The Irish Government, through its Irish Aid programme, is providing some €640,000 in research funding to IITA this year to help advance the institute’s work of fighting hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The funding is part of a bigger €4.4 million package to the CGIAR, which is a “central component” of Irish Aid’s response to the growing global food crisis, according to Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power.
Seven other international agricultural research centers are set to receive funding from the support package, including Bioversity International, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the World Potato Centre (CIP).
According to Mr. Power “more than 850 million people across the world today are hungry, while high food prices risk pushing an additional 100 million people over the edge into hunger and poverty."
"Top quality agricultural research plays a crucial role in improving the performance and sustainability of agriculture. It will also help the poorest and most vulnerable farmers cope with the effects of climate change.”
This year alone, Ireland has provided more than €20 million in support of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). This includes €3 million to help mitigate the effects of price rises on the WFP’s existing food relief programmes.