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Archives for Agriculture

Innovating Our Way to a Second Green Revolution

Posted by  on Wednesday, June 22nd 2011     

Alimatu Zakaria of Suglo women’s rice processing group in Tamale sieving parboiled paddy. Louis Stippel / USAID

Robert D. Hormats serves as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs. Originally posted on DipNote, the U.S. Department of State official blog.

Nearly one billion people — one seventh of the world’s population — suffer from chronic hunger. Because of extreme hunger and poverty, children, adults, and indeed entire societies are prevented from achieving their full potential. But, through the work of many, progress is being made.

Today, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn of the World Food Prize Foundation, and I honored the former President of Ghana, H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, and the former President of Brazil, H.E. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as recipients of the 2011 World Food Prize. Their commitment and visionary leadership have propelled Ghana and Brazil toward meeting Goal 1 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals — to reduce the prevalence of poverty and hunger by half by the year 2015.

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the World Food Prize. It recognizes the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. In preparations for the awards ceremony, I was reminded of the visionary work of Dr. Norman Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize, and the crucial impact of innovation in addressing global hunger. Dr. Borlaug’s life story and dramatic successes merit our ongoing respect and appreciation, and should inspire use to better address the food security challenges that we face today.

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Investing in Women to Defeat Hunger in Malawi

Posted by  on Friday, June 10th 2011     

Submitted by guest blogger Anita McCabe, Country Director, Concern Worldwide, Malawi

Concern Worldwide is investing in women farmers in Malawi like Ariema Benetala to improve nutrition of mothers and children during the 1,000 days from pregnancy to age 2. Photo credit: Kathyothyo, Malawi, Pieternella Pieterse for Concern Worldwid

As the hot, dry breeze wafts through the lakeside district of Nkhotakota, Malawi, a group of women sing as they take turns to water their near-ripe crop of maize. Further downstream, another group is busy making seed beds in preparation for another crop.

Like many women in developing countries, these women face a particular set of responsibilities and vulnerabilities when it comes to providing food for their families. Not only are they the primary caregivers, they are also the producers of food and the income earners. Women farmers in rural areas of Malawi grow, buy, sell, and cook food in order to feed their children. In fact, in all the countries in which I’ve worked during my time with Concern Worldwide, I’ve seen how very hard women must work to ensure the survival of their families, and the burdens they bear.

Women produce between 60 and 80 percent of food in developing countries, and they hold the key to tackling hunger and malnutrition. A woman’s nutritional status is critical not only to her own health but also to her ability to work, and her ability to ensure that her children are properly nourished and healthy.

Nkhotakota has suffered from recurring drought and flooding, and the people here know the consequences. “As a woman, it hurts to see my children cry with hunger” says Grace Kalowa from Thondo village. “It’s more painful as a mother to tell them that I don’t have any food to give them. In their eyes I am supposed to provide for them but knowing that I can’t do anything is heartbreaking. That feeling of desperation is what brought us together as women to drive hunger away from our families.”

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From the Field

Posted by  on Monday, May 2nd 2011     

In Haiti, on May 1st, we inaugurated a rural agricultural research center to celebrate Haiti’s National Agriculture and Labor Day.  Click here for more information on the initiative.

In Afghanistan, CNN will report on eco-projects.  One project that may be highlighted is USAID’s Afghanistan Vouchers for Increased Productive Agriculture (AVIPA) project.  Through this project, we will train farmers on how to mechanize their rural farms in order to increase yields and productivity.

In Jamaica, we will hold a workshop in partnership with Global Deaf Connection to provide business and work readiness training for the hearing impaired.

Picture of the Week

Posted by  on Tuesday, February 15th 2011     

Small grants from USAID helped equip about 7,200 people from villages in conflict-affected Northern Pakistan with the tools they needed to re-start their livelihoods, like livestock, seeds, and fertilizers for farmers, and tool kits for plumbers and carpenters, and sewing machines for tailors and seamstresses. Photo Credit: Usman Ghani/USAID

Feed the Future launches Comprehensive Approach to engaging the Private Sector

Posted by  on Friday, January 28th 2011     

By:  Tjada McKenna,Director, Private Sector and Innovation Office, Bureau for Food Security

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Administrator Shah proudly announced USAID’s support for the WEF’s New Vision for Agriculture initiative. This initiative is led by 17 global companies, including Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Coca-Cola, DuPont, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Monsanto, PepsiCo, and Wal-Mart to name a few that are Industry Partners of the Forum. The goal of this initiative is to utilize market-based solutions to increase production by 20%, while decreasing emissions by 20% and reducing the prevalence of rural poverty by 20% every decade.

