The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has announced a funding boost for food security programming and research as part of its new Food Security Strategy.
CIDA will focus its food security efforts on three priorities: sustainable agriculture development, food assistance and nutrition, and research and innovation, the federal aid agency said in a release.
Food self-sufficiency is “an essential base for all long-term development,” International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said in the release.
“The new Canadian International Food Security Research Fund demonstrates our commitment to achieving results by finding practical solutions to increase agricultural productivity, primarily aimed at smallholder farmers.’’
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This $62-million, five-year fund, a joint initiative between CIDA and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is meant to support research partnerships between Canadian and developing-country organizations.
The new fund’s research activities are to focus on applied research to address food insecurity and may include work on “crop resilience, the nutritional value of crops, and infectious diseases related to crops and animal production,” the government said.
The government also pledged to double its support to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to $75 million over three years.
As part of its priority on sustainable ag development, CIDA said it plans to double all related investments to $1.2 billion from 2007-08 levels over three years.
