Further cogitations on

The Role of Agriculture in

Combating Global Hunger
By Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director
Global Child Nutrition Foundation
July 2016

What to expect
A summary of
December 2, 2015
Testimony to the
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
hearing on the Role of Agriculture in Combating Global Hunger
Questions, discussion
What you might do next (if you are willing)

Hunger is horrible

Hungerparticularly chronic hunger--is terrifying and

debilitating

Hunger limits potential and causes people to behave in

extreme ways

Hunger also takes a toll on those of us who are far removed

through the costs of
o

Humanitarian assistance

Health care

Lost education

Lost productivity

for millions of people and for subsequent generations

Combating hunger and poverty isnt just

a foreign aid issue, but on that topic
Traditional methods of delivering development and humanitarian
aid are challenged by these factors, causing shifts in power
dynamics and calling for new paradigms :

Technical, digital, and cultural divides

Global weather patterns

Conflict and displacement

Political, trade, and economic pressures, and

The demands and actions of large emerging players (China,

India, and Brazil, for example).

Economic growth trends in Africa are positive and projected to

continue to be positive.

10 areas of investment in agriculture

to fight hunger abroad AND help the US

1. Reduce food loss and waste

Facts:

Were losing about a third of what is produced.

This is a triple loss:

o

There is less food available for those who need it;

The entire original investment involved in producing the

food is lost; and

Additional investment is required to replace the amount

lost or wasted

2. Build transportation & storage

solutions; leap-frog costly, outmoded,
unsafe, unusable, corrupt systems
o

Fresh produce rots before getting to markets that are

just a few miles away.
o

We can get around on Mars and negotiate rivers,

sand dunes, ice, and snow, but

Huge amounts of money have been spent on building

and maintaining roads, trucks, trains, ships and
planes, but

Moving food long distances is costly and complicated; it

doesnt get to those who need it quickly and at a price
they can afford.

3. Make food safety a global priority

Food safety problems are most acute in the poorest

families and communities of the poorest countries

Small producers/women, consumers, and vulnerable

groups such as young children, are hardest hit.
o

Millions in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia are

chronically consuming unsafe levels of aflatoxin through their diets

Export of peanuts from Africa dropped by ~70% when stringent

aflatoxin standards were applied

Food safety is also a trade issue, limiting economic growth

Food safety is an issue at home, not just in poor countries

(eg, E-coli, Salmonella)

4. Equitably involve women

Women carry indisputably important roles throughout fields of
farming, water use, food handling and preparation, and family
wellbeing, yet (per IFAD, 2011):

Women rarely have access to the resources that would

make their work more productive and ease their heavy
workload

Women are held back by lack of education, unequal

property rights and limited control over resources.

Labor-intensive and time-consuming activities further hinder

womens ability to improve their income-earning potential.

More on the equitable involvement of

women
And, according to FAO:

If women had the same access to productive resources as

men, they could increase yields on their farms by 2030
percent.

This could raise total agricultural output in developing

countries by 2.54 percent.

Production gains of this magnitude could reduce the

number of hungry people in the world by 1217 percent.

5. Urgently solve age issues globally

The average age of farmers globally is likely now over 55

For American farmers, in 2012 (per USDA/NASS) it was 58.3 years; a

full one third were over 65

More than half of Ag researchers in 19 African countries were

over 50 in 2011 (ASTI)
There is a vast age gap in many countries; farmers and
researchers are greying and retiring, but

There are few younger replacements in the pipelines

Agriculture is not sexy andwith few exceptions, it hasnt been a

priority for funding since the mid 1980s

The Food, Fuel, &Finance crisis of 2008 brought a glimmer of

hope, but that is fading.

More on age issues

Africa has the youngest population in the world (African

Economic Outlook 2012):
o

There were 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 in Africa

The current trend indicates that this figure will double by 2045

Unemployment for youth occurs at a rate more than twice that

for adults in most African countries (AfDB)

Unemployment rates for American youth are also high

o

15% of workers ages 16 to 24 are unemployed, compared with 7.3

percent of all workers. (Excluding young people who are not working because
they are in school, who are no longer looking for work or who were too
discouraged to begin a job search.) ( (NYT 2014)

Yet few youth are turning to Agriculture as a profession

Few are studying agriculture; even fewer are pursuing ag

studies that realistically focus on African agricultural conditions

6. Fix broken (and unfair) market

systems and boost adoption rates

For small-scale producers, like anyone else, feeding the

family is the primary concern, not feeding the world
(Their) questions might be
o

What opportunities are there to increase sales? Add value? To

protect the market I have?

