Responding to the Ongoing Global Food Crisis

ACDI/VOCA’s Long-time, Long-term Commitment to Global Food Security

A billion people—one-sixth of the world's population—go hungry each day.

Each year, more than 3.5 million children die from undernutrition.

Hunger is a deep-seated, devastating and intractable problem, and it is getting worse.

Food Crisis Context

Since we were founded in 1963 by U.S. farmer cooperatives, ACDI/VOCA has provided food security and built smallholder farmer capacity in 145 countries. A USAID administrator once called ACDI/VOCA “the premier agricultural development NGO in the world."

In 2007-2008 the world learned the precariousness of its food resources. Shortages propelled millions into a desperate crisis, swelling the ranks of the poor and provoking riots in 30 nations. Read 2008 article: ACDI/VOCA Responds to Global Food Crisis.

Since then, to bolster food production, important agriculture-oriented strategies such as the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative, are being implemented. Likewise development policies of many food-insecure nations have been altered to address food priorities.

Current Situation

Taking the long view, one finds hope. Increasingly, appropriate development assistance is being matched by enabling environments and multiparty collaboration in the countries where we operate. Between 2001 and 2010 the GDP growth rate for Africa in general was 5.2 percent annually, and foreign direct investment has responded to a more stable and competitive economic climate. Around the world, there is similar progress, with some previously aid-dependent countries edging into middle-income status.

Success in some areas is tenuous, however. Today a famine is occurring in several regions in the Horn of Africa as a result of the worst drought in decades. This is causing a severe food crisis across the region but especially in Somalia. Many have died and millions more are at risk. On July 20, 2011, the United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia (the first time a famine has been declared by the U.N. in nearly 30 years), and on August 3 three additional regions of southern Somalia were designated part of the famine zone. A crisis looms in other areas of the Horn, and the situation may get worse before it gets better.

Humanitarian agencies are struggling to cope with this acute crisis. Yet it highlights the need for long-term, systemic agricultural development that can help insulate high-risk areas from future food shortages and eventually provide a basis for market growth and prosperity. But even though the needs are more pressing than ever, the political and economic momentum is palpable and the experiential base that offers improvement is well formed, the international donor community has lagged in fulfilling its commitment to agricultural development. This was pointed out in a February 25, 2011, editorial in the New York Times: “After the last sharp price spike in 2008, the G-20 promised to invest $22 billion over three years to help vulnerable countries boost food production. To date, the World Bank fund that is supposed to administer this money has received less than $400 million.”

High Food Prices Mean Poor People Are Hit Hardest

Sharp price increases for staple foods hit hardest on the most vulnerable, who already spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food and who have limited adaptive capacity. As the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) points out, poor food producers can only benefit from higher food prices through higher incomes if they are net sellers of food and if input costs do not rise in parallel. However, input and transportation costs have been high and volatile, reducing farmers’ profit margins, distorting long-term planning and dampening incentives to invest in productivity enhancements.

Rising food prices are driven in part by rising oil prices, but also by relentlessly rising demand in developing nations. As developing countries such as China and India become richer, so do their diets, shifting from traditional staples such as rice and wheat to meat and dairy products, which require more grain as feedstock.

In addition, volatile weather in key production areas, including Australia, Canada, China, Russia and the U.S., has been a factor in world food supplies, as has increasing use of corn in biofuel.

The price spike in food stocks pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty between June 2010 and February 2011. The World Bank estimates there are approximately 1.2 billion people living below the poverty line ($1.25 a day). Oxfam predicts that food prices will grow 120-180 percent in the next two decades.

World Bank’s President Robert Zoellick has said the world is “one shock away”—a major crop shortfall in a large nation, a run of bad weather—from a serious food crisis.

Macro Solutions to a Global Problem

The World Bank advises targeting social assistance and nutritional programs to the poorest, removing grain export restrictions, and relaxing biofuel mandates when food prices exceed threshold levels, in addition to other measures like improving country capacity to manage volatility, better weather forecasting and more investments in agriculture.

IFPRI advocates transparent, fair and open global trade to enhance the efficiency of global agricultural markets. It also calls for social safety nets, climate change awareness, a global emergency grain reserve and a working group to monitor the world food situation.

Consensus: Agriculture Key to Solving Food Crisis

There is consensus among development experts on a main solution: increasing agricultural yields in an environmentally sustainable manner, particularly when the potential of small-scale farmers can be unleashed to directly reduce hunger, create a more resilient food supply and mitigate social stresses.

An often overlooked but equally critical remedy is to reduce post-harvest losses, which can amount to 25-40 percent of total production.

And since women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries, they must be a focus of efforts to improve food security. IFPRI analysis shows that equalizing women's access to agricultural inputs can increase output by more than 10 percent, and other studies show that gains in income controlled by women are more likely to be spent on food and children's needs. USAID’s Feed the Future website says, “By investing more in women, we amplify benefits across families and generations.”

ACDI/VOCA Commitment to Address Food Crisis

The crisis a few years ago catalyzed ACDI/VOCA to rededicate itself to food security and agricultural development. Read 2008 article: ACDI/VOCA Responds to Global Food Crisis.

We reflected on how best to contribute, invested in a more robust food security practice and committed ourselves to high-capacity, integrated solutions.

We remain intent on solving the formidable food security challenges facing the world today. To learn more, read our position statement on how we're responding to the global food crisis.