G8 Pledges $20B for Farmers in Poor Countries

In pushing for funds, Obama cites father's experience
G8 Pledges $20B for Farmers in Poor Countries
U.S. President Barack Obama, front left, greets Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, left, and Nigeria's President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua during a group photo at the G8 summit.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

On the last day of a G8 summit stymied on climate change and trade, leaders have pledged $20 billion to farms in poor countries in the fight hunger, Reuters reports. Some $3.5 billion will come from the US, which wants to focus on farm aid instead of food aid. “There is no reason Africa should not be self-sufficient when it comes to food,” said President Obama.

In his call for the funds, Obama invoked his father, the AP reports. “The telling point is when my father traveled to the United States from Kenya to study,” he said. “The per capita income of Kenya was higher than South Korea's." Today, South Korea has industrialized and is holding its own, while his relatives live in Kenyan villages "where hunger is real."
(More President Obama stories.)

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