World Food Prize for Brazil's da Silva, Ghana's Kufuor

Narayan Lakshman

Washington: While the rest of the world has spent the last few years worrying about double-dip recessions and West Asia, the borderless nation of the hungry has continued to suffer in silence.

Recognition of the debilitating effects of chronic hunger led policymakers to include its eradication by 2015 among the Millennium Development Goals. It also undergirded the announcement this week in Washington of this year's winners of the World Food Prize (WFP).

The award has, since it was instituted in 1987, always gone to agricultural scientists such as M.S. Swaminathan — winner of the first WFP award — and to social entrepreneurs such as Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank.

But this time the WFP Foundation, which includes Professor Swaminathan, sought to highlight the impact that top political leaders could have on the welfare of those afflicted by chronic hunger, if they foster a deep commitment to agriculture that actually translates into policy and results on the ground.

The Foundation chose the former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, and the former President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “for their personal commitment and visionary leadership while serving as the presidents of Ghana and of Brazil, respectively, in creating and implementing government policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries”.

Speaking to a packed audience in the Benjamin Franklin hall of the State Department, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said: “President Kufuor and President Lula da Silva have set the gold standard for presidential leadership in tackling the global challenges of poverty and hunger.”

The two leaders were picked for the prize, instituted by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Green Revolution champion Norman Borlaug, for leading a drastic reduction of hunger and poverty in their respective countries.

Mr. Kufuor who was the President of Ghana for two terms, during 2001-2009, was said to have implemented major economic and educational policies that increased the quality and quantity of food, enhanced farmers' incomes, and improved school attendance and child nutrition.

Speaking to The Hindu after the awards announcement, Prof. Swaminathan commented on how the experiences in Brazil and Ghana compared to the situation of India, where the past few years have witnessed sharp fluctuations in food prices, and the poor have continued to feel the brunt of food shortages despite government silos being well-stocked.

Arguing that India's rampant under-nutrition and malnutrition showed that more income for farmers was required, he said: “Agriculture will have to be revitalised in terms of getting more per drop of water or per unit of land — in other words this can only be achieved by technological [upgrades] and more attention to land- and resource-use planning.”

Prof. Swaminathan added that more than 60 per cent of India's population depended on agriculture for its livelihood. He said, “In India agriculture is not just a food-producing machine. It is the backbone of the livelihood security system of a majority of people.”

There was also a growing tendency of the next generation of farmers abandoning farming as an occupation, he cautioned, noting that a lack of farmer interest in agriculture would make it difficult to have a second Green Revolution.

He added that the absence of agricultural insurance would exacerbate such adverse conditions that farmers faced.