FAO, Libya sign agriculture projects agreement

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 $21 million, FAO reported on Friday. Under FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), Libya is to provide $9.3 million 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, FAO said. Projects in Burkina Faso and Mali would each receive $2 million, the project in Sudan $1.9 million and Niger and Chad each $1.7 million for their projects. These countries suffer periodic food shortages, mainly due to erratic rainfall patterns in the Sahel region. Mohamed Al-Madani Al-Azhari, Secretary General of CEN-SAD and the director of the Seeds Center signed the agreements at the Secretariat of CEN-SAD in Tripoli on behalf of the government of Libya and Henri Carsalade, assistant director-general of the Technical Cooperation department signed for FAO.