The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and

  • Libya have signed an agreement to finance agricultural projects and improve food security in several countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger. The beneficiaries also include Sudan.

 

The agreements total more than US$21mn. Under the FAO’s Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), Libya is to provide US$9.3mn to advance agricultural production and enhance food security, and alleviate hunger and poverty in the five countries, all of which belong to the 16-member Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD).

The SPFS programme operates in 74 countries to ensure access to adequate food and help poor farm communities increase food production and productivity.

Projects in Burkina Faso and Mali would each receive US$2mn, the project in Sudan US$1.9mn and Niger and Chad each US$1.7mn for their projects. These countries suffer periodic food shortages, mainly due to erratic rainfall patterns in the Sahel region.