STATE OF THE WORLD 2011 Innovations that Nourish the Planet

State of the World Brief Series Chapter 1. Charting a New Path to Eliminating Hunger

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 925 million people around the world go hungry everyday, 239 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.

The current economic crisis offers a window of opportunity for refocusing the worlds attention on food, agriculture, and rural areas and for reestablishing food security as a global priority.

Our team has traveled to 25 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, where diverse innovations in agriculture are supporting farmer incomes and peoples nourishment.

These innovations are charting a new path to eliminating hunger and serve as models for large-scale efforts beyond Africa.

Nearly a half-century after the Green Revolution, a large share of the human family is still chronically hungry. (See Figure.) The worlds approach to combating hunger has not really worked. Past attempts have focused narrowly on a few types of crops, such as grains; relied heavily on chemical fertilizers; and ignored women farmers. We must shift our focus to a food system that nourishes the planet without compromising the soils, crop diversity, and fresh water on which we all depend. Investments in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations are near historic lows. Agricultures share of global development aid has dropped from more than 16 percent in 1980 to a meager 4 percent today. In Africa, a majority of the poor and hungry depends on agriculture for food and income, but only nine countries allocate even 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture.

As petroleum and food prices soar, as climate change intensifies, and as unfair trade agreements persist, the challenge of reducing hunger will prove that much more difficult. Still, the current crisis offers a window of opportunity for refocusing the worlds attention on food, agriculture, and rural areas and for reestablishing food security as a global priority.

Over the last two years, Worldwatchs Nourishing the Planet team has traveled to 25 sub-Saharan African countriesplaces where hunger is greatest and where rural communities have struggled the mostto hear peoples stories of hope and success in agriculture. Africa is becoming a rich and diverse breeding ground for innovations in agriculture that support farmer income and nourishment for people.

We highlight three major shifts that we invite farmers, scientists, donors, agribusiness executives, and the global community to consider: Go Beyond Seeds. We must look beyond the handful of crops that have absorbed most of agricultures attention, and also beyond developing new seeds as the default solution for hunger and poverty. Seeds represent the short-term payoff

Key Messages

The Problem

Innovations/Solutions

This brief is based on Chapter 1, Charting a New Path to Eliminating Hunger, by Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg, published in the Worldwatch Institute report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

To order a copy of State of the World 2011 or to read more briefs in this series, visit www.NourishingthePlanet.org.

option, but the truly long-term investment that has big returns is investing in the soil and water that nourish crops. In Mali and other parts of the African Sahel, where soils are severely damaged from overgrazing and drought, the use of green manure and cover crops is a sustainable solution to Africas soil fertility crisis. And across much of Africa and Asia, where access to irrigation has been limited, low-cost, human-powered pumps like the MoneyMaker and the treadle pump are now used by more than 2.3 million poor farmers. Go Beyond Farms. Eliminating hunger will not depend on the worlds ability to produce more food. For many communities, the solution lies in making better use of the food that is already produced. Some 2550 percent of the harvest in poorer nations spoils or is contaminated by pests or mold before it reaches the table. But innovative, low-cost fixesincluding plastic bags for preserving cowpeas and better-built silos for storing graincan go a long way in combating food waste.

As more people migrate from rural areas, hunger is moving to cities as well. In Africa, 14 million people migrate to cities each year, and worldwide some 800 million people depend on urban agriculture for their food needs. Through projects supported by Kenya-based Urban Harvest, urban poor are not only growing food for their own communities, but also establishing seed multiplication projects that supply seeds for urban and rural farmers. Yet the most important off-farm investment may be ensuring that the farmers of tomorrow have both the opportunity and desire to

become farmers. Ugandas Project DISC has found that teaching students to grow, cook, and eat native vegetables like spiderwiki and amaranth can give them a reason to stay in rural areas and farm. Go Beyond Africa. No matter where our food comes from, people everywhere are tied to a global food system. Agriculture encompasses such a large chunk of the planet that healthy rural economies are fundamental to global sustainability. International solidarity in the realm of foodembodied by farmers groups like Via Campesina and global collaborations like the Global Crop Diversity Trustis one of the most hopeful innovations for reducing poverty and hunger.

The global impact of farming also extends to climate change. African farmers could remove 50 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 50 years, primarily by planting trees among crops and stewarding nearby forests. By rewarding farmers worldwide for building up the carbon content of their soils, we can prevent disastrous climate change. Farmers and commun-ities throughout the developing world can play an important role in solving these global problems, leading to greater income, jobs, and self-reliance.

The innovations that the Nourishing the Planet team uncovered in our journey across Africa represent the kind of radical new thinking that more and more people are calling for. The many simple, low-cost innovations are models for larger-scale efforts and applications beyond Africa. A rooftop garden cooperative that is feeding people in Dakar, Senegal, offers guidance for neighborhoods struggling with food shortages in inner-city New York. Agriculture is emerging as a solution to mitigating climate change, reducing public health problems, making cities more livable, and creating jobs in a stagnant global economy. Given the limited ability of scientists to find solutions, the finite generosity of donors to support agricultural research, and the overstretched patience of struggling farmers and hungry families, shifting funds and attention in new directions is long overdue.

Member of a womens group waters their cabbage, Zimbabwe. (IFAD/Horst Wagner)

Looking Ahead