West African ministers of trade,
agriculture and finance on Monday in Abuja declared that six billion dollars
was needed to implement emergency intervention measures to mitigate food crisis
in the sub-region.
In a communique delivered at the end of a conference on the food crisis, the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that two billion
dollars was needed to provide food and nutritional support for the 44.4 million
West Africans living in abject poverty.
Four billion dollars would be needed in emergency support to boost food
production in the region within the next two years, mostly to provide input to
small family farms.
"The money is expected to come from donors, the ECOWAS Commission and
countries' funds," the ministers said.
The regional grouping also recommended that the mobilization of the
international community to provide emergency budgetary support to mitigate the
effects of spiralling cost of food items on the public finances of
member-states who have had to divert desperately needed resources for the
importation of food.
In addition the group recommended the removal of restrictive measures that
frustrated intra-community trading in agricultural produce within the next two
years.
As part of measures to promote long-term food security, member- states should
improve their budgetary allocation to agriculture, invest more in agricultural
research and devote greater resources to infrastructural development that would
contribute to agricultural productivity.
Earlier Monday, ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas told the
conference that rising food prices could undermine the stability and economic
growth of West Africa, and called for urgent action.
"Our people must be able to feed themselves before they can contribute to
economic development," he said.
Soaring prices for staples, driven by a global increase in the cost of oil and
cereals, have sparked protests and riots in many West African nations, such as Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Chambas said the region needed to place greater emphasis on the agricultural
sector to mitigate possible famine.
Dr Shamsudeen Usman, Nigeria's Minister of Finance, told the meeting that Nigeria alone would spend 670 million dollars on local food production and processing, dpa reported.
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