Today, nearly 1 billion people go hungry everyday – half of them farmers – and malnutrition needlessly robs people of their potential to contribute to their families, their communities and society as a whole. Three-quarters of the poor live in rural areas, most relying on agriculture for their livelihood, with women contributing the bulk of farm labor. And now, these farmers face even tougher constraints as the world must produce more with less and the agriculture sector is entering a new era marked by scarcer resources, greater demand and higher risks of volatility partly owing to global climate change.

Standing alongside the CEO’s of Unilever and Monsanto, Administrator Shah committed USAID, through the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, to promote the development of innovative, large-scale private sector partnerships in FTF focus countries to achieve significant impact on global hunger and malnutrition. This approach will bring together farmers, local businesses, supply chain companies, global corporations, local and national governments and civil society to promote sound investments in agriculture. USAID will support these partnerships by leveraging its own investments in agriculture-led growth in key corridors or breadbasket regions in FtF countries.

For example, USAID through FtF is supporting Tanzania’s Kilimo Kwanza Growth Corridor with an equity investment of $2 million in the Corridor’s $50 million catalytic fund, and is considering additional annual investments up to $10 million. The fund will help open up partnership opportunities for private investment in rural infrastructure (irrigation and rural roads), processing, research and training, institutional capacity building, and nutrition and is expected to leverage nearly $500 million in private sector investment.

In an effort to combat malnutrition, USAID also signed an Memorandum of Understanding with DSM Nutritional Products to work together to improve dietary quality across the developing world, starting with rice fortification in rice staple food countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania. DSM is a global material and life sciences company and a leader in the fields of human and animal nutrition with 70 years of innovative product development and application technology in vitamins and nutrient fortification. USAID will also tap into DSM’s expertise in efforts to improve the nutritional value, shelf-life, and nutritional test methods of food aid commodities.

Work together with FTF focus country governments, USAID will continue to promote the development of dynamic new partnerships directly with the private sector by facilitating the work of both local and private companies who want to contribute to new models of agriculture-led development. We stand ready to build new partnerships based on jointly defined priorities and focused choices to transform agriculture and drive food security.

Picture of the Week

Posted by  on Tuesday, January 4th 2011     

Agricultural research helps farmers in Vietnam grow more rice and counteract the impacts of climate change on food security. Photo Credit: Philippe Berry/USAID

Improving Rural Livelihoods by Empowering African Women Researchers in Agricultural Science

Posted by  on Thursday, December 23rd 2010     

With sharp minds, inquisitive souls, and iron wills, they are an 11-strong group of top-level women scientists in agricultural research with their eyes set on influencing national and regional policy to improve livelihoods in Mozambique and across Africa. Through their work, they are helping to change the face of a continent where women are seldom heard, but are always called on to give and to nurture. They are Mozambique’s scientists in the AWARD program for African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, funded by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Anabela Manhica proudly exhibits a laptop received from the AWARD program. Photo Credit: USAID/Mozambique

Esperanca Chamba, who specializes in natural resources management, is one of 11 women scientists in Mozambique who were selected from among hundreds of applicants from 10 sub-Saharan countries as fellows of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) project. AWARD was established in 2008 by the Gender & Diversity Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, following a three-year pilot program in East Africa. It is a professional development program that strengthens the research and leadership skills of African women in agricultural science, empowering them to contribute more effectively to poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The US$15 million, five-year project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, with plans to extend to a second phase starting in 2013.

Chamba’s example of a foiled attempt in experimental nutrition finely captures the context of women and agricultural research and development in Africa. “Most of the work in the fields is in women’s hands,” says rural extension officer Claudia Nhatembe, during a break from the sweet potato fields on the rich soils of IIAM’s Umbeluzi Agricultural Station, some 30 km outside the capital, Maputo. “It’s hard work–plowing, sowing and harvesting. For men, it’s mostly handling the plantation’s irrigation systems.”

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Refrigerated Containers Open the World’s Markets to Fresh Fruit From Afghanistan

Posted by  on Monday, December 6th 2010     

As Featured in Dipnote

Submitted by Joyce Kim

On December 3, 2010, Afghan farmers and merchants took an important step forward in world trade by exporting Afghanistan’s first-ever, 40-foot refrigerated container (“reefer”) of pomegranates, destined for buyers in Canada. Subsequent reefer shipments will go to Dubai and Holland through the seaport in Karachi, Pakistan.

