FAO Special Programme for Food Security. (Focus).

In 1994, the FAO Director-General initiated a review of the Organizations priorities, programmes and strategies, which concluded that improving food security should be reaffirmed as its top priority, and the urgent need for its programmes to focus more sharply on increasing food production, improving stability of supplies and generating rural employment, thus contributing to more accessible supplies. The Director-General also proposed that FAO should launch a Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), focused on the 86 Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)--countries least able to meet their food needs with imports. This approach was endorsed by the 1996 World Food Summit, with a Plan of Action in the following areas: ensuring enabling conditions; improving access to food; producing food; increasing the role of trade; dealing adequately with disaster; and investing in food security.

SPFS commenced its operations in late 1994. A budget of $10 million was provided for the 1996/1997, 1998/1999, and 2000/2001 bienniums. Its main objective is to help LIFDCs to improve food security at the national and household levels, through rapid increases in food production and productivity, by reducing year-to-year variability in production on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis and by improving people's access to food. The underlying assumption is that in most LIFDCs viable and sustainable means of increasing food availability exist but are not realized because of a range of constraints that prevent farmers from responding to needs and opportunities. By working with farmers and other stakeholders to identify and resolve such constraints, whether they are of a technical, economic, social, institutional or policy nature, and to demonstrate ways of increasing production, SPFS should open the way for improved productivity and broader food access. Its formulation is a national responsibilit y, supported as necessary by FAO, and usually carried out by a team of government staff or national consultants, guided by a Steering Committee, bringing together representatives of the public and private sectors, farmers' organizations and in some countries NGOs active in the rural sector.

The South-South Cooperation Scheme under SPFS strengthens cooperation among developing countries at different stages of development, with the support of interested donor countries and FAO. It allows countries to benefit from the experience and expertise of more advanced developing countries, who provide a considerable number of experts for two to three years to work in the recipient countries, directly with farmers in rural communities involved in SPFS. FAO launched the South-South Cooperation Scheme at the beginning of 1997. In addition, arrangements to support SPFS have been made under the programme for technical cooperation between developing countries (TCDC).

SPFS is also a vehicle for collaboration between FAO and its development partners. When FAO receives a request from a member country for the initiation of the Special Programme, the organization initiates discussions with interested development partners--bilateral and multilateral--as well as with NGOs and the private sector, through its representation offices at the country level. Where concrete agreements are reached, joint missions are organized at the formulation stage, as well as during the implementation process, to monitor progress and ensure the achievement of the Programmes objectives.

SPFS: Structure and Dimensions

In June 2001, SPFS was operational in 64 countries covering more than two thirds of the countries listed as LIFDC. The regional division is as follows: Africa, 38 (LIFDC coverage, 86%); Asia, 14 (58%); Europe, 2 (67%); Latin America, 8 (86%); and Oceania, 2 (33%). SPFS is in various stages of formulation in another 17 countries. Besides LIFDCs, more and more developing countries are coming forward to implement SPFS and managing to find resources to do so--examples are Zimbabwe, Uganda, Peru and South Africa.

One of the distinguishing features of SPFS is that it aims to link practical demonstration work conducted by A farmers with changes in the institutional and policy environment 5 that address constraints to the wider replication of successful innovations.

For this reason, institutional arrangements have to be made at the local level to ensure a high degree of farmer participation, and at the national level to bring people who are influential in the processes of policy and institutional change together. There is also a clear need for strong and competent technical leadership. How these requirements can best be met will depend on country circumstances.

In some cases, where there is already a large degree of decentralization, mechanisms may already exist that provide for adequate farmer participation in the design and management of local-level programmes. Some countries also have high-level National Food Security Commissions, chaired by the President or Prime Minister. Others are in the process of setting up such bodies as part of their commitment to the World Food Summit's Plan of Action. In such cases, options for building SPFS management into existing structures warrant careful examination. Elsewhere, it may be advantageous to create an entirely new institutional framework for SPFS management and oversight.

This could consist of:

1. An inter-ministerial policy committee: Chaired by a Head of Government, with the participation of the ministers for agriculture, livestock, water resources, forestry, fisheries, planning and finance and other ministers involved in food security matters. It would provide policy guidance, ensure necessary intra- and inter-sectoral coordination between institutions, programmes and projects operating at national level, including external assistance on food security/rural development/poverty alleviation related matters, monitors the implementation of the SPFS National Action Plan and would act upon the policy-related feedback from the pilot activities.

2. An inter-ministerial technical committee: Consisting of directors of agriculture, fisheries, livestock, forestry, planning, agricultural research, etc., providing technical leadership and ensuring integration and coordination of SPFS with other national programmes and activities undertaken by donors, NGOs and the private sector.

3. An interdepartmental regional committee, preferably chaired by the head of the region or district, consisting of representatives of local government institutions, agricultural services, health officials, the private sector, NGOs, women's and farmers organizations, etc., providing guidance and supervision to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the programme, and ensuring its integration with other relevant regional/district activities.

4. Local implementation committee, established at every SPFS site, consisting of technicians dealing with the four components of the Programme: water control, crop intensification, diversification into short-cycle animals and constraints analysis, as appropriate. It would ensure implementation of SPFS at site level in accordance with the work plan.

Most participating countries have appointed a national project coordinator for SPFS responsible for both formulation and implementation of the Special Programme.

