World Bank turns to farm aid to fight poverty

WASHINGTON (AFP) — World Bank policymakers meet here Sunday to anchor agriculture at the center of their agenda in a major shift aimed at lifting billions of people out of poverty.

The new bank president, Robert Zoellick, has pledged to boost the institution's lending to the farm sector after allowing it to decline in 1980s and 1990s.

Zoellick vows the bank will use an inclusive approach to fight poverty, hunger and disease, and this week unveiled a controversial proposal to allow private-sector business to help finance aid to poor countries.