An outlook on Asia’s agricultural and rural transformation: Prospects and options for making it an inclusive and sustainable one

This report finds ground for a temperate optimism regarding the future role of smallholder agriculture in helping Asian countries delivering on Agenda 2030. Growth rates of the region’s major economies remain buoyant. Notwithstanding the risks associated with a new global crisis or originating from the instability of financial markets, economic growth is expected to remain strong in the decade to come. This will have positive influences on the rural economy, including the rural non-farm sector, ensuring that it benefits from public investments in rural-urban connectivity made possible by healthier public finances. Asian rural financial markets are now better integrated with domestic financial markets, and through them with international financial markets, compared with only 10 years ago. Public policies have shifted from taxing to supporting agriculture so that incentives for agricultural producers are now relatively more favourable than those faced by other sectors of the economy