July 16, 2008
Guroff Testifies at House Hearing on Food Crisis
Senior Vice President Avram “Buzz” Guroff testified July 16 at a hearing held by the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture. The subject was food aid and agricultural development assistance as means of addressing the world food crisis.
“The present world food situation is unarguably in dire crisis,” Guroff said. “We face a profound, pervasive and persistent problem.”
He spoke of ACDI/VOCA’s record on food aid and agricultural development and called for a “significant investment in food production and rural income generation” to enable continued success.
“It has now been widely acknowledged that the diminution of development aid devoted to agriculture over recent decades was a terrible mistake. Almost no country has managed a rapid rise from poverty without increasing agricultural productivity,” he said.
The inadequacy of agricultural development resources was addressed by other witnesses as well. USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jim Kunder said agriculture had been crowded out of the development agenda by the many other earmarks. He said the USAID budget is now 104 percent earmarked.
Guroff injected a note of hope, saying, “What is often overlooked in the rhetoric about the crisis is that many of the world’s farmers see in today’s rising food prices unprecedented opportunity, if they are able to develop their capacity and capture markets.” He referred to exemplary broad-based ACDI/VOCA projects that use value chain approaches that enable smallholder farmers to achieve productivity gains and take advantage of such markets.
For example he said, “In Kenya, besides organizing producer groups and improving cultivation techniques, we develop market linkages and promote interfirm cooperation. We have helped quadruple yields among beneficiary farmers while reducing costs 40 percent. This has generated approximately $133 million in earnings for our 250,000 beneficiary farmers.”
On the subject of food aid, he said, “We need to avoid becoming too reliant on direct distribution of food aid as a response to the current crisis,” and cited ACDI/VOCA developmental approaches in Uganda and Cape Verde that have assisted families to become self-sufficient and, over time, reduced the need for emergency food aid.
When asked by Chairman Mike McIntyre (D-NC) whether the situation would improve within a year, Guroff reflected on the unmet promises of the 1996 World Food Summit, to which he was a U.S. delegate, and said, “It’s a matter of political will.” He added that the entire world community needed to become involved, and that the “global food crisis not be just another opportunity for hand-wringing and lofty rhetoric on the part of the international community.” Catholic Relief Services Executive Vice President Callahan responded by saying that without major changes the world will be worse off.
In response to a question from Congressman Pomeroy (D-NC) as to what we do to assure that our efforts are sustainable, Guroff noted that building of local level cooperatives and associations that continue to function long after our departure is at the core of much of what we do.
Other witnesses at the hearing besides Guroff, Kunder and Callahan were Mike Yost, the administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service and representatives from Food for the Hungry, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Office of International Research, Education and Development at Virginia Tech, whose Program Director Dr. Theo Dillaha said positive things about his experience as an ACDI/VOCA volunteer.
Many witnesses emphasized the role of land-grant colleges as important development partners. But as to new technologies, Dr. Dillaha reminded the subcommittee that the Green Revolution only prevailed in areas where there was available water, fertilizer and infrastructure. He said that promising genetically modified organisms notwithstanding, there is “no silver bullet” to address today’s food crisis.
For more information on oral testimony delivered at the hearing (PDF, 69 KB) and full testimony submitted in writing to the subcommittee (PDF, 80 KB).