We should establish a special fund for the green revolution in Africa akin to the highly successful Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. An annual flow of $10 billion from the rich countries, half through the fund, would finance the needed breakthroughs. It would amount to roughly $10 per person in the donor countries, a modest sum that would give Africa the historic opportunity to banish extreme poverty and chronic hunger for hundreds of millions of its people.

7 Comments

1. 1. srchuck 05:11 PM 4/22/08

   Kofi Annan has promised to revitalize African agriculture with "traditional" methods. Guess that means no fertilizer, no GM seeds, no insecticides...but the continent can starve in full political correctness.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. mghutz 08:08 PM 4/22/08

   It's undeniable that Africa should up its food production, but strange how this author, along with everybody else, just won't say those magic words: "population control." Until the world faces up to the reality that a skyrocketing population must be controlled, we will continue to see famine and escalating violence over control of arable land.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. John_Toradze 10:33 PM 4/22/08

   We are all very close to the edge of famine, developed world and not. Grain reserves have rarely been lower. Just a little push and our basic commidity prices rise rapidly.
   
   Energy is the fundamental, along with arable land. We have to increase energy per capita that is available, in a way that does not heat up the planet. If we do not increase it, then the four horsemen will take care of us whether we like it or not.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. kevin012 07:25 PM 4/26/08

   I think Africa need a lot of help with diseases,agriculture,and there economy. If we don't help them it would only pull us down through ther struggling to survive. America has problems of our own. Crime statistics are at a all time high, and global warming is a real threat.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. CSlate 12:55 PM 4/28/08

   The college where I am a professor plans to focus campus-wide on the theme of poverty and hunger for the next two years. We can use articles such as this to educate students and faculty about these grave concerns.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

6. 6. thomas.vm 07:39 AM 5/29/08

   This is a very important step to be taken under U.N.Estimate total avialbility of land,water and select suitable crops for each areas.If no water shall make water avialble by mordern methods for agricuture.This is a must for prevent a famine in the world.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

7. 7. Eric_Ross in reply to CSlate 06:15 PM 3/22/09

   Before we accept the Sachs model for agrarian development in Sub Saharan Africa, with its uncritical view of the consequences of the Green Revolution for other parts of the Third World (and for the United States, for that matter, where it led to the loss of millions of family farms), I would suggest looking at my book, The Malthus Factor: Poverty, Politics and Population in Capitalist Development (Zed Books, 1998). It might serve to put some core issues in perspective.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this