This presentation, delivered by John Bowman with the USAID Bureau for Food Security, outlines the evolution of and next step for horticulture in Feed the Future. Bowman discusses the history of Feed the Future and the advent of the Global Food Security Strategy at the 2017 Horticulture Innovation Lab annual meeting in Antigua, Guatemala. Highlights from this talk include:
What is Feed the Future?
Feed the Future is America’s initiative to combat global hunger and poverty. It brings partners together to help some of the world’s poorest countries harness the power of agriculture and entrepreneurship to jumpstart their economies and create new opportunities — including the private sector, partner governments, local nonprofit organizations, researchers, as well as American companies, universities, farmers, ranchers, and NGOs. Feed the Future's goal is to sustainably reduce global poverty, hunger and malnutrition. This approach was enacted into law in 2016 with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The Feed the Future model is proving itself in country after country:
- Increasing incomes for smallholder farmers.
- Contributing to notable drops in poverty and child stunting in many of the places where we work.
Since the start of the initiative:
- Poverty has dropped between 7 and 36% within many areas where Feed the Future works.
- Child stunting -- a measure of malnutrition -- has dropped between 6 and 40% within certain areas.
Why horticulture?
- High value crops – income generation and diversification
- Intensive farming on small plots possible
- Nutritional benefits of diet diversification
- Women are heavily engaged in horticulture crop production and marketing
The presentation also discusses the Global Food Security Strategy, its continuing areas of focus and what is different/new. The presentation concluded with a discussion of the role of horticulture in the new Global Food Security Strategy.