By Jon H. Harsch
© Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.
The three key officials explained the new plan – focused on
helping farmers in developing countries increase their production and income –
at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs Symposium on Global Agriculture &
Food Security in
Shah noted that more than one billion people worldwide suffer from chronic
hunger – and that hunger is causing more than 25,000 avoidable deaths per day.
He said the need to combat this problem is urgent and that while the problem
grew worse due to the recent global financial crisis, a major cause has been “years of drift and lack of attention from the global
community and from the donor community, including the
Shah said that with the new program, “We believe this will reach 40 million people over 10 years, increasing their incomes significantly, by more than 10 percent a year. And we expect to reach 25 million children directly with nutritional interventions that will prevent stunting in 10 million kids.”
Directly addressing the conference participants, Shah said that:
· “If you’re here representing a partner country, we will follow your lead. Once you commit to a comprehensive plan, we will commit to helping bring the global community together to support you in its execution.”
· “If you’re here representing an NGO or a USAID implementing partner, your expertise will continue to be indispensable.”
· “If you’re from the private sector, tell us what countries and donors can do to reduce constraints on business operations. And please explore with us whether our tools to encourage investment . . . would help you make the commitment to invest greater resources in these specific value chains and countries.”
· “If you’re in Congress, we need you now more than ever to help fully fund this initiative.”
Agriculture Sec. Vilsack said that “Statistics tell us past approaches to global hunger, which focused efforts on providing food aid, are not enough. In the short term, we must still provide food to those who need it most. But in the longer term, we need a comprehensive approach focused on developing sustainable solutions to eliminate food insecurity. Our goals should be to increase the availability of food by helping people and countries produce what they need, to make food accessible to those who need it, and to teach people to use it properly so that they receive the nutrition they need from it.”
Vilsack said that as part of the Feed the Future initiative, USDA is committed to “sharing our expertise in the agricultural sector on everything from research and extension, to production and processing, and marketing products to consumers. USDA has capacity to both engage institutions abroad and work in a government-to-government capacity. And our efforts are coordinated with the Department of State and USAID, among other agencies and partners.”
For more on the Obama administration’s “Feed the Future” initiative, including a webcast of launching the new program, go to: http://www.feedthefuture.gov/
To read the 42 page Feed the Future guide, go to: www.agri-pulse.com/uploaded/FTF_Guide.pdf
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