The US needs to do much more to help some of the poorest regions in the world feed themselves rather than just focus on food donations, according to a new report.
The core cause behind rampant hunger and the scarcity of food in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs said in a 230-page report, is "low productivity" on farms at a time when US development assistance continues to dwindle.
The US is home to some of the most technologically advanced farming practices in the world and needs to help farmers become self-sufficient.
"America's official development assistance to agriculture in Africa declined approximately 85 per cent from the mid-1980s to 2006," according to the report. "The United States is now spending 20 times as much on food aid in Africa as it is spending to help African farmers grow more of their own food."
Money to pay for education, assist local agriculture scientists and invest in agricultural infrastructure and supplies is what is needed from the US and the World Bank to kick-start a new green revolution to help alleviate hunger in the long term, the report said.
Education is key, the report said. Farmers need to be allowed to learn at US universities, and US experts must take their knowledge to places that want to farm but lack the wherewithal.
"Build a special Peace Corps cadre of agriculture training and extension volunteers who work within Sub-Saharan African and South Asian institutions to provide on-the-ground, practical training, especially with and for women farmers," the report advocated.
To provide all of that, the Chicago-based think tank proposed a 10- year plan with a US$340 million budget for the first year. That level of yearly spending would need to gradually rise to about US$1 billion in the fifth year and then remain the same through year 10.
And to get that money in the US budget, the think tank needs Congress. Catherine Bertini, co-chair of the think tank's project on alleviating world hunger, and Marshall Bouton, president of The Chicago Council, said they have been meeting with many lawmakers to get their message across.
"We have found very strong interest in this whole issue in the Congress, across the board - Democrats and Republicans," Bouton said.
Bouton added that Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, liked what the group is proposing.
But beyond just money, the report said, the US has to rethink its food aid policies.
The US Agency for International Development, the report said, has a "long-standing objection to any use of targeted subsidies" that help poor farmers buy seeds and fertiliser. The agency needs to relinquish its fear that providing some kinds of assistance will enable poor nations to flourish and then compete with U.S. agriculture exports, the report said.
-By Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires