On September 1, the CGIAR news briefing entitled “Famine in the Horn of Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Mitigating Drought-Induced Food Crises” was held at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya and was attended by several prominent guests and researchers. The director for policy at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Jeff Hill, participated in the briefing as did Lloyd Le Page, GCNF Board Member and Chief Executive Officer of CGIAR, Namanga Ngongi, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), David Miano Mwangi, Assistant Director for animal production at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Mark Gordon, Co-chair of the UN Somalia Food Cluster at the World Food Programme (WFP). The participating experts were interviewed by more than 20 journalists.
Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) noted that “we have to adapt agriculture to the changing nature of our environment, change our market structures to accommodate and promote drought-tolerant crops and we should consider adjusting our food habits to make better use of crops that are adapted to the region”.
Lloyd Le Page added that “modest investments in agricultural research that allow the world’s most vulnerable people to take charge of their food security are far less expensive than constantly parachuting in food aid and humanitarian assistance. Yet donors and governments continue to fall short of their promise to boost investments in the farm sector”.
As a way to manage drought and less rainfall in the future, the panel suggested that a creation of commodity exchanges for food crops to help reduce speculation on food prices, insurance schemes that was broadened to include livestock, sustainable land management programs. Other proposed solutions to avert future food crisis was construction of soil banks and underground reservoirs. Read more here.
To see the whole briefing or listen to the audio, please visit the CGIAR Focus: Horn of Africa page.
*Article adapted from CGIAR blog posting http://consortium.cgiar.org/mitigating-drought-induced-food-crises/
*Photo credits: ILRI/Samuel Mungai
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