U.S. Offers Help for Africa's Food Problems

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary is meeting with Kenyan farmers ahead of a U.S.- Africa trade meeting. The U.S. is willing to help Africa improve food security.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with farmers on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday (August 4) in an effort to adopt an all-inclusive approach to Africa's chronic food shortages.




[Tom Vilsack, U.S. Agriculture Secretary]:
"The United States understands that it has to be more than providing periodic emergency food aid. It has to be focused on sustainable solutions to hunger and food security and poverty."

Vilsack says the first phase of the new approach will be to listen to farmers and researchers to determine what needs to be done.

The U.S. will also support existing country development plans.

And it will look into affordable credit to farmers, support to women farmers and provision of new technology to encourage irrigation.

[Tom Vilsack, U.S. Agriculture Secretary]:
"This is not something where we come in and say this is the way you need to do it, it is where we come in and say how are you doing it and how can we help you do it better. It is about supporting women and their families recognizing that a substantial percentage of farmers in this country, in Africa, are women."

U.S. President Barack Obama announced in April that his country would seek to double funding for agricultural development aid to $1 billion by 2010.

Vilsack says that the United States is also working to decrease Africa's dependence on food handouts.

[Tom Vilsack, U.S. Agriculture Secretary]:
"The department that I'm in charge of, the United States Department of Agriculture has a significant amount of technical assistance and resources from that stand point of experience and knowledge that we are anxious to share. It is also part of our mission to provide food assistance through a number of programs particularly for children in schools."

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act or AGOA was created in May 2000 to offer African countries a chance to export a limitless amount of selected goods like textiles and horticultural products into the U.S., duty free.

Developing nations, however, complain that subsidies extended to farmers in the United States and elsewhere make their products uncompetitive.

Vilsack also explained that developing countries have to open their markets in return for cuts in subsidies.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NTD
• Africa
• Food
• Agriculture
• Kenyan
• U.S.
• Tom Vilsack
• Development country
• Farmers
• Barack Obama
• AGOA
• Subsidy

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