Will (investing) bring new customers, new competition, or both?

Can I get the goods to the market?

Can I meet the quality standards the buyers impose? (HIVOS,

2012)

Early evidence indicates that structuring large, predictable,

long-term markets to allow smallholder access can result in
at least short-term improvements (P4P )

More on market failures and adoption

rates...
Solid data re adoption rates in poor countries is hard to find, but a
study of 20 crops in 30 sub-Saharan countries showed:

The area-weighted grand mean adoption level of improved varieties

across the 20 crops is 35%. [But]

[This]is skewed as 14 of the crops are characterized by a mean

adoption level that falls below 35%. (DIVA project)

Small-scale farmers in poor countries are more astute managers

of their resources than are some larger-scale farmers

While

yields on family farms are sometimes lower than those on

large farms, family farm costs are often lower than large farms (and)

Small

farmer income is two times to ten times higher than the income
from wage employment. (Landesa 2011)

7. Study and address crop and animal

diseases, pests, and threats
Left unchecked and unstudied, these threaten the worlds food
supply.
Two examples are:

UG99 (Uganda 99) wheat stem rust, is leaping across

international borders at an alarming pace, and is extremely
difficult to wipe out.
o

itcan affectproduction and food security on a global scale.

No wheat-growing nation is safe. (Oklahoma Farm Report

Sept. 2015)

And

More re diseases, pests, and threats

Citrus Greening caused by a tiny Asian insect is having

a devastating effect on Floridas citrus industry.
o

Consumption is down by nearly one-third in the past

decade, partly thanks to higher prices caused by
greening

orange production in Florida is down...

Acreage planted in citrus dropped by more than 1/3 since

2000, mostly because of greening.

greening has cost growers in the juice business $7.8

billion since 2006
(Tampa Bay News, Feb. 2015)

8. Sync up agriculture & nutrition

goals, policies, and programs

Even the most successful (agricultural) policies can have

their downsides...

the global investment in improving productivity of cereal

crops in the green revolution, lifted millionsin Asia from
poverty and undernutrition, but

also focused researchon energy-dense rather than

micronutrient-rich crops.

[making] nutritious foods more expensive today. (Waage)

More on linking agriculture and

nutrition
Agricultureis no magic solution [to malnutrition]. But farming
could do more to improve nutritionas is clear from countries'
widely varying records.

when people have enough calories they need to diversify

towards vegetables, pulses and meat.

In many places, irrigation and fertilizer subsidies, government

marketing and other schemes implicitly or explicitly favor cereal
farmers.

So poor countries go on encouraging cereals longer than they

need to.

And plant breeders tend to raise cereals which maximize

calories, not nutrients. (Economist 2011)

9. Protect biodiversity & explore unfamiliar plants and animals

Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as

much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of
environmental stress

the very high rates of modern extinctions -- due to habitat

loss, overharvesting and other human-caused
environmental changes -- could reduce nature's ability to
provide goods and services like food, clean water and a
stable climate. (U of Michigan 2012)

10. Move agriculture and health out of

silos, into closer collaboration

Agriculture

Provides income that makes households resilient to health shocks;

Provides food to meet their nutrient and energy needs; and

underpins the health of rural households. It:

Provides medicinal plants for treating ailments.

But agricultural systems can also have negative effects on health.

Agriculture may lead to environmental change with adverse health impacts

Use of inputs such as pesticides by untrained personnel often causes illness

Improper food harvesting and storage practices allow mycotoxins to flourish

Lack of diet diversity can lead to malnutrition

Certain animal diseases also can infect humans

Labor migrationcan contribute to high incidence of HIV infection. (IFPRI 2011)

More re linking agriculture and health

Ill health in farm households has three broad effects:

absenteeism from work due to morbidity (and eventual death);

family time diverted to caring for the sick; and

loss of savings and assets in dealing with disease and its consequences

The long-term impacts of ill health include

loss of farming knowledge,

reduction of land under cultivation,

planting of less labor-intensive crops,

reduction of variety of crops planted, and

reduction of livestock.

The ultimate impact of ill health is a decline in household income and

possible food insecuritythat is, a severe deterioration in household
livelihood (IFPRI 2011)

To conclude

HUNGER IS HORRIBLE
You are in a position to do something about it
I hope you will

THANK YOU