Global response to soaring food prices: Generosity is just a start

In Zambia – where more than half the population is undernourished, and 1.2 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity – farmers already produce more than 80% of the country’s food needs.

But Zambian and international agricultural and food-production experts are convinced that with the right seeds, better technology, improved storage and delivery infrastructure, and stronger climate resilience, the farmers can do much more.

That means not only meeting more of the central African country’s domestic food requirements. It means encouraging what experts say is its potential to become a regional food powerhouse that can help meet more of the food shortfalls in neighboring countries.

Diversifying the world’s exportable food production beyond a few giant producers, and assisting farmers in ramping up production to meet more of their countries’ domestic needs, have gained new urgency