Many poor people in rural areas continue to live in a context of long-term pervasive poverty, with stagnant growth and limited opportunities in agriculture. In recent years there has been a renewed recognition of the role that agriculture, via increased productivity, can play in poverty reduction, which has encouraged new policy initiatives and funding in the agricultural sector.
However, numerous factors may prevent the poor from taking up new opportunities in agriculture and/or push them into less productive activities. Perceptions of potential shocks and stresses, rapid structural change and chronic cycles of indebtedness increase the risk for poorer households of investing in more productive agriculture, and keeps them trapped in a low-input low-output vicious cycle of poverty.