THE PILLARS
In this section:
U.S. Farmers Share Crop Income with a Half Million
People in 29 Poor Countries
Spread of Burundi Cassava Virus Spurs Development
of Disease-Resistant Varieties
Rejection of Pre-Marriage Tradition Grows, Protecting
Women’s Health and Lives
Chocolate Companies Help West African Farmers
Improve Harvest
ECONOMIC GROWTH, AGRICULTURE, AND TRADE
U.S. Farmers Share Crop Income with a Half Million People
in 29 Poor Countries
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Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo learn about
pest control with test plots of cabbages. The control
site and a test site shown here use only organic fertilizers
and pesticides. Not shown is a plot treated only with
chemicals and another that uses a combination of organic
and chemical products. The United Methodist Committee
on Relief is implementing this program in the Northern
Katanga region with a grant from the Foods Resource
Bank.
Foods Resource Bank |
The Foods Resource Bank (FRB) started out four years ago
with commitments from a handful of farmers in the Midwest
to reserve a few acres of their harvests for development projects
half a world away.
This wasn’t a traditional food donation. The farmers
sold their crops as usual. But the money from the set-aside
acres went to FRB, which pooled the proceeds and awarded the
money to NGOs carrying out agricultural development projects
in poor countries. That first year, FRB raised about $17,000
from 10 “growing projects.”
Now the group is working with 48 projects covering more
than 6,000 acres and plans to surpass the $1.3 million it
raised in 2004. FRB estimates 500,000 people in 29 countries
in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South and Central America benefit
from the work.
The effort is building global unity, said Norm Braksick,
FRB’s founder and retired executive director.
Modeled after a Canadian program, FRB, based in Kalamazoo,
Mich., coordinates efforts of farmers, churches, youth groups,
civic clubs, and agribusinesses to address world hunger.
Its grantees are faith-based organizations. FRB also gets
funding from the Kellogg Foundation. And, since its second
year of operation, USAID has matched the money the group makes
from selling crops. The Agency’s grant to FRB has doubled
since the initial $500,000 awarded in 2002.
“U.S. citizens see themselves—and now their government—in
a partnership to relieve world hunger,” Braksick said.
“You go ask a farmer today for $1,000 for world hunger
and that is difficult for him to do. But he can harvest a
field with a $250,000 combine. And that is his gift. Everyone
gives a gift that they can give, and many times it’s
a non-cash gift.”
Here’s how it works: churches in farm communities pair
with churches in urban neighborhoods. Rural church congregants
and others provide the acres and labor, while the urban churchgoers
cover some of the costs of land, seed, fertilizer, tractor
fuel, and the like. Agribusinesses also donate growing supplies
or sell them to participants at reduced rates. In October,
everyone is invited to a harvest festival, where farmers,
urbanites, businesspeople, and development officials mark
the occasion and its significance.
Once the crops are sold, the money raised is awarded as
grants to one of 16 Christian organizations that partner with
FRB for use on projects that promote sustainable agriculture
in developing countries. Grants have been used to dig wells,
build silos, buy seeds and animals, train farmers, and boost
agribusinesses.
George R. Gardner, a senior agricultural economist with
USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and
Trade, said FRB’s efforts are aimed squarely at building
food security, not providing emergency food aid or disaster
assistance.
Gardner, who manages the USAID end of the program, added:
“[The projects] bring new people to the table and they’re
educating people about hunger abroad, while improving village-level
food security. And they’re truly farm- and faith-based.”
The Agency’s Global Development Alliance and Bureau
for Africa also fund FRB.
Today, the projects are expanding beyond traditional breadbasket
states in the United States and into the South, Mid-Atlantic,
and Northeast. The projects are also expanding beyond the
primary crops of corn and soy. One growing project in New
York involves dairy cows.
Almost any marketable commodity is allowed, said Braksick,
who is an evangelist for the effort. He has set an ambitious
goal of 20,000 acres of growing projects, which would equal
over $5 million in aid to combat hunger.
DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
Spread of Burundi Cassava Virus Spurs Development of Disease-Resistant
Varieties
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Stany Sabuwanka stands in front of his mosaic-affected
cassava crop in Mutimbuzi, on the outskirts of Burundi’s
capital, Bujumbura.
Simon Bigirimana, ISABU
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BUJUMBURA, Burundi—The virulent cassava mosaic
virus has been on the move in this Central African country
since 2002, but its recent arrival in the fertile plains surrounding
Burundi’s capital city has set a new benchmark.
