August 2012
Food and Agriculture Reducing hunger, improving nutrition ANNUAL STEWARDSHIP REPORT
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
Table of Contents 1
Introduction
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Global Food Security
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World Vision’s Response • Food Aid • Agriculture Development • Health and Nutrition
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Recent Accomplishments • Horn of Africa • West Africa • India
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You Are Making a Difference
© 2012 Wor ld V ision
At a clinic in Niger, mothers wait for their children to be weighed. Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, holds one of the many children from nearby villages who have gained weight thanks to the use of Plumpy’nut, a combination of peanuts, dried milk, and vitamins.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
Introduction Nearly one billion people in the world are undernourished, and lack enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Th rough generous donations like yours, World Vision is fighting hunger by providing therapeutic food to malnourished children and food aid to families. We also are helping communities produce sustainable food sources, so their children can enjoy a healthy future. Through food aid grants, your gift to combat the global food crisis is multiplying five times in impact to help children and families in East Africa, West Africa, and other food-scarce areas in Asia and the Caribbean. Thanks to gifts from partners like you, World Vision is working to ensure that families are nourished and achieve long-term food security. This report summarizes current global food security, the scope of our work to reduce hunger, and examples of recent achievements.
Global Food Security The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. —Proverbs 22:9 (NIV)
Food security is defined by the World Bank Hunger and Poverty report as “access by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life.” Consider the following food security statistics: • Every day, about 925 million people experience hunger (Food and Agriculture Organization-FAO, 2012). That’s more than the population of North and South America combined. • More than 90 percent of those who are chronically food insecure live in developing countries, and half of them are children (FAO, 2012). • Among children younger than 5 in the 50 least-developed countries, 1 in 4 are underweight (UNICEF, 2012). • Each year, 7.6 million children younger than 5 die, mostly from preventable causes (UNICEF, 2010). Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause about one-third of the deaths. Factors that contribute to food insecurity vary over time and by location. War, natural disasters, and other calamities such as drought and disease can lead to temporary food insecurity. Changes in food availability—price hikes, food shortages, and crop failure—can tip large parts of a population into a food insecure status. Evidence has shown that good nutrition, particularly for pregnant women, mothers, and their children until the age of 2 years, is vital to the long-term development and growth of the child. Programs that empower mothers to breastfeed their children and support caregivers to introduce timely and adequate complementary foods, coupled with good hygiene practices and adequate health service, can greatly help childhood development. Improving agricultural production through new farming techniques and improved food varieties can greatly enhance household income, allowing
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FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
the poor to purchase food when needed. Global trade in food commodities, market development, and linkage of small-scale farmers to markets also contribute to better food security.
World Vision’s Response World Vision strives to provide children and their families the means to fight hunger and to achieve food security. Through its agriculture and economic development, food security, and environmental projects, World Vision focuses on helping rural people increase productivity through improved seeds and agricultural practices, promoting innovative farming technologies, accessing markets to sell their surplus, improving nutrition and health, and managing natural resources in a sustainable manner.
Food Aid Food aid is defined as any food-supported intervention meant to improve food access through direct transfers of food assistance to those in need. World Vision helps hungry families worldwide through interventions as basic as establishing emergency feeding centers following a crisis. Young children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable populations, such as refugees and people affected by drought, are the primary focus of these programs. We often continue to provide supplemental food until the next successful harvest, responding to Christ’s call to feed the hungry and care for those in need (Matthew 25:35-40, NIV).
Agriculture Development To help hungry communities meet their food needs and live healthier lives, World Vision provides assistance that results in more abundant and nutritious harvests. We facilitate farmers’ access to seeds of high-yielding, locally adapted crop varieties, to improved breeds of livestock, and to improved farming tools and production technologies. We also help communities adopt better management practices such as improved crop rotations, more efficient irrigation systems, integrated pest and soil fertility management, more effective crop storage and processing methods, and enhanced soil and water conservation. World Vision also helps farmers better understand how markets work and links them to local, regional, and international markets to help increase their sales and incomes.
Health and Nutrition World Vision ensures the sustainability of its agricultural and food security interventions through training and education in health and nutrition. We train parents in the importance of feeding their children foods that contain adequate levels of protein and essential nutrients, such as vitamins A and C. Whenever possible, we teach parents how to prepare nutritious food using local ingredients for their children, and stress its importance for pregnant and nursing mothers.
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Recent Accomplishments Generous contributions such as yours have been matched with government grants and other sources to support food aid, agriculture development, and health and nutrition programs in the following areas: Afghanistan, Brazil, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Jerusalem, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Niger, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Horn of Africa A year after a food crisis in East African countries peaked and famine was declared in some parts of Somalia, the region remains in dire straits but meaningful progress has occurred. About 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia suffered from severe food shortages last year. Since July 2011, World Vision has assisted more than 1.5 million people in these countries through health, nutrition, water and sanitation, and food aid programs. We provided food aid to 900,000 people, improved water supplies to 500,000, and delivered health and nutrition aid to 400,000. We also treated almost 100,000 children for malnutrition. © 2011 Wor ld V ision
In areas such as Kenya’s Turkana district, some communities that have overcome drought not only have enough food for themselves, but are hosting people from other communities that have been suffering from drought. Presently, more than 9 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance. World Vision continues efforts to enhance long-term food security by improving access to water and introducing drought-resistant crops and rainwaterharvesting technologies.
