FAO backs new food security programme

The UN Food And Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has provided some US $380,000 for a programme aimed at boosting food security in member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA - French acronym) through small scale irrigation. FAO and UEMOA officials signed an agreement on Friday in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, to enable the programme to begin. "FAO is ready to assist UEMOA countries in their search for solutions to food insecurity problems," Marie Noel Koyara, FAO representative in Burkina Faso, said. UEMOA Commissioner Younoussi Toure said the programme "directly targets farmers in the UEMOA member states to enable them to harness water through small-scale irrigation to increase their productivity". FAO had earlier given US $1,110,000 for the preparation of the food security programme. The programme, which also includes the commercialisation of products within UEMOA countries at a cost of US $83 million, was adopted in August 1999 by heads of states of the member states. UMOEA itself has thus far committed US $4 million to the programme. The members of the Ouagadougou-based regional organisation, which was set up in 1994, are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.