Thenew initiative will be launched in 21 pilot countries over the nextfive years. It aims to help hundreds of thousands of small farmers gainaccess to reliable markets so they can sell their surplus crops atcompetitive prices, raising their incomes.
World Food ProgramDirector Josette Sheeran says more than half the 90 million people herorganization will help this year are poor farmers who cannot raiseenough food to feed and support their own families. The Purchase forProgress program is intended to help them break this cycle.
"Make nomistake, this is a revolution in food aid, where food aid becomes aproductive investment that not only feeds today but produces solutionsfor tomorrow," Sheeran said.
The Food and AgricultureOrganization has warned that the number of hungry has ballooned to morethan 900 million worldwide. Officials warn that could increase byanother 100 million people this year in the face of the triple shock ofthe global food, fuel and financial crises.
Supporters of thenew project include billionaire Bill Gates, through the foundation heand his wife run, as well as the Howard Buffett Foundation and thegovernment of Belgium. Combined, the three have provided more than $76million for projects in Africa and Central America - most ofit coming from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
BillGates said his foundation believes helping small farmers is essentialto reducing extreme poverty and hunger throughout the world.
"Allowingthem [the farmers] to participate in these markets is a real win-win[situation]. It will increase the supply of food and it will increasethe well-being of these farmers," he said.
Rwandan PresidentPaul Kagame, who was joined at the launch by his Ugandan and Tanzaniancounterparts, said the new initiative is a direct response to theglobal food crisis.
"Farmers are being given an incentive to producefor the market, to increase productivity, because they have a market.And certainly through purchases they will have access to funds they caninvest in inputs, for example, improve seeds, fertilizer, andtechnologies to increase productivity," he said.
PresidentKagame welcomed the Purchase for Progress program and said it is theduty of governments to make such initiatives work for their people.