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

http://bit.ly/lk4BtR

Biofortified sorghum for Africa

LOUIS and DES MOINES, Iowa, May 4, 2011 – The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and DuPont yesterday announced a $4 million grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to bring healthier sorghum to underserved communities in Africa.


The grant will help fund the completion of the development of biofortified sorghum, a more nutritious and digestible sorghum for Africans who depend upon sorghum as their staple diet.  DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred began working on the project in 2005 in conjunction with the African Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Consortium, an Africa-led public-private partnership.  The ABS Consortium is a key partner in this project and will work to secure regulatory approvals and pursue production and deployment plans as Pioneer and Danforth complete product development.


Sorghum is a cereal that has many characteristics comparable to corn.  However, unlike corn, sorghum is naturally drought tolerant.  It provides calories and minimal nutrition in dry areas of Africa such as in the Sahel, the area of Africa just south of the Sahara desert.  The sorghum nutritional improvement project will permit greater levels of essential nutrients to be delivered to those who live in arid places where sorghum is relied upon as the staple food source.  Additionally, the biofortified sorghum may become important in new geographies as a result of the effects of climate change.


The project focuses on increased zinc and iron bioavailability through phytate reduction, improved protein digestibility and increased pro-vitamin A levels.  These key nutrients and micronutrients aid in child development, and reduce rates of diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, lower respiratory tract infections and curb Vitamin A deficiency, which is the leading cause of acquired blindness in children in the developing world.


“Improving the nutrition of this staple crop has the potential to change the lives of more than 300 million Africans,” said Howard G. Buffett, president of the Foundation.  “I have seen first-hand the devastating effects of malnutrition.  I have a personal commitment to see that healthier sorghum gets to the people of Africa.”


The introduction of biofortified sorghum is expected to have a major impact on the health and life of targeted communities in Africa – not only by offering improved nutrition, but by providing the sorghum at minimal cost to growers.  Biofortified sorghum will be distributed to underserved communities in multiple African countries, royalty free.


“The collaboration between Buffett, Danforth and DuPont is a powerful example of the ability of public-private partnerships to accelerate innovation to solve problems,” said Paul E. Schickler, president – Pioneer Hi-Bred.  “We are just a few short years away from getting nutritionally improved sorghum into the hands of those who need it most.”

USDA Introduces Online Tool for Locating 'Food Deserts'

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2011 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today introduced an Internet-based mapping tool that pinpoints the location of "food deserts" around the country and provides data on population characteristics of census tracts where residents have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.

The online Food Desert Locator, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), is a tool that can be used to assist efforts to expand the availability of nutritious food in food deserts, or low-income communities that lack ready access to healthy food. Expanding the availability of nutritious food is part of First Lady Michele Obama's Let's Move! initiative to address the epidemic of childhood obesity.

"This new Food Desert Locator will help policy makers, community planners, researchers, and other professionals identify communities where public-private intervention can help make fresh, healthy, and affordable food more readily available to residents," said Vilsack. "With this and other Web tools, USDA is continuing to support federal government efforts to present complex sets of data in creative, accessible online formats."

A food desert is a low-income census tract where either a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. "Low income" tracts are defined as those where at least 20 percent of the people have income at or below the federal poverty levels for family size, or where median family income for the tract is at or below 80 percent of the surrounding area's median family income. Tracts qualify as "low access" tracts if at least 500 persons or 33 percent of their population live more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles). This definition was developed by a working group comprised of members from the departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, and USDA, which is partnering to expand the availability of nutritious food. - USDA

Full report at http://1.usa.gov/jx3rgw

Poor wheat harvest could drive up food prices

Food makers are heading into the wheat fields of Kansas this week to get an early read on the U.S. crop -- and possibly commodity costs in the months ahead, according to a report from CME Group.

In its latest newsletter, CME reports that General Mills Inc., Sara Lee Corp. and Nestle SA are expected to send employees to the nation's breadbasket as part of the state's annual crop tour. "They will join government officials, millers and members of the media in assessing the impact dry conditions have had on the Kansas wheat crop."

CME reports that "a record number of people are expected to join the tour as worries grow about the impact a poor harvest could have on wheat prices". That was according to Ben Handcock, executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Council, an industry group that sponsors the tour.

Kansas last year grew 16% of the country's wheat and is the top U.S. producer of hard red winter wheat, the variety milled into flour for bread. Prices for hard red winter wheat have nearly doubled since last summer on concerns about low supplies. Costs could surge further for food makers and restaurants alike if the Kansas crop looks worse than expected, says the CME report.

Analysts keep close eye on corn planting

US blog CropWatch reports that dust plumes rose from central Iowa fields as the sun rose on the morning of May 2, 2011. Corn planting has started in earnest. 

Iowa State University's Roger Elmore wrote: "Our Extension agronomist colleagues report planters started running across most of the state either late last week or certainly over the weekend. Weather conditions for the next few days look promising."

"Soil temperatures have finally reached normal across most of the state, and thankfully, normal is 50⁰ F."

Last week, US corn futures ended sharply higher on renewed weather concerns. Conditions were "turning drier in the western Midwest", though planting progress was expected to remain slow because fields were saturated with moisture and soils are cool, according to Telvent DTN.  

Weather will remain the driving force behind price moves in corn, with drier outlooks for the western Midwest this week providing potential for a pick up in the seeding pace for a crop already being planted at half the pace of normal for this time of year, analysts said.