Farm grants go to Ethiopia, Niger and Mongolia

The United States and its partners in a global fund have awarded 97 million dollars to three developing countries to help them fight hunger and poverty, the Treasury Department said Thursday.



Partners in the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a new fund to increase agriculture productivity and reduce poverty, announced this week that Ethiopia, Niger and Mongolia will receive the fund’s second round of grants.



The World Bank-managed fund allotted 51.5 million dollars to Ethiopia, 33 million to Niger and 12.5 million to Mongolia.



The grants are aimed at helping each country increase food security, raise rural incomes and reduce poverty by enabling small-scale farmers to grow more crops and earn more.



"These investments will improve access to better seeds and soil, build rural infrastructure and connect farmers to markets," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.



The GAFSP was officially launched in April. In late June the fund announced its first round of grants, totaling 224 million dollars, to five countries: Bangladesh, Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Togo.



The fund is supported by the United States, Canada, South Korea, Spain and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.



Australia has recently joined the fund with a 50 million dollar contribution, the Treasury said.



The fund was created in response to a call by leaders of the Group of 20 economic powerhouses at last year's Pittsburgh summit for the World Bank to set up a multi-donor trust fund to implement some of the 22 billion dollars in pledges made several months earlier at a Group of Eight summit.



"It’s time to follow through on those promises," Gates said.



South Korea, which hosts next week's G20 summit Seoul, called on the industrialized and emerging-market member economies to contribute to the fund.



"The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program is a critical partner for developing countries. We urge new G20 donors to contribute to this fund," the South Korean finance minister, Yoon Jeung-hyun, said in the statement.



G20 heads of state plan to discuss progress on global food security at the November 11-12 summit.

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