జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ఎకోసిస్టమ్ & ఎకోగ్రఫీ

నైరూప్య

Agriculture and Rural Development: A Key Factor to Achieve Zero Hunger

Zahoor Ahmad Rather, Dr. Pooja Sharma, Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, Dr. Naseer Ahmad Wani

In 2015 the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) prepared an agenda of Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger and end the poverty by 2030. About 800 million peoples suffering from hunger and almost four-fifths of people living in rural areas are poor. According to FAO, IFAD and WFP, increase inagricultural and rural income is important for the achievement of first two Sustainable Development Goals. The qualitative research discusses that agricultural and rural development is necessary for the elimination of poverty and achieving zero hunger. In the present study it was found that agricultural development, a subset of economic development includes increases in the production level, productivity, standard of living and per capita income of farmers. Besides the sustained increase in the level of production and productivity of all rural dwellers, including farmers and increase in per capita income, standard of living, the rural development also leads to sustained physical, social, and economic improvement of rural communities. Present study also reveals that rural and agricultural development is one of the important steps in the process of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goals. Rural areas mostly depend on agricultural activities for livelihood and food products, so rural development enhance food quality, provide food security, infrastructures by increasing food production and enhance the food quality to achieve all of the Millennium Development goals. Therefore, for achieving Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) it is important to focus on agricultural and rural development.