Africa must do more to feed growing number of hungry: UN agencies

GENEVA: U.N. officials issued a strong warning Wednesday that countries are not doing enough to feed the growing number of starving people in Africa.

At least 200 million people on the continent go hungry every day and agricultural production will have to be increased massively to meet their needs, officials from three United Nations agencies said.

"Over the past 15 years, the number of under-nourished people (in Africa) has increased by 45 million," David Harcharik, deputy-director general of the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization told reporters.

Harcharik said that while it is important rich countries keep their promise of increasing development aid to Africa, "it is fundamental ... that the developing countries themselves make the commitment to increase investment in their own agriculture sectors."

Extending irrigation systems, increasing agricultural productivity and passing on new technologies and knowledge to small farmers are some measures that would help Africa, said Harcharik.

Leaders of the Group of Eight most powerful nations agreed in 2005 to increase annual aid to poorer countries to US$130 billion (€95 billion) from about US$80 billion (€60 billion) a year by 2010, with half to go to Africa in an effort to double aid to the continent. Campaigners have criticized the world's leading industrial nations for so far failing to live up to their promise.

Anti-poverty organization Oxfam said the G-8 will fall short of their target by some US$30 billion.

"Many (of the G-8 countries) have not met their pledge," said Kanayo Nwanze, vice president of the U.N.'s International Fund for Agricultural Development.

"It is clear that the road we are currently on, will not lead us to the intended destination of halving the proportion of people living in extreme hunger and poverty by 2015," Nwanze said, referring to one of the U.N.'s so-called Millennium Development Goals.

A half-time United Nations report on the goals, which were set at a global summit in 2000, said the world will fail to sufficiently cut hunger unless efforts are significantly scaled up.

Some 27 percent of children under five in poorer countries are underweight — a key statistic in measuring global hunger — the report released on Monday said.

"We need to change course," Nwanze told reporters, adding that political leaders should give high priority to agricultural development.

Jeffrey Sachs, professor of economics at Columbia University, said the southern African country of Malawi had successfully improved its agricultural sector by subsidizing fertilizer and high-yield seed for the poorest farmers.

He said that after two good harvests, Malawi is due to have another bumper crop this year, proving that a "green revolution" of the kind seen in India and China decades ago is possible in Africa too.

"The good news is that Africa could double its food production within the next few years by straightforward, best-practice agriculture combined with the financing of the poorest people," he told reporters in Geneva.

The objective of halving world hunger over the next eight years can still be achieved, Nwanze said.

"Although the correct course to reaching these targets is a steep climb, we can make it."