The Interaction between Social Protection and Agriculture: A Review of Evidence

Nyasha Tirivayi, Marco Knowles, and Benjamin Davis

ABSTRACT

Social protection policies aim to reduce socio-economic risks, vulnerability, extreme poverty and deprivation, while smallholder agricultural policies focus on improving productivity in crops, fisheries, forestry and livestock and improving access to markets. Both areas of policy are important in poverty reduction strategies, but little attention has been paid to the interaction between them and how that influences their design and implementation. Conceptually, there is a two-way relationship between social protection and agriculture. On the one hand, poor rural households that mostly rely on agriculture for their livelihoods are often affected by limited access to resources, low agricultural productivity, poorly functioning markets and repeated exposure to covariate and idiosyncratic risks. Social protection can help to alleviate credit, savings and liquidity constraints by providing cash and in-kind support. In addition, the regularity and predictability of social protection instruments help households to better manage risks and to engage in more profitable livelihood and agricultural activities. On the other hand, agricultural policies and programmes can help smallholder households manage risk by stimulating farm output, income and overall household welfare. Since social protection and smallholder agricultural interventions often cover the same geographic areas and target the same households, there are opportunities for synergies and complementarities that would strengthen the livelihoods of poor rural households. This study explores the interaction between formal social protection and agriculture by proposing a theory of change and conducting an empirical review that identifies how social protection impacts agricultural production and how agricultural interventions reduce risks and vulnerability at the household and local economy levels. The paper seeks to provide an empirical rationale for building synergies and coordinating complementarities between social protection and smallholder agriculture in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The review also provides some insights to the FAO and its partners on how social protection and agriculture can potentially complement each other.