November 13, 1996

Research Group Calls for Heads of State to Muster Political Will to Feed the World's Hungry

WASHINGTON, D.C. --As the World Food Summit convenes in Rome, the director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) today called on heads of state and international financing institutions to recommit to feeding the world's 800 million hungry while protecting natural resources.

Drawing from multiple studies produced by its three-year research effort "A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment," the Washington, D.C.-based organization sets forth the measures needed for ensuring a world of plenty in the present and future. The group also urged heads of state and international financing institutions to take needed steps to revitalize failing agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and to invest in marginal areas, where most of the rural poor live and farm.

"There have been tremendous gains in agriculture over the past 30 years," said Per Pinstrup-Andersen, director general of IFPRI. "Crop yields have risen and food prices have fallen. But the world has become complacent, and investments in agriculture and food security are inadequate. The result is that crop yields are stagnating in areas of high farm potential and poor countries are being written off as lost causes. This is a tragic situation, particularly when we have the scientific tools to improve the lives of the hungry and poor.

"IFPRI research shows that if the right measures are pursued, we can avert severe food crises in the most vulnerable regions and keep crop yields apace of population growth worldwide," continued Pinstrup-Andersen. "As heads of state gather for the World Food Summit in Rome, we urge them to muster the political will to take the necessary actions to prevent hunger."

According to IFPRI, in order to prevent hunger and attain worldwide food plenty, countries must:

• INCREASE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY -- History has shown that agricultural growth is the most efficient means of alleviating poverty, protecting the environment, and generating economic growth in low-income countries. Research on agricultural technologies suitable for small farmers must also be expanded.

• ENSURE SOUND MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES -- Technology that will halt land degradation in fragile ecosystems while expanding food production must be generated. Efficient water use and biological pest control should be encouraged.

• INVEST IN POOR PEOPLE -- The poor must be provided with access to employment, land and credit, and health care and education.

• DEVELOP INFRASTRUCTURE -- The high cost of bringing food from the farmer to the consumer must be reduced, and investments in rural infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and telecommunications must be encouraged.

• STREAMLINE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE -- Development assistance must be targeted to the poorest developing countries and to its most effective uses, such as agricultural research.

• STRENGTHEN GOVERNMENT -- The popular view that no government is good government is self-defeating. Developing-country governments must be strengthened to undertake those crucial activities that they do best and let go of activities better carried out by private enterprises and nongovernmental organizations.

According to Pinstrup-Andersen, these steps are urgently needed, particularly in the region most at risk, Sub-Saharan Africa. Although South Asia is home to half of the world's poor, Sub-Saharan Africa is fast becoming the global locus of poverty, with 50 percent of the population living below the poverty line. While South Asia has been successful at reducing poverty rates, in Sub-Saharan Africa, rates have risen.

"African countries must double their agricultural growth rate to at least 4 percent per year," said Pinstrup-Andersen. "The continent must make use of its untapped agricultural potential to do this. And it must work on two fronts--increasing food production in its breadbasket areas and helping the poorest of the poor practice environmentally sound agriculture in marginal areas where rainfall is low and soils are poor."

During the last 15 years, per capita agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa has been disappointing. In the region, per capita food production declined at an average rate of more than 2 percent per year from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. But this masks some improvements that hold out hope for the future, according to IFPRI. Total production of all food crops increased over the last three decades in the mid-altitude and highland zones of Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Southern Africa maize production increased at a rate much higher than the rate of population growth. "The success in maize shows that there is great potential for continuing to increase crop yields in Africa's breadbaskets," said Pinstrup-Andersen.

But breadbasket regions are not prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. As much as 80 percent of its crop- and pastureland is degraded to some degree, and most of it is rainfed. Only 7 percent of the cropped area is irrigated, and fertilizer use is still very low compared with Asia, Europe, and the Americas, according to IFPRI. Given these realities, IFPRI calls for a dramatic increase in public investment in the marginal areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in roads and other infrastructure and in agricultural research. The group calls for developing better ways to improve and maintain soil organic matter and fertility, such as mixing a variety of food crops with trees and livestock to generate and recycle plant nutrients; expanding local approaches to watershed development, as opposed to past practices that have sought to plan and control watersheds from outside the region using a one-size-fits-all approach; and breeding drought resistance into crops, among other measures.

"If these things are done properly, Sub-Saharan Africa can increase agricultural production quite significantly," said Pinstrup-Andersen. "Over time, as Sub-Saharan Africa invests more in roads and infrastructure, there can be greater use of fertilizer while still applying these environmentally sustainable practices.

"Africa must put its resources into assisting those living on the edge--in the marginal areas where 160 million people live," continued Pinstrup-Andersen. "Governments have underinvested in these areas for years, favoring high-potential areas instead. But if investments were made in already-cultivated marginal areas, incomes would go up and farmers would be better equipped to care for their land and would enjoy a higher standard of living."

IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world. IFPRI is a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an informal association of some 40 countries, international and regional organizations, and foundations, whose mission is to contribute to sustainable improvements in agricultural productivity.