Monsanto ~ Corporate Responsibility

Corporate Responsibility

Poverty Alleviation / Food Self-sufficiency

Hunger, poverty and food insecurity have been linked to low agricultural productivity of subsistence farmers around the world. We, at Monsanto, are in a unique position to help growers increase food production with modern agricultural tools. We are working to deliver the benefits of these tools to Africa, a continent that faces many challenges but which has great potential to reduce poverty and become self-sufficient in agriculture.

Hope Lives on an African Farm
Millions of subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa invest their time and labor tilling their small fields, planting poor-quality seeds, and hand-hoeing weeds in hope of harvesting enough food to survive. Drought and lack of good agricultural products often thwart their efforts. The average maize yield for a farmer in sub-Saharan Africa is one tenth of that realized by farmers in the United States and Europe. Low yields and small farms result in a "hunger season" of several months before each new harvest.

With nothing to invest and no surplus to sell, farmers are trapped in a poverty cycle. They lack the means to purchase high-quality inputs that could make their farms more productive. Up to 70 percent of the poor people in Africa are farmers, so low agricultural productivity is a major contributor to poverty on the continent.¹

Agriculture is a wealth-creating investment that can help break the poverty trap. Last year the Monsanto Fund donated $1 million to the World Food Program for drought-relief food aid in Malawi, a small inland country in sub-Saharan Africa. The actual cost to purchase and deliver a ton of maize to feed a family of six for a year was $400.² This year Monsanto donated quality hybrid maize seed to farmers in Malawi. The cost to grow a ton of maize was $40: $7.50 for quality seed and $32.50 for fertilizer.² This comparison — spending $400 versus spending $40 — builds a compelling case for investment in agricultural productivity.

"Helping farmers grow better crops feeds more than just their stomachs. It feeds their dignity, their sense of pride and their hope for the future," said Robert B. Horsch, Monsanto Vice President, International Partnerships. "As a leading provider of agricultural tools, we at Monsanto have an opportunity to help people help themselves to make an impact on hunger and poverty in Africa."

Monsanto's Vision
Our vision is to enable access to improved agricultural tools to farmers who cannot currently obtain them through commercial channels. Some of these tools already exist — such as quality conventional hybrid maize seed and seeds with biotechnology traits like insect resistance. These tools can have a real, immediate impact, but many farmers in Africa cannot access them due to lack of information and the necessary regulatory and
commercial infrastructure.

An important future agricultural tool currently under development is drought-tolerant (DT) maize. Drought is a leading cause of hunger in Africa. Monsanto's development of DT maize will generate significant benefits for growers, including smallholders in developing countries who have the choice to buy our products. Given our history of sharing and the food security potential of this technology, we believe that it is critical to provide this technology to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa who cannot access it through commercial markets.

We cannot reach those farmers even on a humanitarian basis, however, without major changes in the conditions and policies in sub-Saharan Africa. Unless steps are taken now to establish functional regulatory capacity and seed delivery systems, it is unlikely that these farmers will be able to benefit from DT technology without another decade or more of sequential efforts after the U.S. commercial launch.

Monsanto initiated a broad stakeholder dialogue to gain guidance about how to overcome these challenges. We consulted many organizations involved in development and poverty alleviation including non-governmental groups, research institutes, foundations and private companies. We also consulted extensively with our Biotechnology Advisory Council (see page 40).

In 2005 we joined the Clinton Global Initiative led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and laid out a plan for a new public-private partnership for African agricultural development to reduce hunger and poverty and build capacity for sustainable economic growth. The plan has three phases:

PHASE I: Improved access to quality hybrid maize seeds to help farmers in Africa achieve current standards of ag productivity and sustainability. The United Nations Millennium Project task force on hunger recommended access to quality seeds as a key area for improvement.

PHASE II: Improved access to existing biotechnology traits, such as insect protected corn and cotton, in which the plants protect themselves from the pests. These products have been used by millions of farmers around the world for over a decade and have brought significant benefits to smallholders farmers in Asia and South Africa.

PHASE III: Help sub-Saharan countries prepare to be able to use drought tolerance technology — in parallel with the U.S. We believe that drought tolerance will have a particularly important role to play in food security.

Within one year, the project has matured from an idea that generates great enthusiasm to a multitiered plan that generates action. "Our vision is to make available quality drought-tolerant white maize seed without royalty to smallholder farmers in Kenya and Malawi within three years of the U.S. launch. Our three-part plan and multiple partners will help lay the foundation for DT maize and enable the policy changes necessary to make this vision a reality," said Natalie DiNicola, Monsanto director of International Partnerships.

It All Starts With Better Seed
The first step is to deliver high quality hybrid maize seeds to resource-poor farmers. In December 2005, Monsanto donated 700 metric tons of conventional quality hybrid maize seed to 140,000 resource-poor farmers in Malawi in response to the severe drought. The Malawian government provided the fertilizer. Distribution was handled by the government and several nongovernmental organizations. The harvest exceeded five tons per hectare, significantly greater than the three-quarters to one ton typically harvested by those farmers. Collectively, the harvest from the quality hybrid maize seed yielded enough to feed a million people for one year.³

In addition, Monsanto became a founding member of the Millennium Promise, a nonprofit organization created by Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., special advisor to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, to improve the lives of the poorest farmers in about 100 "Millennium Villages."

We donated 120 metric tons of seed to the Millennium Villages in Malawi for immediate planting by more than 12,000 farmers. The Millennium Village program secured funding for fertilizer and provided training in best farming practices. Going forward, Monsanto has pledged 240 tons of quality hybrid maize seed to fulfill the needs of 24,000 smallholder households, or 120,000 people, each year for four more years. The total donation is valued at $1.5 million.

Beyond Hybrids
For Africa to keep pace with improved-trait crops in the next decade, countries need to build biosafety laws, research capacity to authorize field trials, and training for farmers in best management and stewardship practices.

Field trials are currently taking place in a number of African nations. "There is still some fear of the unknown where misinformation about biotech crops exists," said Kinyua M'Mbijjewe, Monsanto's African public and government affairs lead. "But the more farmers see what the tools of modern agriculture can do for them, their families, their communities, and their country, the more they want them."

Monsanto is just one player among many whose contributions and talents will be needed. But as we create synergy out of the pieces that each party brings to the table, we help Africa toward its goal of food self-sufficiency and poverty alleviation.

Wilkinson, J. (2002, September). Statement of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers. Presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Friends of the World Food Program. (2005, August 26). Monsanto Fund donates US$1 million to support WFP operations in Malawi [News release].
Corey, C. (2005, December 28). U.S. company donates maize seed to farmers in Malawi: Monsanto's contribution expected to feed more than 1 million people. U.S. State Department. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.