Achieving poverty alleviation, particularly in rural areas, will require aid to agriculture, on which three-quarters of the world’s poorest depend for their livelihoods. Representatives from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty, came to the first World Intellectual Property Organization conference on key global challenges 13-14 July to discuss how intellectual property could be of use in those goals. IFAD is led by Kanayo Nwanze, of Nigeria, who took the position in February 2009.

Intellectual Property Watch asked Nwanze to explain how to best create incentives for technology development aimed at helping smallholding farmers increase their production (as much agricultural technology to date has been aimed at large agribusinesses). Intellectual Property Watch also asked if steps could be taken to avoid the environmental fallout of the last great leap forward in agricultural production, the so-called Green Revolution of 1965-85, and how IP might influence the creation of that technology. Watch his answers in the videocasts below.Achieving poverty alleviation, particularly in rural areas, will require aid to agriculture, on which three-quarters of the world’s poorest depend for their livelihoods. Representatives from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty, came to the first World Intellectual Property Organization conference on key global challenges 13-14 July to discuss how intellectual property could be of use in those goals. IFAD is led by Kanayo Nwanze, of Nigeria, who took the position in February 2009.