Venezuela and 18 other nations in the Americas Wednesday created a regional food fund to help ensure supplies for poor countries in the region.
The fund known as Petro Food is largely backed by a Venezuelan promise to donate 0,05 US dollar for every barrel of oil Venezuela sells at prices of more than 100 dollar per barrel. It is expected to provide 400 million to 500 million dollar per year for farm development and other projects in Central America and the Caribbean.
Agriculture ministers and other officials from the 18 PetroCaribe member countries met in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa to establish an agricultural council to combat food shortage. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said they were trying to use the new alliance to deal with the current crisis, because “the most vulnerable countries are the most affected”.
Zelaya noted that the oil fund “shall be devoted solely to developing food projects”, and stressed that “this is a new solution to old problems”. He said that resources are distributed to peasant organizations, cooperatives and associations of farmers and ranchers to implement the projects they are submitted and approved by the Council.
The first projects to be financed by the oil fund will be analyzed next week in Cuba at a meeting of the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Agriculture Ministers of Petrocaribe, also created Wednesday.
The agenda will be seven agricultural priority areas, including developing a bank of inputs, a network of support services, infrastructure projects and other areas, and distribution systems and exchange of agricultural products.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