“What we are having to deal with here is a bit like
a crop plant equivalent of the HIV/AIDS crisis: a devastating
infection sweeping through cassava crops across a vast geographical
area,” said James Legg, who is with the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Cassava is a versatile root and a staple in many Burundians’
diets, but cassava mosaic virus has cut a wide swath through
the region. The disease produces yellowing, stunting, and
leaf loss, and has played a role in food shortages and localized
famines since the 1980s in places like Uganda.
Its impact has been felt by many of Burundi’s neighbors—including
Rwanda, Congo, and Tanzania—and the disease has spread
to much of the prime cassava-growing belt of East and Central
Africa, reaching westward as far as Gabon.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) estimates that the virus has contributed to a more than
40 percent loss in crop production in Burundi’s northern
provinces.
As the losses spread south and west, trade has been hit
hard. The supply of cassava products—such as fresh roots,
dried chips, and flour—has dwindled. And prices have
more than tripled for the scarce commodity.
Scientists with IITA are playing catch-up to track the virus,
using DNA fingerprinting techniques to forecast where it will
land next and find ways to stop it.
A collaboration that includes IITA, the East Africa Root
Crops Research Network, the FAO, several NGOs, and USAID’s
Office for U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has been
working toward a more permanent answer.
Simon Bigirimana, program leader of the Burundi Institute
of Agronomic Science (ISABU), said, “The impact of the
epidemic in our country has been terrible, but we have a solution:
resistant cassava varieties.”
ISABU is leading the effort to develop varieties of cassava
that are resistant to the virus.
OFDA, which is part of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict,
and Humanitarian Assistance, has provided grant money to help
identify the most mosaic-resistant varieties and multiply
them as rapidly as possible.
Resistant varieties developed through IITA’s continental
breeding program already have been introduced into Burundi.
The initial progress has been slow—each cassava plant
normally takes a year to mature and is propagated through
stem cuttings—but the pace is increasing.
There probably isn’t time to help Stany Sabuwanka for
this year’s cassava crop, yet he is hopeful. Sabuwanka
sustains his family of six on a small half-hectare plot in
Mutimbuzi, on the outskirts of Bujumbura. In a good year,
just under half of what he grows is sufficient to feed the
family and the rest is sold to provide a modest income.
His cassava field, like most of those in the fertile zone
surrounding Burundi’s capital, has been touched by the
advancing “front” of the mosaic pandemic.
“We don’t really know what is causing the crop
to change like this, but it’s probably the drought,”
he said. “Things should improve when the rains come.”
While help won’t come that soon, the scientists believe
that tens of millions of disease-resistant cassava cuttings
will have been produced by 2006.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Rejection of Pre-Marriage Tradition Grows, Protecting Women’s
Health and Lives
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A couple that chose for the bride not to undergo female
genital cutting (FGC) sits next to another bride who
made the same choice. The couples—both of whom
wed in the past year—now travel around southern
Ethiopia, speaking at community gatherings about their
choice and the dangers associated with FGC.
Dianne Zemichael, USAID/Ethiopia |
AWASSA, Ethiopia—Ketto Buli has cut many women’s
genitalia during her 50 years, beginning with her teenage
daughter. The procedure is a pre-marriage tradition with long
roots here. But as the years ticked away, Ketto saw too many
unwilling girls in pain, suffering from heavy blood loss and
infection.
Last year a community health volunteer knocked on Ketto’s
door and told her about the dangers associated with female
genital cutting (FGC). Now she too is a health volunteer,
speaking against FGC.
“This was a taboo subject five years ago. But now there
is an aggressive awareness campaign. At least we can talk
about it,” said Samuel Tuffa of the African Development
Aid Association (ADAA), implementing partner of Pathfinder
International, through which USAID is fighting genital cutting
here.
Some 135 million of the world’s women have undergone
genital cutting, mainly in Africa and some Middle East countries.
In Ethiopia, about 80 percent of all married women are circumcised,
meaning that they have had their clitorises and/or all surrounding
tissue cut off. The age when genital cutting is performed
varies between ethnic groups: it can be done to infants less
than eight days old or as late as a month before marriage.
Knives and scalpels used for the procedure are often unclean,
causing infection. Heavy bleeding occurs. Women are left with
lifelong health problems and often have difficulties during
childbirth.
In the south of Ethiopia, where women are cut shortly before
marriage, Pathfinder has trained some 7,000 volunteers as
community reproductive health agents who tell villagers of
the health risks associated with FGC. They also advise about
family planning and maternal and child health. The project
will train another 3,000 volunteers in the next year.
ADAA had held workshops for religious leaders in the region,
describing the dangers of FGC and disavowing any connection
to religious theology. Many of those religious leaders have
gone on to tell their communities that FGC is not safe or
required, and that it can lead to psychological trauma.
