2024 World Food Prize focuses on Africa

The 2024 Borlaug Dialogue took place in the heart of corn and soybean country this week, turning most of its attention to global food issues. The annual gathering was started to continue the work of Iowa native Norman Borlaug, the father of the green revolution.

Victor Oladokun, African Development Bank Group: “let us reflect on a major paradox of our time in the midst of extreme abundance. There is yet so little, particularly within the context of food. So as we come together with a single vision for a world where every person has access to one of the most basic needs of all-time food, let us keep this within context.”

The World Food Prize is considered by many to be the Nobel Peace Prize for agriculture. 

Africa was the center of two major panels as the future of the continent and its growing young population may soon pass 2.5 billion people.

Akinwumi Adesina, President African Development Group: “And, we will continue to bring leaders and we will continue, Ambassador Brandstad, that start to bring African leaders here every single year so that you can continue to hear from us what we are doing. And also, I want to have an echo chamber in heaven for Doctor Bourlaug to continue to hear that we are actually listening to what he said. And we are going to continue to make progress.”

Africa has been a source of partnerships - including for Tom Vilsack, who, when he was Iowa’s governor, made trips to Africa. Now, as head of USDA those missions are larger in scope. 

Sec. Tom Vilsack: “We are aggressively investing now, U.S. is in Africa. we've had trade missions, a number of trade missions, recently Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, we've had hundreds of, of participants in those trade agreements traveling from the United States, producer, producer groups, agribusiness, basically creating relationships and developing opportunities for investment, both in Africa and for purchasing, American products, in those, countries.” 

Vilsack says Africa provides a large number of opportunities for U.S. farmers.

Sec. Tom Vilsack: “One half of the increased population in the world over the course of the next, several decades, one half of it's going to come from the African continent. And it bodes well for us to understand each other, in order to help those countries, mature their economies, create middle classes, create farming and production agriculture that's capable of helping produce the food to feed their people. the ambassador is absolutely right about this, and it's very simple. If you look at all the hotspots in the world today, what you're going to find is they're hungry people. They're, And if you feed the people, there's a much greater chance you're going to have a more stable and peaceful place. and so I think it's important for us to, to really focus on, on that continent. I think there's tremendous opportunity there.”

When Dr. Borlaug initially started his trips to Africa, he felt the private sector needed to lead in this effort. The U.S. State Department also sees these partnerships as paramount for this form of agricultural diplomacy to be successful.

Anna Nelson, U.S. State Dept. Deputy Special Envoy: “You know, I think the public sector and the private sector can complement each other in such incredible ways. And when it works, it works beautifully. I think, R&D is is really an embodiment of that. there are so many places where, well chosen, targeted public investments in long term agricultural R&D have been able to galvanize work that maybe the private sector didn't have the appetite for early on.

Emily Dimiero, Dir. Federal Government Relations, Cargill: “It's really about you know how do we develop bio fortified crops that are delivering better results in terms of yields and incomes for farmers and better soil health for long term longevity of their farms, but also nutrition benefits to, you know, meet specific micronutrient needs in their specific countries to address the global problem that we have 2 billion people facing hidden hunger, which is micronutrient deficiency.”

The 2024 World Food Prize laureates, Dr. Geoffry Hawtin and Dr. Cary Fowler were also a part of several Borlaug sessions, both on stage and at press events. 

Dr. Cary Fowler, 2024 World Food Prize Laureate: “We are very concerned about food security and nutrition security and the connection between that and national security, not just US national security, but everybody's national security. There's historically been a connection between food insecurity and conflict around the world. And we know that, nutrition drives health outcomes and mental health outcomes, in many cases drive politics, drive migration, for example. So, we're concerned about trying to help countries develop more sustainable, productive agricultural systems that feed everyone all year round.” 

The week concluded with the World Food Prize award ceremony held inside Iowa’s state capitol building in Des Moines. 

Dr. Geoffry Hawtin, 2024 World Food Prize Laureate: “But there is still a long way to go. there's still a lot of material that needs to be conserved. svalbard is a seed vault. it conserves seeds, but large percentage of our crops cannot be conserved as seeds. we've got yams, we've got sweet potatoes, potatoes, bananas, some extremely important crops that you cannot conserve as seeds, we need to work towards a similar safety net for all the collections of these crops, as we have the seeds in Svalbard.

For Market to Market, I’m David Miller.