A call to action to feed the world

The New Alliance aligns two principles that are critical to global food security – the need for private sector investment and the importance of empowering smallholder farmers. First, the focus on smallholder farmers is paramount. Seventy to 80 percent of agriculture production in Africa is owed to smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women. Most lack access to the tools that can help them be successful, including improved seeds, fertilizer, infrastructure for transportation and storage, linkages to markets, extension services, safety nets and financing. 

{mosads}Second, the initiative represents the commitment of G8 and African leaders to facilitate this type of sustainable agricultural growth and development, in part through driving greater private sector investment and better public-private partnerships. Over 60 companies are signing the “Private Sector Declaration of Support for African Agricultural Development” and over 45 companies are signing letters of intent with participating African countries. 

The letters of intent represent the commitment of multinational companies wanting to facilitate agriculture development along the value chain – from the provision of seeds and other inputs to ensuring access to financing and credit solutions.
  
DuPont will sign a letter of intent with Ethiopia to sustainably improve the maize value chain through the provision of improved seeds and agronomic services, bettering the lives of thousands of smallholder farmers. In collaboration with local NGOs and other partners, DuPont intends to mobilize market-led agricultural growth through teaching smallholders best practices and providing technical expertise to increase crop yields. Additionally, DuPont announced a partnership with the Earth Institute at Columbia University to improve the quality and speed of soil testing for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, enabling farmers to make better planting decisions. 

International financial service provider, Rabobank, intends to launch a lending facility in West Africa. The facility would provide up to $135 million in loans over five years to small and medium-size companies in the region that participate in the agricultural value chain, ranging from production, processing and logistics to services and technology. 

Vodafone – one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies – intends to establish the Connected Farmer Alliance in Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya to increase the productivity and incomes of over 500,000 smallholder farmers. By strengthening linkages and feedback loops between smallholder farmers and large agribusinesses, Vodafone intends to optimize global supply chains.  

Equally as important is the commitment of Africa’s own companies, one of which is Tanseed, a private seed company in Tanzania. Tanseed will train contract growers in certified seed production and seed processing using smaller amounts of seed to meet the needs of smallholder farmers with less purchasing power.

There is a growing consensus that there is no one solution that can solve the challenge of feeding the over 9 billion people who will live on this planet by 2050. We can also agree that food aid alone is not sufficient. Smallholder farmers will require all the tools and innovation that our global community – including governments, NGOs and the private sector – can generate to move beyond subsistence farming. This will require the public and private sector working together, like the New Alliance intends, to leverage the best resources that each can bring. And, it will require private sector investment in new and innovative tools and solutions.

One such tool is a new Global Food Security Index, created by the Economist Intelligence Unit with support from DuPont. The Index, which will be released in July, will include indicators and data from over a 105 countries. Such tools can help the global community achieve a common understanding of what it means to achieve food security on a country-by-country basis and help target public and private sector investments where they’re needed most.

While global food security can seem less important than other pressing issues competing for limited resources, the fight against global hunger must be at the forefront of global development. Putting politics aside, we must recognize that agricultural development is the foundation for any nation’s economic stability. Efforts to foster agricultural development worldwide are paramount to not only achieving food security, but global security as well. The commitment of the G8 and African leaders to take on the challenge of global food security in partnership with the private sector is an important step to address this problem.

The DuPont Advisory Committee on Agriculture Innovation and Productivity represents a group of experts in global agriculture development, science, policy and economics.  Established by DuPont in 2010, the Committee includes former Senator Tom Daschle, who serves as chair, and Charlotte Hebebrand, chief executive of the International Food & Trade Policy Council; J.B. Penn, chief economist for Deere & Co.; Pedro Sanchez, director of the Tropical Agricultural and the Rural Environment Program and director of the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute; and Jo Luck, former president and CEO of Heifer International.