Workshops specifically target men, who are seen as the first
step in changing the attitude toward FGC, said Samuel. Men
have long thought that girls who have undergone the procedure
are “pure” and will make faithful wives.
When classmates Abdella Gebi and Medina Berisso decided
to marry, Adbella, who had heard ADAA’s messages, suggested
that his bride not undergo FGC. Medina thought this unusual,
but says she was very happy because she had seen a friend
nearly bleed to death after being cut.
They were going to marry quietly. But then another couple
in their area announced that they would wed without the girl
being cut, so Abdella and Medina stepped out with them.
“In our culture, when you announce something on your
wedding day or at a funeral, it’s accepted by the public,”
said Samuel.
In one southern district, awareness campaigns have worked
so well that now nearly all couples getting married are doing
so without the woman being cut, Samuel said.
FGC is condemned by Ethiopia’s penal code, after heavy
lobbying by the National Committee on Harmful Traditional
Practices of Ethiopia and NGOs like Pathfinder.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE
Chocolate Companies Help West African Farmers Improve Harvest
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Graduates of a farmer field school in Ekabita, south
Cameroon, show their certificates.
STCP Cameroon |
ACCRA, Ghana—Chocolate corporations are helping
West African farmers continue to harvest the seeds that are
building blocks of instant cocoa, decadent truffles, and most
every chocolate confection.
The Sustainable Tree Crop Program (STCP) is a public-private
alliance working to improve the economic and social wellbeing
of cocoa farmers and the environmental sustainability of tree
crops in West Africa. Following the Global Development Alliance
approach, the partnership fosters linkages between industry
buyers and rural producers.
The region produces about 70 percent of the global supply
of cocoa and other chocolate-related products. However, the
livelihood of producers and their supply of cocoa to the chocolate
industry are increasingly threatened by the diminishing number
of fertile forests and the dangers of disease and insect pests.
“We are committed to fostering sustainable cocoa farms
in West Africa, as it not only secures the supply chain for
the long term but also protects the livelihood of more than
1.5 million cocoa farmers in the region,” says John Lunde,
director of international programs at Mars Inc. The candy
maker is a supporter of STCP.
Inaction in the past has proved devastating for farmers
and the chocolate industry.
A plague in the 1980s turned Brazil—at the time the
second largest cocoa-producing country in the world—into
a net importer. The impact on Brazil’s rural producers
was far more devastating than was the price spike for industry
buyers, who nonetheless resolved to work together to prevent
the recurrence of preventable diseases that had proved so
destructive.
By 2000, the chocolate industry had formed the World Cocoa
Foundation (WCF) to build partnerships with other stakeholders.
WCF members such as Mars, Hershey’s, Nestlé, and
Kraft support regional initiatives to maintain cocoa cultivation
and production with cash and technical expertise.
Industry contributions combined with USAID funding currently
amount to about $10 million—consisting of equal parts
of cash from the Bureau for Africa’s Office of Sustainable
Development and cash and in-kind technical assistance from
the chocolate industry.
STCP covers Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria,
and Guinea, and is implemented by the International Institute
of Tropical Agriculture. The core activity of STCP and the
other regional initiatives is to provide farmers with organizational
support, marketing information, policy reform, research, and
technical training.
Through farmer field schools set up to deliver these services,
farmers learn how to boost their incomes through increased
yields and quality and how to protect the natural resource
base of the cocoa commodity. As with coffee, cocoa is often
cultivated with other plant and animal life, requiring more
care in cultivating the crop to avoid disrupting the ecosystem
in which it is produced.
Farmer field schools also teach farmers about shade management,
tree husbandry, and postharvest handling, and will soon include
crop diversification, natural fertilization, and other best
practices. The result has been dramatic: incomes have increased
between 20 and 50 percent. And, in some cases producers doubled
their income.
To date, over 10,000 farmers have graduated from STCP schools.
Each trainer works with about 20 facilitators, who then conduct
workshops and training on cocoa farms. In many cases, new
facilitators are recruited from among the most avid field
school participants.
“An important achievement of STCP is its success in
building an industry coalition committed to improving the
circumstances of cocoa producers,” said Jeff Hill, senior
agricultural advisor for the Bureau for Africa’s Office
of Sustainable Development. “Clearly, a consensus exists
that the future of the chocolate business depends on the future
of rural families growing the cocoa.”
A byproduct of STCP has been the ability to deliver secondary
messages to farmers on social issues such as HIV/AIDS, child
labor, and education. This is also part of an industry-wide
commitment to develop voluntary certification standards combating
the worst forms of child and forced labor on cocoa farms in
West Africa.
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