Erratic rain in Ethiopia

Jun 29th, 2009 10:15 AM EST
By Chris.Scott

AllAfrica.com reports on a situation in Ethiopia that’s threatening crop production this year. Due to the late start of Ethiopia’s wet season, and the unreliability of the rains, the number of those in need of aid could increase.

Excerpts below, full piece here

“The rainy season will start late particularly in the northeastern part of our country,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told reporters at his office on 24 June. “That means the cropping season for some types of crops may not be appropriate this year.”

Ethiopia produces 90-95 percent of its total cereal output during the main rainy season, called ‘meher’, which runs from June to October.

According to the US Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), the ‘meher’ crop season is likely to experience below normal rains. The ‘belg’ (early rains, February-June) season, which normally accounts for 5-10 percent of total cereal output, has also been unpredictable.

-Chris Scott

“Enough” Hits Bookshelves This Week

Jun 26th, 2009 12:38 PM EST
By Roger Thurow

Roger Thurow has been a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent for twenty years and has reported from more than sixty countries, including two dozen in Africa. His new book Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, co- authored with Scott Kilman, hit bookshelves this week.

When it comes to world hunger, it’s time to say, “Enough is enough!”

Several weeks ago I had the honor and great pleasure of addressing the ONE leadership retreat and presenting a preview of my book ENOUGH: WHY THE WORLD’S POOREST STARVE IN AN AGE OF PLENTY. This week ENOUGH hit the sturdy shelves of the bookstores and the virtual shelves at amazon.com.

In the days in between, the United Nations’ food agencies confirmed what we all feared: global hunger is getting worse. The number of chronically hungry people is soaring past 1 billion – the highest number since before the Green Revolution in the 1970s and an increase of more than 11% from just last year. And for the first time in nearly 40 years, the prevalence of hunger is climbing; 15% of the world’s population is now hungry, up from 13% in the middle of this decade.

So ENOUGH, which I wrote with my Wall Street Journal colleague Scott Kilman, is more timely than ever. During the writing, we held fast to an abiding mantra: outrage and inspire, outrage and inspire. We hope that is indeed what our book does:

Outrage, that we have brought hunger with us into the 21st century in ever-increasing numbers.

Inspire, that hunger can be conquered. A mighty grassroots movement founded on a new will to end hunger is rising.

ONE is a vital leader of that movement. We hope that ENOUGH will fuel the outrage and the inspiration to continuing shouting loudly, “Enough is enough.”

-Roger Thurow

Zimbabwe still hungry despite increase in crop production

Jun 25th, 2009 5:38 PM EST
By Beth Adler

Thanks to good rainfall, Zimbabwe has been able to increase production of maize—the staple crop in the country—by 130% to 1.1 million tons. Despite this increase, however, 2.8 million people will still face food shortages this year, as the UN Food and Agriculture Orgaization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) report. Zimbabwe’s food security situation is still extremely tenuous, with basic necessities out of reach for most households. The report also warned that Zimbabwe could see the lowest-ever wheat harvest this winter due to high seed prices and electricity shortages.

“This year’s improved harvest comes after two consecutive years of poor production,” said the World Food Programme’s Jan Delbaere, who worked on the report, reports AP news agency. “Having depleted their food stocks and sold livestock and other assets to cope with the effects of the recent crises, many rural households are still struggling to survive.”

If you’re curious about the report, you can find it here.

-Beth Adler

Getting African products onto UK shelves

Jun 25th, 2009 4:48 PM EST
By Pooja Gupta

Recently, during the first ever World Trade Week in the UK, the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), launched the Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH), an initiative designed to get more African products into UK markets. FRICH, co-funded by the UK Government and various UK retailers, offers subsidies to the private sector in the UK to develop business models that benefit African farmers by integrating them into the food supply chain that puts goods on UK shelves.

The challenge fund issues grants for specific projects taken on by UK retailers that develop methods to increase demand for food products produced in Africa. These projects must involve UK imports of food products from Africa and, to receive funding, grantees must match or exceed the value of the grant with their own investment. They must also demonstrate that their projects will benefit the market for African food exports, either through commercial promotion or with added income and employment for African farmers.

Trade is an essential tool for economic development and often relies on access to wealthy, developed-country markets, such as the UK. Accessing these markets is difficult for developing countries for a variety of reasons, including lack of capacity and marketing knowledge. FRICH aims to cultivate partnerships between the public and private sectors to overcome these barriers.

Almost 75% of all UK consumers want to use their shopping to contribute to poverty-reduction, according to DFID, yet only 3% of total household food spending is actually used to buy products manufactured in developing countries. FRICH aims to bridge this gap and to encourage UK businesses to take risks to develop new strategies that benefit African producers. Commercial operators with ideas that might have been seen previously as too risky to undertake can now apply for funding from FRICH. Adopting innovations, such as new technologies, links with suppliers in unexplored country markets, new crops and products, alternative distribution channels, and creative marketing, can help otherwise constrained businesses to develop and broaden partnerships with African producers.

