 US Agency for International Development Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah speaks to journalists at Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya in this May 15, 2010 photo. AP photo |
U.S. officials earlier this month unveiled a plan to fight hunger and promote global security by investing in agriculture in developing countries.
The United States will plow at least $3.5 billion over three years into programs to promote farming and fight hunger in low-income countries, mainly in Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, chief Rajiv Shah said as he unveiled the plan called "Feed the Future."
"Combined with the investments of our partner countries, we believe this will lead to 40 million people over 10 years increasing their incomes by more than 10 percent a year, and we expect to reach 25 million children with nutritional interventions that will prevent stunting in 10 million kids," Shah told a symposium on agriculture and food security.
"Agricultural development is a springboard for broader economic development, and food security is the foundation for peace and opportunity and, therefore, our own national security," Shah told the gathering that included Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the agriculture ministers of Bangladesh and Mali.
"Feed the Future" is being launched at a time when more than one billion people are chronically hungry.
To U.S. Congresswoman Rosa de Lauro, that is one billion people who could be forced "into desperate acts" because of hunger. "Famine and starvation create the conditions for extremism around the world, the same extremism our men and women in the armed forces are fighting right now in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere," said de Lauro.
"We fight hunger and we undercut the recruiting base of those who would threaten our families," she said.
Recovery in Africa:
Sirleaf said rebuilding Liberia's farming sector was a key driver in the west African country's recovery, after back-to-back civil wars that claimed more than a quarter of a million lives between 1989 and 2003 and left the infrastructure in ruins.
"Recognizing that agricultural growth is more effective in reducing poverty than any other effort in any sector, our government is placing emphasis on this strategic sector," which ground to a halt during the years of war as farmers abandoned their fields to seek shelter in cities, said Sirleaf.
"Our policy goal in the sector is to revitalize operations that contribute to sustainable economic growth and development, to provide for security and nutrition, and to increase employment and income - all aimed at measurably reducing poverty," she said.
Since Sirleaf took office in 2006, Liberia has boosted production of rice by 43 percent, and seen annual economic growth of around seven percent.
Liberia is one of 20 countries named last month by USAID that will receive funding under "Feed the Future."
The "focus countries" were chosen based on how widespread hunger and poverty were and on how committed the countries were to developing opportunities for agriculture-led growth.
Twelve of the focus countries are in Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
"By the end of this year, we should have 15 African country investment plans, representing a total population of 650 million people," said Shah, although he did not name the other three African countries.
Four focus countries are in Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and Tajikistan.
The remainder are in Latin America: Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.
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