When Tanzanian farmer and entrepreneur Prakseda Melkior was in just the third grade, she sold a head of spinach that she had grown in her backyard - and decided that she wanted to make a career out of producing food.
After studying agriculture at university, she went on to start her own farm, cultivating tomatoes, peppers, and bananas. But the usual method of watering crops using an old pumping water generator powered by diesel fuel was cutting into her profits, costing her the equivalent of thousands of U.S. dollars per year in fuel costs. Fortunately, a local USAID program was offering training to farmers in Melkior's area in innovative farming techniques and irrigation methods. She used those techniques to water and grow her crops more efficiently, and went on to help train other farmers in the same methods. She also championed an idea for the U.S. government's Feed the Future initiative to support farmers in installing solar-powered irrigation systems. When Melkior's own solar system is completed, it will slash her irrigation costs by 70 percent and allow her to keep expanding her farm. "We'll be harnessing the power of the sun to irrigate our crops," she said. "It is a game-changer, allowing us to grow more, serve more customers and create more jobs in our community."
Helping farmers like Melkior grow more food is particularly important today, as we mark World Food Day amid a historic number of food crises. More than 175 million people globally face life-threatening food insecurity, fueled by conflicts and climate-driven disasters including the recent historic floods in West Africa and El Niño-induced drought across southern Africa. As the world's largest donor of emergency food assistance, USAID provided more than $5 billion in food security assistance to 134 million people in 61 countries in 2023 - including surging emergency food items to civilians in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, Sudan, and South Sudan.
On World Food Day, it is also important to underscore that our ambition is not just to respond to hunger crises, but to strengthen food systems so we can help prevent many of these crises altogether. As part of this goal, I announced last month the launch of the "Feed the Future Accelerator," an effort to deepen our partnerships with Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia - three countries with both high need for investment in their food systems and high potential for their agricultural sectors to drive long-term, regional reductions in poverty, malnutrition, and hunger. In these countries, we are aligning resources from across the U.S. government, NGOs, foreign governments, and the private sector to advance their progress at becoming agricultural breadbaskets that not only feed hungry people within their borders, but also help to stabilize the food supply across the African continent.
As we commemorate this year's World Food Day, USAID is committed to taking action to address hunger crises and build a future where everyone has sufficient, nourishing, and safe food.
