OPEC funds food security program in Sudan

Sep 17, 2003 (MenaReport) — The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development has approved a grant of $700,000 to support the Special Program for Food Security (SPFS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Grant resources will be used to co-finance initiatives for the expansion and introduction of SPFS in poor farming communities in Sudan, Cambodia and Haiti.

FAO launched its SPFS concept in 1994 with the aim of demonstrating to farmers, usually in the form of pilot schemes, how to increase agricultural production by using more effective, low-cost technologies adapted to the local conditions. The success of the concept has since seen SPFS operations established in 74 countries around the world.

The program is carried out using several key elements: improving water management, intensifying and diversifying crop production systems, conducting a “constraints analysis” and creating a resolution. In the tradition of South-South cooperation, FAO then provides experts from more advanced developing countries for a period of two-three years to work directly with farmers in rural communities.

The SPFS in North Kordofan, Sudan, will focus on improving water management techniques through the provision of pumps, wells and irrigation systems; introducing crop intensification measures; and, diversifying agricultural activities to include areas such as cheese making, small livestock raising, bee keeping and aquaculture.