G20 sets up $100m fund to boost food security in developing countries

A new approach to financing innovations in food security and agricultural development has led to the setting up of a $100 million fund by G20 leaders.

This was announced at the Group’s Summit in Mexico June 18, 2012. The fund was named AgResults and will be administered by the World Bank.

The G20 leaders say the Fund is to finance an innovative initiative that will enhance global food security and improve the livelihoods of developing country farmers through prizes and other market-based incentives.

The governments of Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are supporting the Fund.

In the coming years, the World Bank says AgResults will launch a series of pilots which “will represent a diverse mix of agriculture and food security issues, testing different types of pull mechanisms in different regions globally”.

The initial set of pilots, focusing on maize production in sub-Saharan Africa, includes:

·  Incentivizing the adoption of on-farm storage technology for smallholder farmers

·  Encouraging innovative distribution of a breakthrough technology to reduce aflatoxin contamination

·  Building a market for new vitamin A-enhanced varieties of maize

Additional pilots will be explored in the coming years, potentially including livestock vaccines and fertilizer innovation as well as new ideas related to increasing crop yields, decreasing post-harvest losses, increasing livestock productivity and improving nutrition, the World Bank indicated.

By Ekow Quandzie