Global Agriculture and Food Security Program

We are excited about the news that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States, Canada and other countries have launched the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to help the world’s poorest farmers grow more food and earn more to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

As part of the worldwide effort to increase food security, Opportunity International is working with the Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation to roll out innovative, comprehensive financial services to more than 90,000 smallholder farmers living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunity’s strategy will go beyond simply providing agricultural credit and will create a model designed to increase the farmer’s chance for success while mitigating risk. As a key component, Opportunity will develop strategic partnerships with extension service providers to equip farmers with training and market linkages that can help to improve crop productivity and household income (learn more http://www.opportunity.org/Page.aspx?pid=975).

Read about the $900 Million commitment to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

If you would like to learn more about how Opportunity’s microfinance services are helping to reduce poverty and increase food security in the developing world, consider attending our Fall Microfinance Conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 8-9, 2010. One of the featured speakers will be Roger Thurow, author of Enough: Why the World’s Poor Starve in an Age of Plenty, and Senior Fellow on Global Agriculture and Food Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. His recent blog post, “All Efforts Great and Small,” discusses Opportunity’s agricultural finance program and its big impact on farmers in Africa. Read it here http://globalfoodforthought.typepad.com/global-food-for-thought/2010/03/roger-thurow-outrage-inspire-great-and-small.html.