The first round of FRICH funding has just been granted to six companies:

• Blue Skies: launching premium-quality fruit juices from Ghana.
• Waitrose LEAF: developing greener farming systems for African growers to produce environmentally-sustainable fruit and vegetables.
• The Co-Operative Group and Finlays Beverages: launching tea from cooperatives set up as a result of a partnership between Kenyan farmers and UK manufacturers in Kenya, as well as focusing on diversifying crops to reduce dependence on tea production.
• Sainsbury’s: launching, developing, and promoting coffees from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate: upgrading quality and ethical practices of tea producers in Rwanda
• Cafédirect: launching a new range of teas and cocoa from Kenya, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Uganda, and Tanzania.

At the launch of FRICH, Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas explained that, “Seven out of ten Africans depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and the ability to trade with a large UK retailer will make a big difference to farmers across the continent.” The FRICH initiative highlights the importance of integrating African products into global markets and making Africa a viable partner in world-wide trade.

-Pooja Gupta

Roadmap Legislation Highlights Hunger for Congress

Jun 22nd, 2009 9:20 AM EST
By Beth Adler

Recently Representatives McGovern (D-MA) and Emerson (R-MO), co-chairs of the House Hunger Caucus introduced legislation designed to elevate the issues of global hunger and food security in Congress. The Roadmap to End Global Hunger and Promote Food Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2817), acts as the legislative complement to the Roadmap to End Global Hunger, which ONE introduced to you on the blog a few months ago, and incorporates many of the Roadmap’s suggestions. The legislation is designed to showcase what, ideally, the U.S. could do to end global hunger.

Mirroring the Roadmap, the bill details a comprehensive strategy for the U.S. to follow in order to address global hunger. These actions include: implementing nutrition and safety net programs to the most vulnerable; rural agricultural development, particularly targeted at women, who make up the majority of smallholder farmers; and programs to increase the capacity of governments and individuals to feed themselves and their people. The legislation also calls for a coordinated U.S. government strategy to address global hunger, and outlines plans for the design and implementation of this national strategy. Like the Roadmap document, the legislation notes that in total, $50.3 billion over the next 5 years would be necessary to undertake all of these initiatives.

This piece of legislation will hopefully push the challenge of global hunger, and ways that the U.S. can engage to address it, to the top of the congressional agenda—much like the Lugar-Casey bill, and the administration’s commitment to agricultural development in the developing world have done so far this year.

-Beth Adler

Hillary Clinton: Attacking Hunger at its Roots

Jun 11th, 2009 1:49 PM EST
By Chris.Scott

The Huffington Post today is running an article by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Obama administration’s fight against global poverty. In the article Secretary Clinton outlines “7 guiding principles to support the creation of effective, sustainable farming systems in regions around the world where the current methods aren’t working.”

Check them out below, full piece here

1. We will seek to increase agricultural productivity, by expanding access to quality seeds, fertilizers, irrigation tools, and the credit to purchase them and training to use them.
2. We will work to stimulate the private sector, by improving the storage and processing of food and improving roads and transportation so small farmers can sell the fruits of their labor at local markets.
3. We are committed to maintaining natural resources, so the land can be farmed well into the future. That includes helping developing communities adapt to climate change, which has had a major effect on the world’s farms.
4. We will expand knowledge and training by supporting R&D and cultivating the next generation of plant scientists.
5. We will seek to increase trade so small-scale farmers can sell their crops far and wide.
6. We will support policy reform and good governance, because sustainable agriculture flourishes in a clear and predictable policy and regulatory environment.
7. We will support women and families. 70% of the world’s farmers are women, but most programs that offer farmers credit and training target men. This is unfair and impractical. An effective agricultural system must have incentives for those who do the work. And it must take into account the particular needs of those whose futures will shape our world: our children.

-Chris Scott

More on the Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting

Apr 20th, 2009 7:24 PM EST
By Francesco Oddone

It is likely that agriculture will attract more international attention at the G8 Summer itself following this first G8 Agricultural Ministers’ Meeting. The food crisis is the one crisis that directly affects billions of people on earth, claiming lives every day. Still, the final communiqué represents much less of a breakthrough than hoped for. The outcome document seems to suggest a very “noisy” silence from the invited developing and emerging countries - we will be investigating whether this was a result of differences between delegations from the G8 on one side and developing and emerging country partners on the other.

