Agriculture underpins all else

It shouldn't be this hard to convince people that agricultural development is the key to alleviating hunger.

The frustration evident in the latest blog by Roger Thurow of think tank The Chicago Council on Global Affairs suggests getting the point through to the lawmakers remains challenging. He was reacting to news that the budget battles for fiscal year 2011 provided $100 million of President Obama’s $408 million request for the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP).

"To those involved in the trench warfare seeking full funding for programs to attack hunger through agriculture development, that even $100 million survived is reason for an ounce of optimism.  For them, the glass is one-quarter full.  As the budget rhetoric heated up, with loud calls to slash all foreign aid, gloom spread that food and agriculture development would be entirely cut.  As it turns out, $100 million is indeed better than zero."

Kofi Annan sums it up nicely:

“Over the years I was following developments on the continent and when we came up with MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], one of their roles was reducing hunger and poverty by 50 per cent. The only way this continent can reduce hunger is by increasing its food production. I also saw the work of welfare programme organisations expanding constantly, bringing food aid to Africa when we should be focusing on getting agriculture right. With climate change, the problem was going to get bigger and I couldn’t see how one can live on food aid. When you look at the continent and the question of development, agriculture can be such a multiplier. If we get agriculture right in Africa, where most of the people now are working in that sector, not only would it help boost development but we will be secure in terms of food and nutrition and then be able to move on to other areas.” – Kofi Annan, Interview with Alec Russell, Financial Times, May 16, 2011

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