Using less than 1% of the federal budget, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is able to generate an enormous return on investment when it comes to increasing international economic opportunities and reducing global poverty. In June, USAID launched two new programs in Haiti and Africa under Feed the Future, President Obama’s global hunger and food security initiative.
Feed the Future North is a 5-year, $87.8 million program that seeks to increase agricultural incomes in six of Haiti’s northernmost watersheds. Developed in cooperation with the Government of Haiti Ministry of Agriculture, the primary focus of the program is on increasing the yields from corn, bean, rice, plantain, and cocoa crops.
For the past three decades, Haiti has suffered from a systematic decline in its agricultural output, due in large part to natural disasters, flooding, and erosion. Feed the Future North will provide key investments in agricultural infrastructure and facilitate the transfer of innovative technologies in an effort to increase farmers’ yields. In addition, the program will work to establish public works and good governance throughout the region in order to promote stability and increase local capacity.
In accordance with USAID principles, the program will be country-led, focused on local capacity building, results-oriented, market-driven, scalable, coordinated with outside donors, and will consider the gender and environmental implications of its actions. USAID is hoping to impact at least 40,000 rural Haitian households through this program.
In Africa, USAID has partnered with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to launch a $47 million, three-year Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Tanzania. According USAID’s most recent press release, the program is primarily focused on promoting the “commercialization, distribution and adoption of improved seeds and other key technologies.”
USAID and AGRA aim to increase high-quality seed production by 45 percent in 3 years, along with ensuring that an additional 40 percent of farmers receive access to advanced farming technologies. Beyond the immediate impact of improved seed technology and increased agricultural output, program administrators believe that the partnership will also help spur local economic growth and reduce child hunger and poverty.
The success of past USAID programs provides a reason to be optimistic about the future of these projects. From 2009 to 2013, USAID operated a Mango Program within its Pakistan Firms Project with a budget of $5.8 million. According to the Pakistan Tribune, mango sales have increased by $20.5 million in that time. The program also helped 26 orchards achieve Global GAP certification, which is necessary for exporting to certain high-end markets. The increase in exports and sales created around 2,500 jobs, and led to the training of more than 3,700 farmers.
Laura Sands 