Social protection and agriculture: Introduction to the special issue

Social protection programmes have expanded rapidly in many developing regions over the past two decades, covering about 2.1 billion people. The evidence shows social protection not only has positive welfare impacts, it also stimulates productive activity among beneficiary households and the local economy. Most of the extreme poor live in rural areas, with agriculture an important part of their livelihoods and policies to promote agricultural growth being essential. Both social protection and agricultural policies are needed for poverty reduction. However, the synergies inherent between the two are not yet fully understood. We review some of the key issues related to maximizing synergies between social protection and agricultural policies: targeting, informal support systems, gender, institutional demand, impact evaluation and research priorities.