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Agriculture and Food Security Initiative Gains Momentum at G20, World Bank-IMF Meetings

Some 800 million people in the world were malnourished even before the food and economic crises hit.  Now a push to confront this longer-term problem is picking up steam.

Leaders at recent global gatherings agreed to back a multibillion dollar initiative to boost agriculture and food security in low-income countries. Discussions on the overall design and level of funding are continuing.

In September, the G20 asked the World Bank to work with interested donors and organizations to establish a special multilateral trust fund to support the Initiative. Further discussion occurred in October at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Work has already started with a meeting yesterday to agree with partners on the operating framework for this fund,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick said October 5 at the Development Committee press conference.

“With this more comprehensive, multilateral approach, we can pool resources and better support innovative efforts to tackle food security all the way along the food chain and build sustainable agricultural systems.”

“But, as some reinforced during these meetings, the food and fuel crisis hurt developing countries more than the financial crisis. And for many of them, that crisis is still not over…We must move quickly to turn this initiative into reality,” he added.

 

Food Demand Is Growing While Growth Rates for Yields Are Falling

Global poverty and hunger were steadily declining prior to the onset of the food crisis in 2007.  But longstanding underinvestment in agriculture, along with sharp increases in fuel and food prices, followed by the economic crisis, has driven an estimated 100 million more people into poverty. The number of people suffering from hunger and poverty is now estimated by the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization to exceed 1 billion.

By 2050, there will be an estimated 2.3 billion more people to feed (one third more than today), according to the United Nations World Population Prospects (2009). In addition, new sources of food demand have emerged with increased use of food crops for biofuels production. But while demand for grains is increasing, growth rates for yields of major grains are declining—from around 3 percent in 1980 to 1 percent today.

“These trends place upward pressure on food prices, on further deforestation for crop area expansion and associated climate change impacts,” says the recent World Bank Group Agriculture Action Plan: FY2010-2012. “Substantial investment in agricultural productivity growth is needed now.”

The Action Plan focuses on helping developing countries raise agricultural productivity, link farmers to market, facilitate rural non-farm income, and enhance environmental services and sustainability. Estimates from the International Food Policy Research Institute indicate an additional $14 billion per year in agricultural public investment is needed in developing countries if the world is to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

World Bank Group Increases Support

The World Bank Group projects it will increase its agriculture support from $4.1 billion annually in FY2006-08 to between $6.2 and $8.3 billion annually over the FY2010-2012 period—between 13 and 17 percent of total projected World Bank commitments.

Funds Accelerated in Crisis Response

Some $1.2 billion in internal funds and $200 million in external financing through the Global Food Crisis Response Program responded directly to the global food crisis by fast-tracking funds to mitigate the harm of soaring food prices and to help countries adapt to higher and more volatile prices. Given continued needs, these totals are still increasing. To date, support through the Global Food Crisis Response Program for short term food supply is estimated to have reached 5.8 million farm households, while support for social protection and nutrition programs is estimated to have reached 1.5 million people, with a much larger number eventually impacted.