in employment, both in agriculture itself and in nonagricultural sectors. Growth is to occur through technological change in crop agriculture, the consequent demand pull on high value commodities, increasing specialization, and trade. The technological change is to be achieved through investment in research and extension, which is expected to generate the improved technology, through policies promoting fertilizer use and improved water control, which will embody the technology and through specialization and trade made possible by investment in roads and other market infrastructure. Its objectives are: to accelerate the growth rate in agriculture through increased factor productivity; to alleviate poverty and achieve significant improvement in the standard of living through accelerated growth and expanded employment opportunities; to transform the subsistence-based agriculture into a commercial one through diversification and widespread realization of comparative advantage; and to expand opportunities for an overall economic transformation by fulfilling the precondition of agricultural development.Year around irrigation will be used to drive rapid output growth. The unirrigated area will decline which will result in increases of total cropped area. Other key complements in the package are all-weather agricultural roads and electrification, while fertilizer distribution and marketing activities will also be coordinated. The research system will give the highest priority to developing farming systems suitable to the high-intensity farming made possible by well-controlled year-round irrigation, to fertility management, and to a few priority commodities. Women farmers are to be encouraged and given priority in forming water users groups and in training directed at the organization and management of irrigation systems.A set of monitoring systems will be set up to ensure quality control. Roads and power are other priority inputs that will be addressed during the plan implementation. Income growth accelerated under the plan will finance the growth in the demand for livestock products. Growth efforts will focus almost exclusively on milk animals with an emphasis on animal nutrition, feed supplies, veterinary services, and marketing. The third priority is to expand poultry production which has already shown rapid growth followed by goats, the fourth priority. Environment will be positively impacted by the plan-proposed land reforms.The Plan represents a massive effort in reduction of poverty through its direct effects from agricultural growth and far more so from the indirect employment-producing multipliers in the non-agricultural sector. Poverty reduction and economic growth will be further enhanced by the development of the agribusiness sector which in turn will also provide employment opportunities for women farmers. Forestry sector priorities will be focused on (i) community forestry in the hills and mountains, (ii) commercial management in the terain, (iii) private and leasehold forestry, and (iv) training, research, and development. The effect of the Plan on rural poverty is expected to be dramatic with the poverty incidence decreasing from 49 to 14 percent during the APP period pf 2014-2010.Implementation will be headed by two bodies: the National Support Committee (NSC) and the Subcomittee for the Implementation of the District Agricultural Program (SIDAP). The NSC will oversee the policy issues, procedural matters, and implementation status of the Plan. Key line agencies will be represented on the NSC and will be responsible for implementing their components of the plan in a timely fashion and for coordinating their activities with other agencies. SIDAP will determine the sequence of block introductions to the PPP and will coordinate all the district level activities.
