Gates Foundation to Boost Farm Aid 50% as Food Crisis Deepens (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg quotes CGD vice president for programs and operations and senior fellow Ruth Levine and CGD non-resident fellow Peter Timmer on the global food crisis.
From the article:
"The proportion of global development aid devoted to agriculture is 4 percent, according to figures from the World Bank. The share of World Bank financing devoted to farming dropped to 12 percent in 2007, from 30 percent in 1980.
'The strength of the foundation is that because it is not constrained by politics, it can afford to take a longer view on food supply,' said Ruth Levine, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, an aid research group in Washington. 'They are working on research and activities that have been very under-funded' by other groups, she said.....
Last year the World Bank devoted $3 billion to agriculture projects.
'The sums of money might be small compared to the World Bank but they get a very big bang for their buck because they are focusing on long neglected areas,' Peter Timmer, a visiting professor at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment. 'They have chosen a perfect time to focus on this area.'"