West Africa to spend more on farming as food costs bite

Governments from around West Africa have agreed to increase spending on farming to try to make one of the world's poorest regions self-sufficient and avoid tens of millions of people going hungry.

The 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said trade, agriculture and finance ministers had agreed to invest $4 billion between now and 2010, mostly to help small family farmers who form the backbone of the rural economy.

After a meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Monday, the regional bloc said it would also provide $100 million a year to support agricultural productivity through its ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development.

"These measures ... will ultimately create food self-sufficiency and enable the region to eat what it produces and produce what it eats," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Basic food like rice and millet, the daily staple for families across West Africa, risks becoming unaffordable for many as a global surge in the cost of major cereals and oil continues to drive up prices at local markets.

The region needed $2 billion in immediate, emergency support for 44.4 million people considered to be living in abject poverty, ECOWAS said, and added that it would take the lead in mobilising international donors to help raise the sum.

Riots and protests have flared around the region, leaving governments scrambling to ease the financial burden on struggling populations by curbing food exports, easing taxes on imports and increasing subsidies for basic staples.