Feed the Future

Increasing Food Security through Feed the Future – Grain processors in Ethiopia

Morgana Wingard/USAID

Almost 1 billion people across the globe go to bed hungry every night. To meet the needs of a world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, agricultural production will need to increase by 70 percent.

Given scarcity of resources, we will also have to be more efficient in how we meet this demand. Ensuring that people have sufficient food requires aligning short-term assistance with a long-term development strategy to help countries feed their own people.

What is Food Security?

• Food security means having, at all times, both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life.

• A family is food secure when its members do not live in hunger or fear of hunger.

• Food insecurity is often rooted in poverty and has long-term impacts on the ability of families, communities and countries to develop.

• Prolonged undernourishment stunts growth, slows cognitive development and increases susceptibility to illness.

USAID is advancing global food security by helping to improve the most basic of human conditions: the need that families and individuals have for a reliable source of quality food and sufficient resources to purchase it. This, in turn, supports global stability and prosperity.

Feed the Future is the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports countries in developing their agriculture sectors as a catalyst to generate broad-based economic growth and to reduce hunger. In alignment with the Global Health Initiative, Feed the Future also integrates nutrition interventions to support improved health.

Led by USAID, Feed the Future draws on the strengths of agencies across the U.S. Government and leverages resources and efforts with multilateral organizations, NGOs, the private sector, research institutions and other stakeholders to accelerate inclusive agricultural growth.

Feed the Future aims to:

• Help 18 million vulnerable women, children, and family members escape hunger and increase their incomes.

• Reach 7 million children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.

Visit FeedtheFuture.gov to learn more.