During the press conference most questions from journalists were directed at developing countries who were asked specifically for their views on trade distortions that penalize them. The Italian agriculture Minister Zaia tried to point out the trade distortions that harm countries like Italy - not a good sign. The communiqué did not contain figures on resources for agricultural investments in Africa, or even an indication of a set of rules that should reduce or eliminate speculation. On the positive side those omissions mean we have plenty of room for manoeuvre in the run-up to La Maddalena. We will need that time to make sure that this agriculture summit does not turn out to have been one more exercise in empty rhetoric to save face, but not lives.

-Francesco Oddone

At the Agriculture Ministers’ meeting

Apr 20th, 2009 11:15 AM EST
By Francesco Oddone

This weekend the G8 countries’ Agriculture Ministers met, in Cison di Valmarino, Italy, to discuss the pressing urgency of the world food emergency. ONE’s Francesco Oddone brings us analysis of this historic event on the ground:

Hope and a bit of scepticism: it is with a combination of these conflicting feelings that I approach Cison di Valmarino - 60 km from Venice, birthplace of Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia - set in a beautiful hilly landscape in a region with great agri-food traditions.

There is definitely much hope for this G8 agriculture Ministers’ meeting which is an absolute first. the fact it is taking place shows how important food issues have become in the highest policymaking circles. The recent food crises, precursor of the larger economic one, has shown just how precarious the global system is when market speculation overtakes peoples’ basic needs. Having leaders from the North and the South, as well as the most relevant international organisations openly discussing the problems should certainly be considered in a positive light.

On the other hand, at least one thread coming out of the first day of the meeting certainly calls for some caution, or even suspicion. Mr Zaia’s call for some form of “shield” for Northern growers (his specific example was about Thai vs. Italian rice producers) cannot but be identified as potentially damaging protectionism that goes against the South’s opportunities to escape the vicious cycle of underdevelopment through trade. It is trade itself that can open the path for sustainable growth by providing reliable sources of income which can be locally re-invested. Blocking that route in times of a severe economic downturn does not seem an enlightened way to proceed, especially when it would harm people in the poorest countries that have had least to do with the crisis.

Work on the meeting’s outcome document is still in progress as of Sunday evening: there is talk that the document that might be approved by the G8 + G5 + 3 (Argentina, Australia, Egypt). That will depend on whether fundamental questions such as northern protectionism can be resolved during the next few hours.

-Francesco Oddone

On Eve of Agriculture Meeting, UN Says 100 Million More People Could Face Hunger

Apr 17th, 2009 5:31 PM EST
By Beth Adler

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that 50 to 100 million additional people will become hungry in light of the ramifications of the global financial downturn. Dr. David Nabarro, Coordinator of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis (HLTF) explains, “The evidence that we have, still anecdotal, is that the problem is starting up.”

As jobs in poor countries are eliminated and remittances from abroad decrease, the economic situation for many becomes more tenuous. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), two years of a global economic crisis could mean 50 million more people will be unemployed. This new challenge comes in the wake of last year’s global food crisis, the repercussions of which – high food prices, low food stores, volatile markets – are still affecting people in the developing world.

This new burden threatens to push more people over the threshold into hunger and poverty. Nabarro warns, “’We’re anticipating that, with the reduction of their purchasing power as a result of this unemployment, they are going to be facing extreme problems with ensuring that they could feed themselves and their families. As well as the many other difficulties that people of the world are facing… they’re also going to be heading into another period of hunger’.

These projections come just before G8 agriculture ministers meet in Italy to discuss the issue of food security and develop a proposal for addressing the global food crisis. The meeting begins on Saturday with ministers from the G8; it then continues on Sunday and Monday with representatives from other countries including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, and Egypt. Global bodies such as the FAO, World Food Program, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Bank, the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, and African Union have also been invited.

We at ONE will be tracking the agriculture meetings; look out for updates next week.

-Beth Adler

Senator Lugar on the Global Food Security Act

Apr 6th, 2009 12:07 PM EST
By Senator Lugar

Senator Casey and I recently introduced the Global Food Security Act of 2009 (S.384) to re-orient U.S. foreign assistance to focus on hunger and poverty. We very much appreciate that ONE has endorsed the bill. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently approved the bill.

Roughly one billion people today suffer from chronic hunger. World population is projected to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050. Agricultural productivity will need to at least double by then, but instead it has been stagnating especially in Africa. Farmers will be hard pressed to meet growing demand given the challenges of land, water, and environmental pressures brought about by climate change, soil degradation, deforestation, and volatile fuel prices.

There is little reason for anyone to be hungry in a world in which we have the knowledge and resources to improve food availability and access. The entire world is facing difficult times in this global recession, and now more than ever we need your support to ensure that billions of people do not go hungry and will not in the future. Please contact your Senators and ask them to join us in cosponsoring the bill. If you would like to learn more about the bill and the issue, please visit the food security page of my website.

-Senator Richard G. Lugar, Indiana