Farmers in 5 Nations Receive Funds From G8

But not all donors are meeting their promises

25 June 2010

Five nations will receive the first grants from a new fund aimed at helping developing-world farms like this one in Haiti.

Five nations will receive the first grants from a new and unusual fund aimed at helping developing-world farmers.

Bangladesh, Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Togo will receive a total of $224 million from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, a new World Bank-administered fund set up following a pledge by leaders of the Group of 8 countries last year to commit more development aid to agriculture.

Advocates praise the new fund, but say not all of the G8 nations are living up to their pledges.

Food price crisis

When G8 leaders met in L'Aquila, Italy, last July, the 2008 food price crisis was fresh in their minds. High prices for staple foods had pushed more than 100 million people into poverty and hunger and triggered riots in several countries.

Led by the Obama administration, the G8 pledged $22 billion to boost food production in developing countries. Last September, in Pittsburgh, the G20 called for a fund to be set up at the World Bank to channel some of that pledge.

The five grants announced this week are the first to come from that fund.

'Making good on promises'