Ahmad Hanif Orakzai, Acting Secretary Economic Affairs Division, and Prof. Andrew Campbell, Chief Executive Officer Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) signed a Memorandum of Subsidiary Agreement on “Understanding the Drivers of Successful and Inclusive Rural Regional Transformation and Sharing Experiences and Policy Advice in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and Pakistan”.
Under this agreement, Australia will provide $1.2 million for a program to be completed in three years.
The objective of the program is to understand the nature, drivers, and consequences of rural transformation in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Urbanization is putting pressure on land, labor and other resources for higher productivity. Rural transformation is the process by which an agricultural system transforms over time from being subsistence to commercialized and market-oriented farming.
Many countries have reached different stages of rural transformation with varying speeds and outcomes of rural transformation. Shares of the population in rural areas remain high in China (43%) and Indonesia (46%) and even higher in Pakistan (61%) and Bangladesh (65%), (The average share for developing countries globally is (58%).
The project will examine the Chinese model of rural transformation and try to understand the nature of its success for countries with similar challenges.
Secretary Economic Affairs Division thanked the Australian Government for extending its continuous support to the Government of Pakistan in its efforts towards the development of the agricultural sector of the country.