UN Pledges To Buy From Poor Farmers
The World Food Program (WFP) Wednesday announced a significant shift in the way it buys agricultural commodities, saying it would now purchase from the worlds poorest farmers as it broadens its role in development rather than emergency aid.
The UN agency said its new procurement policy would enable “small farmers to access reliable markets so they can sell their surplus crops at competitive prices, bolstering fragile local economies”.
Josette Sheeran, WFP head, said that the “Purchase for Progress” program would help both poor farmers and hungry people. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the government of Belgium said they would commit 76 million US dollar to support the new WFP procurement program.
Bill Gates said the new initiative “represents a major step toward sustainable change that could eventually benefit millions of poor rural households”.
The farmers will be required to form collectives, and the usual UN requirements for growers to provide surety bonds, transport and packaging materials will be relaxed or waived (set bort fra). By selling directly to the WFP rather than middlemen it is expected that the farmers will receive higher-than-normal prices.
The Purchase for Progress program will give poor farmers, many of them women with little or no access to commercial markets, a chance to move beyond subsistence living with opportunities to sell their milk, grains, produce and other products to reliable buyers.
During a five-year pilot period, it hopes to increase the incomes of 350.000 farmers in 21 countries and give them a path out of poverty.
– This is not your grandmothers (hattedamernes) food aid, said Sheeran, adding:
– This is a revolution in food aid, where food aid becomes a productive investment that not only feeds today but produces solutions for tomorrow.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