Farmers in Baimamiao village in the Sichuan Province of China have increased the yields of their four major crops by as much as nearly 70 per cent since 1992, thanks to work carried out under SPFS. Sweet potato yields showed the sharpest increase, jumping from an average of 2,085 kilogrammes per hectare in 1992-1994 to 3,540 kilogrammes per hectare in 1997. Yields for maize, wheat and rice also improved, with increases of 43 percent, 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively. In the past, Baimamiao village was a low-income food-deficit area, where poor soils, inadequate and ageing irrigation systems, and the lack of modern agricultural inputs and practices kept crop production and farmers' incomes low.

Local government, with the support of SPFS, decided to focus on water management and soil improvement to help farmers increase their production and incomes. After three years, farmers and SPFS staff can see the results of their work. Arable land from the valley floor to the hilltop has been rehabilitated. Dryland has been converted into paddy, and existing paddy land has been reshaped and the soil deepened. The infertile thin soils on the hillside have been converted into terracing. Old irrigation facilities have been repaired and new irrigation and drainage channels have been built.

Mountain ponds have been rehabilitated to increase water storage capacities. Trees have been planted on hilltops. The work on water control and irrigation has had a particularly beneficial effect, reducing vulnerability to drought, wastage of water, waterlogging of land and soil erosion. In a recent report from SPFS staff in the area, farmers were quoted as saying: "No more worry about drought and waterlogging after building irrigation and drainage ditches in field. Because water storage ponds are built in upland area, water can be stored for emergency use. It is really easy to grow crops now!"

But the improvements did not stop there. Better soil conditions and water management were the foundation for improved farming practices, using improved seed varieties and modern crop production techniques, which include raising seedlings and then transplanting them into the fields, using plastic sheet covers, fertilization with a combination of organic manures and chemical fertilizers, and concerted prevention and control of pests and diseases. Annual per capita farmers income has more than doubled since improvement work began in 1994, jumping from an average of 667 Yuan in the period 1992-1994 to 1,277 Yuan in 1997.

At the heart of the FAO South-South cooperation initiative is exchange of knowledge and experience between developing countries. In this scheme, more advanced developing nations send experts and technicians to work directly with their counterparts and farmers in other developing countries. An example is the South-South cooperation agreement between Egypt and the United Republic of Tanzania. Egypt's longstanding expertise in irrigated agriculture can be particularly useful to Tanzania. Most of the land under cultivation there is rainfed, leaving farmers at the mercy of weather patterns and conditions. The first group of twelve Egyptian experts and technicians are in Tanzania working side by side with local farmers on irrigation, plant nutrition and soil fertility, marketing, cooperatives, rural credit and finance, seed production, agricultural engineering, and animal and crop production.

The key to the success of SPFS in Tanzania has been the active participation by stakeholders at every stage. Using participatory techniques such as Participatory Rural Appraisal, various stakeholders--farmers groups, input suppliers, credit institutions, research and extension officers, policy makers and authorities at the regional and district levels--were consulted first to identify and then, at a later stage, estimate aspects of Phase I applications, such as increased production, expertise and human requirements, and collection of information. Community involvement was such that 78 participatory farmers' groups were formed in Dodoma and Morogoro, pooling the resources of 1,116 men and women in common bank accounts and saving and credit associations (SACAs). Backed by these savings accounts, farmers and women in particular improve their negotiating position towards input suppliers and traders in transport, marketing and temporary credit for inputs, in procuring timely tractor hiring services and marketing p roduce. Rice production has increased in areas with SACAs, since the farmers have had greater access to inputs. In Kilombero district, for instance, inputs bought by a group of women farmers raised production from 17 bags of paddy per acre to as much as 35 to 40 bags. The Government plans to extend SPFS to all areas of the country as a national special programme. This poses a challenge, and the arrival of experts from Egypt will provide valuable support.

A number of bilateral and multilateral donors are supporting pilot phase activities in countries where SPFS is already under way, as well as the formulation of the programme in newly participating countries. The donors include Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Libya and the United Nations Development Programme. Several financial institutions have shown an interest in collaborating in the implementation of SPFS. The FAO Director-General signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with the World Bank on 13 January 1997 and with the African Development Bank on 20 January 1997 for the promotion of rural development and food security. Both banks agreed to consider providing loan funding of up to $1.5 million for the pilot activities of SPFS in Africa, subject to requests from the Governments concerned. Working with the Government of Burkina Faso, a joint FAO/World Bank mission has identified a project for the promotion of private irrigation development, which builds heavily on SPFS experience in demonstrating improved irrigated crop production systems. Negotiations are under way in a number of countries to implement these agreements. Collaboration is also expected with the Islamic Development Bank, with whom the Director-General signed an MOU on 21 June 1997. The Bank has shown interest in supporting SPFS in its least developed member countries.

The MOUs with the three banks stipulate that the collaborative activities will be in the context of SPFS and in the fields of low-cost, small-scale water control and improved land management, soil fertility enhancement, crop intensification, and diversification. The MOUs with the World Bank and the African Development Bank also include collaboration on the analysis of policy constraints and capacity-building in policy analysis and programme lending. Joint work in these areas of strong mutual interest is intended to contribute to the three banks future investment pipeline for agriculture and rural development, especially in the area of food security, leading to support for an expanded SPFS. Annual review meetings will be held by the concerned parties. In addition to this, Union Economique et Monetaire Guestafricaine, the Asian Development Bank, the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are also collaborating with FAO.