The G-8 Announcement on Agricultural Development: Can it Save the World From Hunger?

The new pledge to commit $20 billion to global agricultural development, announced at this week's G-8 summit, has the potential to dramatically improve the livelihoods of more than 700 million of the world's poor living in rural areas. If realized, this would be the most significant investment in the developing world's agricultural systems since the first Green Revolution in the 1960 and 70s, which saved millions of lives from hunger and created new agricultural infrastructure in parts of the world. Although this pledge should be commended, if the world's hungriest are to benefit, President Obama and leaders from the other G-8 nations will need to provide sustained leadership, funding over the long-term, and support for this effort, or it cannot succeed.

The number of people who live on less than $1 per day reached 1 billion this year. Over 70 percent of these are smallholder farmers and their families living in rural areas of the developing world that lack the technology and skills to produce enough food to feed themselves. The majority are women working to support their families on less than 2 hectares of land. Conditions for the world's farmers are only expected to worsen in years ahead as populations burgeon, the effects of climate change decrease their lands' arability, and fresh water becomes scarcer.

The G-8 announcement signals a significant change in U.S. assistance policy, which has heretofore focused almost exclusively on delivering food to the world's hungry (clearly necessary to provide humanitarian assistance and deal with famine and natural disaster) instead of also helping the developing world produce its own food and create the self-sufficiency of long-term agricultural infrastructure. In 2006, the U.S. government spent 20 times more on food aid than on support for agriculture. The international community's support for agricultural development in Africa has declined 70 percent since the 1980s. The impact of this neglect on the continent is clear - while population has rapidly grown in the last decade, crop yields have declined.

Left unchecked, food insecurity leads to regional instability. We saw in last year's food crisis how quickly escalating food prices can lead to violent political confrontations that compromise weak governments. The backlash to rising food prices makes a lot of sense considering that agriculture comprises a large part of most developing nations' economies: in Pakistan, the agricultural industry accounts for 25 percent of the nation's gross domestic product alone.

Given the importance of food security, a renewed international effort towards building food systems in the developing world, and helping people feed themselves, holds great promise for supporting political stability and economic prosperity if it is sustained for these next three years and beyond. In fact, no country has successfully been lifted out of poverty without significant development of its agricultural economy. A report released by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs suggests, if funds are committed and used effectively to support agriculture research, education, and extension, it is possible to develop systems to feed the world's hungry, and support future population growth. Research suggests that significant investments in agricultural research alone could lift 282 million people from poverty by 2020.

President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and others in the Administration, as well as the other G-8 leaders, have taken the first step towards solving the problem of world hunger by including a commitment to agricultural investment as a key part of the solution. Agricultural policies may not hold the same appeal or glamour as those on climate change or energy (although they are inextricably linked), but the first Green Revolution proves that if funded and sustained, agricultural development can change the world and materially alleviate poverty. The commitment of the G-8 leaders, if given the right support, and especially the right leadership, can have this same impact.

Dan Glickman is the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; Catherine Bertini is the former Executive Director of the UN World Food Program. Both cochair The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' study on global agricultural development. Its final report, Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty, is available online at www.thechicagocouncil.org/globalagdevelopment.

Comments

[34MillionFriends]

Africa now has a population of 900 million and in sub-Saharan Africa a total fertility rate of very close to 5 children per woman. The United Nations Population Fund (please see our grassroots effort in support of UNFPA at www.34mill­ionfriends­.org) predicts an African population of between 1..8 and 1.9 billion by 2050. Come on!. It will be impossible to make Africa self sufficient in food. All progress will be eaten up by populaiton growth. Any help to Africa in teaching food self sufficiency must also help Africa to empower women with education, health including reproductive health and family planning. The greatest threat to Africa is population. Today July 11, 2009 is World Population Day.

[THORYOU]

we get NO crops when there is no WATER like in calif. thank you gov.

[rawmillennium]

What is modern farming? The use of genetically modified seeds, pesticides, herbacides and other non-sustainable long-term practices. I'll ADM and Monsanto are about to get a huge subsidy to spread their "modern agriculture" methods to africa. They surely need what we have have in the US - obesity, diabetes and sickness!

[lorla]

During his press conference, he made a statement that in some parts of Africa, you have to pay a bribe to get a job in some cases.
I immediately thought that it is the same in the US. Big money pays bribes in the form of campaign contributions to our lawmakers, to keep the poor poor, and the rich in control.
I believe that Obama sincerely wants to contribute to making the world a more fair and equitable place, but he is fighting with the minority of our elected officials, and will not be able to change much.
It makes me sad and apathetic.

[vishnucoming]

No the level of corruption in Africa is not comparable to that in the US or in Europe. It is far worse. Remember, Africans were the "first men", they have been on that continent for 60,000 years. This is what they have made of it.

[kendraro]

have you ever heard of colonialism?

[TamPhi]

This represents a huge shift.

Instead of paying US farmers to grow food that will be dumped on foreign markets, we'll be contributing to the enhancement (rather than the destruction) of regional food systems in developing nations. This is a far more sustainable contribution.

[toxicbrainpoison]

the "developing world" had self sufficiency before colonialism, capitalism and property law. Now we are all in the same boat. No Americans are growing our own food either. Wheres our self sufficiency?

[EthnicHeart]

This is a critically important issue that most people, including the author of this article, do not understand. The idea that "rural people" don't know how to feed themselves is a widespread stereotype used to justify further exploitation. If they didn't know how to feed themselves then how did their ancestors survive there? Many rural people, whether indigenous or not, typically have problems because of increasingly losing land to more powerful landowners, difficulty of transporting produce to market, and little or no access to fair markets. Being robbed at the marketplace is the biggest incentive to abandon self-sufficient agriculture and move to urban slums. Money alone isn't the solution. In a world where the majority now live in cities, efficient countryside food production is more important than ever. People need to stop taking food for granted and become educated about whee it comes from and who gets exploited. And political pressure for rural social justice is just as important as any economic investment. This issue deserves much more attention and anthropological wisdom instead of merely thinking on the basis of stereotypes.

[vishnucoming]

Well weren't they able to feed themselves long ago because the population was much lower? Hunter-gatherer tribes have low population density.

[mercian35]

One of the best ways to improve food production in Africa would be to get rid of Robert Mugabe and like minded lunatics who quickly destroy their own successful agricultural industries for ideological reasons.

[moonflowerjewelry]

here is the problem: the powers that be want to "solve world hunger" on a corporate farm level based on monoculture crops where the farmers are reliant upon yearly purchases of hybrid seed and chemical fertilizers, rather than empowering communities to produce food the old fashioned local way: organically grown, composted, grow what you eat ...

as long as corporate interests rule the world, we will not do away with world hunger

[djgrefrath]

Stabilizing and increasing the amount of water in aquifers would be a good thing, as well as reforestation projects and local agriculture. These impinge though on the free market idea that aid providing countries have of themselves, do they not? Are people nuanced enough to realize that water tables, arable land and crop growth are intertwined?

[altohone]

We shall see.

Don't be surprised if farm aid is in the form of patented seed and contingent on the opening of markets.