World leaders want $20 billion for food aid

[July 10, 2009]  L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) -- World leaders say they want to provide $20 billion over the next three years to increase food production in developing countries and help the poor feed themselves.

The new amount is a $5 billion increase for an initiative that marks a shift in the global fight against hunger.

Leaders meeting in Italy say they want to focus less on sending food to the poor and more on helping small farmers in developing countries produce more and better crops.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the host of the meeting of the Group of Eight and other nations, said Friday that leaders decided to raise the initial figure from $15 billion during talks held with African leaders in the morning.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) -- World leaders have launched a $15 billion initiative to help farmers in poor countries increase production, marking a shift in the way the West tackles world hunger, according to a draft statement obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Not all the money is new, and it will be distributed over three years. The United Nations welcomed the new strategy as an overdue shift away from the focus on delivering emergency food aid. Anti-poverty groups, however, said the funding was insufficient.

The new strategy is aimed at enabling poor farmers to produce more of their own food by improving productivity, shifting the focus from delivering aid. The initiative is a new approach on an issue -- food security -- that has emerged recently as a threat to political stability.

"There is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty," said the draft statement. "We will aim at substantially increasing aid to agriculture and food security."

The initiative was launched at the end of three-day of talks in Italy of Group of Eight industrialized nations. The talks were expanded to include emerging economies and, on Friday, African nations. All of the 27 countries were expected to endorse the statement.

Washington was expected to commit $3 billion, and Paris $2 billion, delegates said.

In a separate statement, leaders said it is important to increase access to water and sanitation and the G-8 promised to assist African countries in doing so.

Food security, or ensuring adequate access to food, has jumped to the fore of the political agenda recently. High prices last year led to food riots in some countries, including some violent ones.

Increasing small farmers' productivity would have long-term impact on world hunger, regional trade and eventually help curb immigration toward Europe and other rich nations, delegates and experts said. While food aid will still be necessary to prevent people from starving, the new approach puts emphasis on a longer-term aim.

"It's a total shift, a welcome and encouraging one," said Jacques Diouf, the chief of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

"You solve the problem of hunger by giving the necessary tools to farmers who are in these poor countries so they can produce food," Diouf told the AP.

The initiative calls for support around harvest time and puts emphasis on small farmers and private sector growth, as well as on families and women. It says that any improvement in agricultural production should be coupled with measures to help countries to adjust to changing conditions caused by global warming.

[Associated Press]

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