CHONGWE, Zambia (AP) — US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen traveled Tuesday from a small farm on a rural red clay road to a ramen noodle manufacturing plant in the bustling Zambian capital of Lusaka, to show Africa’s potential to help solve global problems of food scarcity. .
Yellen, in the middle of a 10-day tour of AfricaHe spent his day highlighting the agricultural investment potential of underdeveloped African nations, especially as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated worldwide hunger and the cost of food.
“As we address acute needs now, we must also take a broader vision and increase investment in long-term food system resilience. Africa is a perfect example of these dual challenges,” said Yellen in Chongwe, a town an hour from Lusaka. She stood on her signature podium, surrounded by lush green fields of corn and chickens grazing nearby.
The continent’s potential is evident in one statistic: Africa has 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land.
“We want to promote a future where Africa participates more fully in global food and fertilizer markets and supply chains,” Yellen said as the farmers, mostly women in brightly colored wax cloth dresses, donned standing and listening.
They told Yellen stories of how they have sustained their communities, sharing mate goats to build a sustainable livestock supply and developing collective savings groups and grain silos.
Echinah Mfula, a farmer from Chongwe and a participant in the Twalumbu Savings Group, which helps its members raise money to buy livestock and food, said: “It has been a challenge. It has been a great challenge for us, but we are successful.”
In Zambia, approximately 2 million people face acute food insecurity, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, and almost half of the population cannot meet minimum caloric intake requirements.
“It is a continent facing acute food needs,” Yellen said. “But it’s one that also has the potential to not only feed itself but also help feed the world, if the right steps are taken.”
Resolve the country’s well-documented debt crisis it is more important than ever for the financing of new agricultural projects to be possible.
Zambia became the first sovereign nation of Africa’s coronavirus pandemic era to default when it failed to make a $42.5 million bond payment in November 2020. Negotiations on how to deal with the debt load have been ongoing.
Experts say a prolonged debt crisis could permanently prevent countries like Zambia from recovering, sending an entire nation deeper into poverty and unemployment.
Food insecurity is increasing around the world due to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising food costs, according to a report released Tuesday. by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and other United Nations agencies. Nearly half a billion people were undernourished in 2021 and more than a billion faced moderate to severe food insecurity, according to the report.
On top of that, the costs of fertilizers and natural gas have skyrocketed and world prices for food products like grains and vegetable oils were the highest on record. in 2022.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February worsened the food insecurity crisis because the two countries were the main suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other products, especially to nations in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia that were already struggling. against hunger.
In the US, the Treasury Department has issued an exception to the thousands of sanctions that have been imposed on Russia to allow agricultural transactions and trade related to humanitarian aid and access to communications. The hope is to prevent some of the most damaging impacts of war on vulnerable populations.
But in Zambia, Yellen said she sees solutions in local companies like Java Foods Limited, a woman-owned business that produces low-cost, nutritionally fortified instant noodles. She targets low-income urban consumers and sources 100% of her wheat from farmers in Zambia.
Monica Musonda, founder of Java Foods, told Yellen at a panel discussion on Tuesday that staying afloat has been difficult as her company is one of the only food manufacturers in Lusaka. “But we are trying to have an impact in our community; You can see what we women can do.”
Java has worked under USAID’s Feed the Future program and with the US Food Solutions Association, a nonprofit organization founded by General Mills.
Yellen started her Africa tour in Senegal and moves to South Africa after Zambia.
