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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
What They Are Saying...
FrontLines: August 2008
The following is an excerpted memo of June 1, 2008:
From: Norman E. Borlaug, Emeritus Advisor, International Maize and Wheat Center, Mexico City
To: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), and
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
Subject: In Search of New Green Revolutions
World Food Situation
… Sadly, several decades of complacency in industrialized nations towards food security has led us to the current imbalance between food demand and supply... The consequent skyrocketing
food prices are likely to push another 100 million of the world’s poorest people into chronic hunger for the next several years, at the very least.
The current global food crisis can be reversed with determined leadership, stimulatory policies, and increased financial support. The solutions are straightforward. We must help the poorest farmers gain access to fertilizer, seeds, and small-scale irrigation. If we set our minds to this task, hundreds of millions can double food output within one or two seasons. If we do not, more hunger, desperation, and chaos await us all.
Sixty percent of the world’s hungry are found in Asia and 15 percent in Latin America, Central and West Asia, and North Africa. Most governments in these regions are capable of financing—with assistance from the World Bank and regional development banks—the necessary agricultural development programs to ramp up food production. However, for the 25 percent of the world’s hungry who live in sub-Saharan Africa nations—almost all agrarian-based societies—there will be no escape from poverty and misery without significantly greater external assistance
from the United States and other privileged countries.
The concept of bio-fuels is a good one. At the moment, ethanol produced by sugarcane is the best global option. However, rapid increases in the use of cereal grains and oil crops in the North America and Europe to produce ethanol and bio-diesel have exacerbated
the current food shortages and price spikes. The U.S. should stop subsidizing the diversion of our corn (now 70 million metric tons) to ethanol and Europe should stop subsidizing the displacement of food crops by oil seeds, such as canola, for bio-fuel. Making ethanol from organic waste, especially cellulosic
materials, is where we should aim our policies and R&D [research and development] investment priorities. Most importantly, however, is the urgent and long-overdue need for a comprehensive program to encourage greater energy conservation
in transport, industry, and heating and cooling of our homes and buildings.
Fertilizer Situation
Sierra Leone farmer holds stalks of rice before it is separated
into small grains.
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Fertilizer is the food of plants. Annually, roughly 80 million metric tons of nitrogen are produced synthetically and add 1 billion tons to our food supply. Without synthetic fertilizers, as much as 40 percent of the world’s people cannot eat. Fertilizer production and transport are energy-intensive activities. Moreover, because of inefficient application methods and chemical
compounds, only 35 to 50 percent of the nitrogen applied to the soil actually ends up in the plant. Surprisingly, no new fertilizers
of consequence have been developed since the 1950s.
We need a four-pronged strategy to deal with soaring fertilizer prices.
- Investment credits to bring more nitrogen production capacity on stream and to develop phosphate and potassium
mineral deposits.
- Research discovery grants and credits to develop more efficient
fertilizers and application methods, both from the standpoint
of production and use.
- Promotion of precision agriculture
techniques in industrialized
countries and basic training in low-income countries, especially
Africa, to assist farmers to obtain the highest fertilizer efficiency
rates possible with currently available fertilizers.
- Targeted fertilizer subsidies
for chronically food insecure
farmers, which are the least market-distorting, and linked to effective soil health agriculture extension programs are needed, especially for Africa.
Crop Production Technical Efficiency
Overcoming global food shortages must focus primarily on improving productivity of staple foods. Globally, three cereals—corn (720 million metric tons), wheat (620 million metric tons) and rice (410 million metric tons, milled rice equivalents) make up about two-thirds of the total food system…
Sub-Saharan Africa calls for new undertakings, which will need to rely on more crop options for sustaining agriculture and propelling agro-processing as a source of income. Improving productivity of sorghum, millet, cassava, yam, and banana/plantain must be high on the R&D agenda for Africa. In addition, rice should receive a high priority, as Africa has the ecological conditions to be self-sufficient, yet is importing nearly half of its current consumption
of 23 million tons ….
U.S. Food Aid Policy
. . . The U.S. policy of supplying all contributions to food aid as domestically produced grain transported on U.S. ships comes at a very high premium (35 to 40 percent higher than local purchasing and shipping)
and often exacerbates delivery through congested ports, especially in Africa. Congress should move to allow up to 25 percent of the appropriation for USAID’s food aid program to be used to purchase food locally at the discretion of the administrator of USAID when local market conditions are appropriate.
Biotechnology
Globally, about 300 million acres (120 million hectares) are planted to transgenic crops produced through the science of biotechnology. These are generally
referred to as genetically modified (GM) crops... The United States should continue to energetically support the development
and safe use of biotechnology
around the world, and especially in developing countries.
USAID
USAID played a crucial role in the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed, the term “Green Revolution” was coined by William Gaud, the USAID administrator, in 1968. Over the past 25 years, USAID has been maligned and had its autonomy, human resources, and budgets eroded. Congress and the next administration should commit themselves to restoring USAID to the outstanding development organization
it used to be...
USAID autonomy within the Department of State should be restored and its mission statement
should be to use American talent, resources, and moral persuasion to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Professional staffing levels should be doubled over all within the next five years, and tripled in agriculture and economic development.
While congressional budget earmarks are understandable,
USAID leadership should have freedom of allocation for at least half of the Agency’s budget.
USDA-ARS/Land Grant Universities and Colleges
United States agricultural research, education and development
institutions—namely USDA and Land Grant Universities and Colleges—have a great role to play in helping counterpart organizations,
especially in Africa, strengthen their human resource and institutional capacities to modernize smallholder agriculture.
I am talking about partnering
U.S. institutions with developing country institutions in a grand agricultural knowledge initiative ($50 million per year). Graduate student scholarships and shorter-term, visiting scientist programs to U.S. institutions, such as the USDA Borlaug Fellows program, should also be significantly expanded and given an adequate and reliable funding base ($25 million per year). Neglect of international development
and over reliance on private sector development agencies has caused internationally focused agriculture research and graduate student training to wither at our universities, thus leaving our country without adequate numbers of new agriculture scientists, international networks and access to global agricultural developments.
International Agricultural Research Centers
The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and associated international
research centers have a vital role to play in the next “Doubly Green” or “Ever-Green” Revolution. Their total funding has eroded by 50 percent, in real terms over the past 20 years... I recommend that U.S. contribution to CGIAR be increased to $100 million in fiscal year 2009, and maintained at 20 percent of the total budget for at least the next 10 years….
As you chart the course of this great nation for the future benefit of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, I ask you to think more boldly and humanely about the Third World and develop a new version of the Marshall plan, this time not to rescue a war-torn Europe, but now to help the nearly 1 billion mostly rural poor people still trapped in hunger and misery. It is within America’s technical and financial power to help end this human tragedy and injustice, if we set our hearts and minds to the task.
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