© 2011 Wor ld V ision
Among those who have benefited from the assistance is Petros Mirkeno, a farmer in the village of Awaye in Ethiopia’s Kacha Birra district. Petros, whose subsistence farming feeds 12 children, was at a loss after a drought forced him to sell his livestock and start feeding his family the seeds he would normally use to grow the next round of crops. When rain finally returned, he had no seeds, and could not afford to purchase them. In the top photo, Petros Mirkeno harvests corn with one of his daughters. Below, he enjoys some roasted corn with his family.
In response, World Vision provided Petros and other farmers in the district with corn seed and cuttings to start sweet potatoes. The farmers were then able to reap a bountiful harvest. “My worry of what to feed my children has gone,” Petros said. “I am now happy for the corn is ready for eating. My children and I are feeding on the corn, roasting and boiling it.”
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FOOD AND AGRICULTURE Diango Diabite (below, right) and her granddaughter Djeneba tend their plot in a community garden established by World Vision in Nonsombougou, Mali. They and other gardeners draw water from a solar-powered well and water tower.
West Africa Across West Africa’s Sahel region, drought and failed crops have put more than 18 million people at risk of hunger. In addition, recent conflicts, the return of migrant workers, and a flow of refugees from Mali into Niger have further strained an already stressed food supply. The net result is that at least 10 million people presently are facing food shortages, and 1 million children are at risk of severe malnutrition. With support from you and others, World Vision is providing more than 1 million people immediate assistance to reduce hunger, as well as long-term support to become more resilient in future droughts. We are helping communities in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal with a response that includes: • Facilitating nutrition programs for children • Distributing food • Vaccinating livestock • Providing seeds • Drilling additional wells • Educating parents to help them keep their children healthy • Restocking cereal banks
© 2012 Wor ld V ision
• Providing additional livestock Rainfall finally arrived this summer, and harvests are expected in October. But even with a good harvest, it will take time for families to recover. That’s why World Vision’s response includes helping farming families learn techniques and skills needed to grow crops that can survive dry climates and improve crop yields. Among those benefiting are people like Diango Diabite (shown above, at right), who lives in Nonsombougou, Mali. She and her husband care for five children. Earlier this year, the family was facing a failed millet harvest due to poor rainfall. However, with support from World Vision, Diango now maintains part of a community garden irrigated by well water, and the family has a stable food supply.
© 2012 Wor ld V ision
World Vision installed a solar-powered well and a water tower (shown below), and taught Diango and other women how to grow vegetables. In her 140-square-foot plot at the garden, Diango grows potatoes, okra, onions, cabbage, and green peppers. Previously she cut trees to sell as firewood, and relied on rain for her crops. Diango’s family now enjoys a more diverse diet and increased income from the sale of surplus produce. She is able to purchase additional food and medicine as needed, and school supplies for her children. “I am very thankful to World Vision,” Diango said. “Growing vegetables has changed my life.”
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India
Savanparsouda, a farmer in the Yavatmal district, is grateful for World Vision’s assistance in repairing a dam, which has improved the local water supply.
In the Vidarbha region of India, an agrarian crisis in the cotton-growing Yavatmal district has precipitated an unusual spate of suicides among farmers. Contributing factors include droughts, pest infestations, expensive supplies, a lack of agriculture services, and predatory lenders. The abnormally high suicide rate is an expression of utter hopelessness among farmers, and represents a desperate effort to help their families escape the burden of accumulated debt through their deaths. With support from you and others, World Vision has helped turn this situation around. Since 2007, the Vidarbha Farmers’ Livelihood project has provided agricultural training and support to thousands of farmers, who have improved their productivity and income. During this time, no farmer suicides have occurred in the project area.
© 2012 Wor ld V ision
In 2012, the project has focused on promoting water resource conservation and management, and increasing groundwater tables. World Vision’s goal in this latest phase is to integrate watershed management practices and improved farming methods to help 8,300 people in 15 villages diversify their crops and increase yields. To help Vidarbha farmers access clean drinking water and irrigate their crops, World Vision builds or repairs dams in streams near many villages in the area. Savanparsouda (above, at left), a farmer in the village of Vagapur, benefits from a dam World Vision recently repaired. The dam was built by the government, but it did not hold back the water.
© 2012 Wor ld V ision
“This has benefited us greatly, because we now have water for irrigation even during summer, and the water table in this area has risen,” Savanparsouda said. “If you look at any of the wells, you can see water just 10 feet below ground level. We now have sufficient water for agriculture and clean water to drink.” Along with improved farming methods, watershed management is making a difference. Children and families enjoy improved nutrition and income, and greater stability.
You Are Making a Difference Thank you for supporting food and agriculture programs, and helping save and improve the lives of children and families around the world. For more information about World Vision's food and agriculture programs and the impact of your giving, please contact your World Vision representative. May God richly bless you.
P.O. Box 9716 Federal Way, WA 98063-9716 worldvision.org
INT12F&AREP_Mid_8.31.12 © 2012 World Vision, Inc.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.
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