Private sector grows food security

DAVOS, Switzerland: A World Economic Forum panel of experts, chaired by outgoing WFP executive director Josette Sheeran, has acknowledged the vital role played by the private sector in managing the food supply chain that links small farmers to markets.

Sheeran asked the panel, which included Bill Gates: "Is hunger and malnutrition a Malthusian nightmare that will hit us like a brick wall as global demand for food skyrockets over the next few decades, or an unprecedented opportunity to create jobs and value through the entire food supply chain with smarter technologies, and a better way to reach those who've been left out of food security?"

A joint venture between WFP and the Ethiopian government is enabling chronically food-insecure communities to rehabilitate the environment and generate sustainable incomeBruno Le Maire, France's minister of Agriculture, responded: "Agriculture is back on the international agenda at the highest level. If we want to support the fight against hunger, we need the support of private investors. We need to keep the focus on the question of food security; hunger is an economic issue for the whole world."

Unilever CEO Paul Polman noted: "Investing in agriculture brings one of the highest returns you can have," while Gates added: "The opportunity to double or triple agricultural productivity is there. Now, the voice of the poor in market systems is very weak."

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's minister of Finance acknowledged that while Africa can feed itself, "the link between smallholder farmers and the larger agriculture industry is critical to scaling up nutrition and market access."

This view was echoed byJosé Graziano da Silva, director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization: "Poor rural farmers need better access to resources, better employment, lower food prices, more food production and more food stocks, including emergency reserves." He added: "I'm confident that we can feed the whole world. The problem is not supply—it is access to food and to natural resources like land and water. We need to figure out how to feed the world without depleting our natural resources."

Stefan Lippe, CEO of reinsurer Swiss Re concluded: "What can we do as private institutions to help farmers produce food? The tools are available for financial institutions to help farmers, such as access to credit, insurance and re-insurance, investments and subsidies, but they need to be scaled up."

The WFP has been promoting private sector participation in the global food supply chain for several years. Recent examples include Coca-Cola producing a nutrition-fortified juice drink to children in Colombia; Pepsi and USAID manufacturing and distributing a chick pea-based paste in Ethiopia, and a project involving Unilever, Kraft and Dutch life science company DSM to reduce child nutrition in Bangladesh through tailor-made food products.