It should nevertheless be a key ingredient in any policy that aims to reduce poverty, dependence, environmental degradation, excessive population growth and other factors that are most often the direct causes of hunger.
Research demonstrates that basic education has a clear effect on agricultural productivity.
A World Bank study found that farmers in all countries, when armed with a minimum of four years of primary education, were able to increase their productivity by an average of 8.7 percent. Rural women attending a literacy class Literacy as a gender issue Girls are less likely than boys to be enrolled in school. Learning environmental awareness Environmental degradation is a major threat to food security. Sometimes performed as a result of ignorance or short-sightedness, practices leading to soil erosion or water pollution could be considerably reduced through education. Teaching needs to alert people to dangers their practices can cause to their environment as well as to alternative modes of cooking, farming, heating and waste disposal.