Top employers in agriculture and rural development: A primer

Sustainable agriculture and rural development are vital factors in tackling global poverty. The Sustainable Development Goals include eliminating global hunger and achieving food security with sustainable agriculture. But with the global population growing so rapidly, and climate change causing devastation to much agricultural land, achieving this won’t be easy. Until a decade ago, development initiatives were aimed at aiding people out of the agriculture sector and into manufacturing and service sector jobs. However, the 2008 food crisis put agriculture back in the forefront of global development agendas. In 2016, the United States government implemented the Global Food Security Act which was praised by numerous nongovernmental organizations for making food and agriculture a development priority. Poverty in rural areas still remains far above that of urban areas, despite the fact that 80 percent of the food produced across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia comes from smallhold rural farmers. That makes up some 2.5 billion livelihoods. Today, there are many different types of organisations working across the board to contribute to this sector of global development. From research and innovation of new crops to policy making and project implementation on the ground, governments, NGOs, and the private sector alike all have a vested interest in agricultural and rural development. Here is an overview of some of the biggest organizations working in agriculture and rural development. 1. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee As the largest international development nonprofit globally, BRAC employs more than 110,000 employees and have their own university dedicated to development research and learning. They work in 11 countries across Asia and Africa on a variety of poverty reduction initiatives, one of which is their agriculture and food security program. Agriculture in Bangladesh is an important and pressing issue as, every year, land is lost due to natural conditions and disasters while the population also grows by nearly 2 million people. BRAC conducts development research in two centers in Bangladesh to improve crop varieties as well as new agricultural technologies for better yield production. One such example of BRAC’s work is the hybrid variety of rice they developed, which can grow in saline water so that flood-prone land is no longer deemed useless and provides a livelihood for farmers. View some of the global job opportunities open with BRAC here. 2. World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute is a global research organization with around 1,400 members of staff and experts conducting research into sustainable resource use and management. They use their findings to influence governments, businesses, and civil society and implement their successful programs in other countries and extend them to the global scale where possible. They have seven main research goals dedicated to developing methods for people to adopt lifestyles that protect the Earth’s environment. One such goal is “food” and, within it, there are three main priorities: To increase the amount of food produced for the growing global population; to reduce the impacts of agriculture on climate, ecosystems and water; and finally to ensure that the process is socially and economically inclusive. View current job opportunities with WRI here. 3. International Fund for Agricultural Development As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development was founded following the 1970s’ food crisis in order to finance agricultural development projects in developing countries. Their aim is to eradicate rural poverty in developing countries, as three-quarters of the global population’s poorest people live in rural areas, depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. IFAD employees work with communities throughout Africa, Asia, Latin and Central America, and employ a variety of professional staff, consultants and interns. View current job opportunities with IFAD here. 4. International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute conduct extensive research to provide policy solutions to reducing poverty and ending world hunger and malnutrition in sustainable ways. They have more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries, and is one of several research centers that make up the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research. IFPRI work across Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean with their headquarters in Washington, D.C., and have six main focus areas: Ensuring sustainable food production, promoting healthy food systems, improving markets and trade, transforming agriculture, building resilience; and strengthening institutions and governance. View current job opportunities with IFPRI here. 5. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations The FAO has 194 member countries and is actively working in over 130 to achieve food security for all. Its key priorities are to eliminate hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition; make agriculture, forestry, and fisheries more productive and sustainable; reduce rural poverty; enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems; and increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises. With over 11,000 staff members, the FAO is one of the largest organizations working on agriculture and rural development. They have staff based both within their headquarters in Rome, 32 % as of February 2019, and the rest are spread throughout the rest of the world. View current job opportunities with FAO here. 6. The Pacific Community As the scientific and technical organisation of the Pacific region, SPC has three main goals: Create sustainable economic development; to form empowered and resilient communities; and for Pacific people to lead long and healthy lives. With over 600 staff, SPC has its headquarters in Noumea, regional offices in Suva and Pohnpei, a country office in Honiara and field staff in other Pacific locations. They have a large number of employees working across various teams, including the Pacific Agriculture Policy Project. PAPP aims to enhance the Pacific’s capabilities in agricultural work and eradicate poverty through policy development, knowledge support, and smallholder markets. View current job opportunities with SPC here. 7. The African Development Bank The AfDB is a regional development bank uniting a large proportion of African countries and donor countries dedicated to sustainable economic and social development in order to reduce poverty across the continent. They work on a wide variety of development initiatives to achieve this, one of which is the “Agriculture and Agro-industries” department which is particularly important because of the dominance of agriculture over most member-countries’ gross domestic product, employment, and economic growth. They aim to empower rural populations by assisting them in improving their productivity and initiating a shift from subsidence to commercial farming. This requires a combination of local knowledge and modern, scientific technologies, which will increase their wealth and quality of life. View current job opportunities with AfDB here. 8. Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture CNFA is an international nonprofit with over 500 members of staff working in offices across the globe. They have headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Brussels, as well as offices throughout Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, making up a worldwide total of 18 different countries. Their strategy is to educate farmers about market-based techniques and facilitate partnerships with the private sector to cultivate entrepreneurship and stimulate economic growth from the ground up. They employ a broad range of staff, from development experts and short-term consultants, to agronomists and farmers. They also implement the United States International Development Agency “Farmer-to-Farmer” volunteer assignments, and offer a comprehensive internship programme. View current job opportunities with CNFA here. 9. One Acre Fund One Acre Fund is a social enterprise that uses market-based strategies to assist smallholder farmers and alleviate rural poverty. They provide four main services to rural farmers across sub-Saharan Africa: Asset-based loans of seeds and fertilizers; delivery locations within walking distance of every farmer; training on modern agricultural techniques; and education about market facilitation. From their modest beginnings in 2006 helping 38 families in Kenya, in 2020 alone they reached over 1.3 million farmers across seven countries and are aiming for 10 million by 2030. View current job opportunities with One Acre Fund here. 10. Self Help Africa Self Help Africa is an NGO whose goal is to end hunger and poverty in rural Africa with their expertise in small-scale and family-run farming businesses. As its name suggests, the organization works in nine sub-Saharan countries and employs their own African staff along with local partners to provide assistance to rural communities. They connect smallholder farmers with cooperatives and producers so they have access to markets; tackle gender inequalities within the sector; help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change; educate about food quality; and provide access to microfinances.