President H.E. Hamid Karzai inspects Afghan pomegranates ready for export as Roots of Peace President and founder Heidi Kuhn looks on. Photo credit: USAID/Afghanistan, CHAMP

Canadians will soon enjoy the juiciest and tastiest pomegranates from Afghanistan. In the past, exporting chilled fresh fruit to distant markets was impossible, because Afghanistan did not have the required cold-chain infrastructure, trade agreements, or skilled merchants. Now, however, the U.S. Government is assisting with the infrastructure and trade policy essentials for Afghan exports of chilled fresh fruit. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is bringing these components together by training farmers to produce higher quality products, and linking them with merchants who have been trained in packaging techniques, and connecting them to new international markets.

USAID, through its Commercial Horticulture and Agriculture Marketing Program (CHAMP), has facilitated the shipment of fresh fruit through Karachi to international markets. In August, CHAMP assisted Afghan merchants with the first-ever reefer shipment of chilled grapes to India by road. Shipments through Pakistan are now an option due to recent changes in Afghanistan-Pakistan trade policy. The chilled fruit was packed in refrigerated houses built with funding from local merchants, and the governments of the United States and India.

The incentives to adopt new practices lie in increased profits. Pomegranate growers receive price increases of 136 percent for their higher-quality fruits. Merchants have seen enough increase in profits that they are continuing to use the new marketing techniques without CHAMP assistance. After testing the market with CHAMP assistance in 2009, merchants shipped 28 reefers of grapes to Karachi. Following the trial to India this year, merchants are planning to continue chilled grape shipments next year.

Afghan farmers, merchants, and government officials are optimistic that this year’s marketing trials will yield results that will sustain the expansion of pomegranate, grape, and other fresh fruit exports. USAID and collaborating merchants are planning to test fresh fruit markets in Australia, Ukraine, Germany, and Russia next year.

U.S.-India Collaboration: Unlocking Opportunities in Agribusiness and Improving Lives

Posted by  on Tuesday, November 16th 2010     

Submitted by Hope Bryer

After nearly 60 years of U.S. assistance to India, the two nations are taking development cooperation to new levels. This was one of the core messages President Barack Obama took to his first official state visit to India earlier this month, where he was accompanied by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.

Administrator Shah escorts President Obama through an array of innovative agricultural exhibits.

Administrator Shah escorts President Obama through an array of innovative agricultural exhibits. Photo Credit: Hope Bryer/USAID

On November 7, a demonstration of this strategic partnership convened in a momentous occasion for USAID — an Agriculture and Food Security Exposition in Mumbai. Administrator Shah had the honor of escorting President Obama, along with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, through an array of innovative agricultural exhibits on display at St. Xavier’s College.  The event, co-hosted by USAID, USDA, and the Confederation of Indian Industry, provided an exciting opportunity for the notable trio to visit with Indian farmers who shared how new, pioneering tools and technologies are increasing their productivity.

One farmer demonstrated how he receives crop information on his cell phone, while another showed how he obtains information on market rates at village Internet kiosks, enabling him to better negotiate the sale of his produce.

A woman farmer using a small metal tube to strip corn cobs showcased the work of India’s Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering. The Institute has been working to create more compact, lighter versions of common farming tools to increase the productivity of female farmers.  A memorable moment was when the President picked up the tool, turned to the reporters, and said in jest, “Look at this. It’s like an infomercial.  I want one of those!” After a brief chuckle, he commented on the importance of the tool in reducing women’s labor time up to 30 percent.

Alongside the expo, Secretary Vilsack and Dr. Shah hosted a roundtable discussion with Indian agriculture experts, where they heard about the most promising agricultural innovations to address the gaps that remain in India’s agriculture sector.  The take-away: strengthened collaboration will unlock new opportunities for U.S. and Indian agribusiness.

The United States and India plan to extend these innovations to other countries to promote global food security. Their partnership is emblematic of one where peer nations work side by side to develop the kinds of innovations and solutions that can help improve the lives of more and more people, not only in India and the United States, but also around the world. USAID will play a key role.

Picture of the Week

Posted by  on Wednesday, October 27th 2010     

A farmer shows an example of a pepper grown at a farm that is part of a USAID WINNER project in Kenscoff, outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Watershed Initiative for National Natural Environmental Resources program or WINNER for short, is a five-year, $126 million program funded by USAID to increase productivity in the country’s ailing agricultural sector. Photo Credit: Kendra Helmer/USAID

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