African small holders best placed to end hunger

IF PROOF were needed that the global economic slowdown is hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest, it has been borne out by latest figures from the UN which show that more than one billion people face hunger and starvation this year.

A combination of economic recession and food prices which remain much too high for the poorest people of the developing world will take the number on the brink of starvation to a record high of 1.02 billion people – or one-sixth of the world’s population this year, according to new projections published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In response to these figures it is heartening that the FAO’s director-general should identify the need to strengthen policies and investment in agricultural production as the key to economic growth in most developing countries.

For 25 years, Self Help Africa has been working with rural African communities, providing smallholders with better quality seed, promoting irrigated production and crop diversification and supporting the deployment of appropriate technologies, and the infrastructure necessary to allow rural poor communities to have access to finance and to markets for their produce.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, poor consumers spend as much as two-thirds of their incomes on staple foods to sustain their families. It is essential that the policies and investment are found to enable the developing world to feed and support itself before it is too late for the one billion who stand on the brink.

Ray Jordan

Chief Executive

Self Help Africa

Annefield House

Portlaoise

Co Laois