From the very beginning, reducing global hunger and poverty has been one of President Barack Obama’s overarching priorities. That is why the President and the United States Government launched the Feed the Future Initiative, to support countries in developing their own agriculture sectors to generate opportunities for economic growth and trade, which can help reduce poverty, hunger and undernutrition. Because growth in the agricultural sector is, on average, at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors, Feed the Future is investing in smallholder farmers.
To achieve greater impact, Feed the Future partners with civil society, the private sector, and muli-lateral organizations. An example of this collaboration is the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched by President Obama two years ago at the G8. It is a partnership representing a commitment by donors, African governments, civil society and private companies to lift 50 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty by 2022. Recently, under the New Alliance, the U.S. Agency for International Development, teamed up with the DuPont Company to help some 35,000 smallholder farmers in both Ethiopia and Ghana increase their yields by as much as 50 percent.
In late January, on the margins of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, USAID and DuPont built on their existing partnership and announced a joint global agreement to deepen efforts to reduce global hunger and poverty by enabling smallholder farmers access to proven, safe, and transformative agricultural innovations.
The two partners will work to improve farmers’ access to proven and safe seed technologies, credit, markets, and better storage facilities; they will help improve value chain development, from farm to market to table and improve nutrition through biofortification of once widely cultivated, but now neglected crops.
The partners will also provide training and support improving crop quality and yields, and help smallholder farmers address climate change. Dr. Shah, Administrator for USAID states, “By improving smallholder farmers’ access to key tools and technologies, we can help ensure they have the opportunities to participate in increasingly global markets.”
“Better productivity, easier market access, and higher incomes lead to less poverty and improved nutrition. This is the vision that drives USAID’s leadership of Feed the Future and our ongoing contributions to the New Alliance.”