Plan Said To Be Vital In Feeding World’s Hungry
18 October 2010 by Philip Brasher, DesMoinesRegister.com
The Obama administration says its $3.5 billion plan to improve the livelihoods of poor, small-scale farmers overseas could spark the revolution in food production that will be needed to support the Earth’s growing population.
Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Friday the projects being funded in 20 target countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America could serve as a model for a sustainable new green revolution.
That is a reference to the dramatic increase in grain production in southern Asia in the 1960s that became known as the Green Revolution and won Cresco native Norman Borlaug, a plant scientist, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Shah spoke in Des Moines as part of the World Food Prize events. The prize was created by Borlaug.
Shah said Congress has yet to provide the first pot of money for the Feed the Future program for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. He warned that the administration is losing some fellow donors for the initiative.
The U.S. commitment was supposed to be matched by more than $18 billion from other rich countries.
The initiative was spawned by the food price spikes in 2008 that triggered food riots in some countries as well as a global outcry against U.S. biofuel policies, which were seen as driving up commodity prices.
“Our stakes are really nothing compared to what the world faces” with projections that the global population will grow by 2 billion people in coming decades, Shah said.
He said Americans must be “loud, persuasive and vocal advocates, not just for ending hunger, but the specific strategies and a data-based approach.”
The administration’s plan has been a key issue at this year’s symposium. One of the two World Food Prize laureates for 2010, David Beckmann of the advocacy group Bread for the World, has used his speeches to appeal for political support for the funding.
The administration’s ability to get other countries to fulfill their aid pledges will be undercut if Congress doesn’t come up with the U.S. share, he said Friday.
Former laureates who have experience working with African farmers said the Feed the Future program is a well-designed approach that could finally succeed in improving farm productivity in poor countries, but only if the funding comes through.
“The key is whether we get the resources,” said Gebisa Ejeta, a plant breeder at Purdue University who was last year’s World Food Prize laureate.
The Feed the Future plan involves a long-term strategy for increasing food production in poor countries. Receptive nations would collaborate with private interests. Governments of the target countries are expected to invest some of their own money.
Past aid efforts have been uncoordinated and driven by U.S. priorities, not those of host countries, critics say.
One of the model projects, in Tanzania, will focus on regions that have the highest potential for growth and encompass major road and rail systems and electrical transmission lines.
Businesses are also playing a part: Food giant Unilever is looking to source products in Tanzania; General Mills will provide technical assistance to millers; and local seed suppliers and companies that transport crops will be involved, too, Shah said.
(Source: DesMoinesRegister.com)
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