Agricultural Led Growth

Poor rural producers—farmers, fishers, livestock keepers, entrepreneurs, and agricultural laborers—figure disproportionately among the world’s poor and hungry people. At the same time, they play a key role in helping meet the world’s expanding demand for food, fiber, and fuel.

Improvements in food security and nutrition are linked to a productive agricultural sector. Common sense might suggest that we need to make sure that domestic food supplies match demand for food—but that’s not the core of the problem. The recent increases in hunger were because of the high food prices, not because there wasn’t enough food to go around. Although grain stocks were low, they were not too low to feed everyone if some nations with surpluses hadn’t panicked and banned exports. In the same vein, famines have occurred in countries where some parts actually have food surpluses. The unprecedented rise in hunger recently was a consequence of the high costs.

In Africa, there are more than 17 million pastoralists, who earn their livelihood primarily on livestock. Pastoralist communities in Africa today are rapidly growing populations. They inhabit areas where the potential for crop cultivation is limited due to lack of rainfall, steep terrain or extreme temperatures. They are nomadic or semi-nomadic to take advantage of seasonal resources to provide food and water for themselves and their animals.

The foods consumed by poor people are predominantly staple grains like rice, sorghum, and maize. These are cheap and can fill the stomach to quell hunger pains. But people, especially children, need more than cereals to live a healthy life. Good health depends on dietary diversity—adding protein from animal products, groundnuts, and legumes as well as the vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables.

A global hunger crisis in 2007 and 2008, caused by a rapid rise in food prices, drove an additional 100 million people into hunger. The crisis illustrated some of the structural problems of foreign aid. Donors regularly attach conditions to aid, sometimes forcing policy changes in the recipient countries.

“The United States has always stood for big ideas,” explained Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to colleagues on the floor of the Senate when he introduced the Global Food Security Act of 2009. “From the founding of the Republic on the basis of freedom to President Kennedy’s vow to put a man on the moon,” he continued, “one of today’s big ideas should be the eradication of hunger.”

In some countries, women lack the right to own land, are regarded legally as minors, and cannot get a bank loan without the approval of a male relative. If a woman’s husband dies, she could lose all the assets she’s accumulated during the marriage. To continue farming the land she and her husband held, and to feed her children, she may have to marry one of her husband’s male relatives.

To achieve lasting progress against hunger and malnutrition, U.S. assistance must target the right places and reach the right people. All countries with exceptionally high rates of hunger and malnutrition are agriculture-based economies; agriculture and rural areas are where development must begin. The objective of Feed the Future is not to help the 20 countries become self-sufficient food producers, but rather to attack hunger by reducing poverty. That starts in the agricultural sector.