US unveils food security plan for Africa

The Obama administration has announced a $3bn (£1.9bn) plan to boost food security and farm productivity in Africa, in an effort to help the world’s poorest farmers.

In line with the G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland, US, President Barack Obama and the leaders of four African countries have introduced a group of 45 companies, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

US officials have said the initiative is aimed at decreasing shortages as world food supplies are being stretched by the growing demand from Asia’s emerging markets. In addition, it will help Africa’s poorest farmers to grow enough food to earn a living for themselves.

President Obama said that while the G8 summit is addressing Europe’s fiscal situation, it was "also critical, to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some one billion men, women and children around the world: the injustice of chronic hunger."

US Agency for International Development administrator Rajiv Shah said that without private investment hunger in Africa can never be stopped.

"There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers," Shah added.

The initiative aims to benefit at least 50 million people in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The Obama administration wants the G8 to take new steps to boost food production by building on its 2009 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, which sought to garner over $20bn over the next three years to invest in the agricultural sector in poor countries, which in turn can stabilise global food prices.

The group of companies will include multinational food firms such as Monsanto, Diageo and Swiss Re, smaller businesses such as Ethiopian coffee exporter Mullege, as well as the World Cocoa Foundation.

Swiss agribusiness Syngenta has already announced plans to invest $500 to boost production in Africa, and to increase its annual sales in the continent to $1bn within ten years.

Syngenta chief executive officer Mike Mack said that Africa has become one of the company’s strategic growth regions and Syngenta plans to contribute to the transformation of African agriculture.

"We will deploy our leading portfolio as part of a system-wide approach linking people, land and technology, with the aim of increasing productivity sustainably and thereby reducing poverty," Mack added.

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Image: The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative aims to help 50 million Africans come out of poverty and to transform the continent into a major food exporter over the next ten years. Photo: Sarahjjay.