German ministers have called for new partnerships between policymakers, the business community, academia, and civil society to meet the challenges of rural development and global food security together. To this end, the German Government will commit 700 million Euro annually. A new public-private partnership in Ethiopia is an example of one such project being implemented under this new strategy.

More than 900 million people worldwide are suffering from hunger. Three quarters of them live where food is produced – in rural areas. Some 300 experts from the political arena, the private sector, academia, and civil society met in Berlin on November 10 and 11 at the invitation of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in order to jointly develop new ideas and forge new alliances to address development in rural regions.

German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner and German Development Minister Dirk Niebel presented a new strategy on rural development at the conference, which is intended to help make better use of rural areas' potential. In the period of 2010 to 2012, the German Government will be making available an annual 700 million Euro for rural development, agriculture, and food security.
Enlarge image Dirk Niebel, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (© REGIERUNGonline/Chaperon) Minister Dirk Niebel stated: "You cannot fight global hunger without rural development. Developing countries' agricultural sectors in particular offer enormous potential for development which we need to tap and expand.” He called on partner countries to do everything they can to include the population in the development process, noting that good and transparent governance was crucial for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

"The central challenge in developing countries is to move toward a profitable, socially and ecologically sustainable rural agriculture sector. Countries' capacity for self-sufficiency must be enhanced," noted Niebel. He pointed out that this would afford protection from price volatility and the uncertainties of international agricultural markets.

Minister Ilse Aigner added, "What is crucial is locally appropriate innovation that is owned by local institutions. We also need more investment in infrastructure, technology and know-how in rural areas and an expansion of international agricultural research.". Aigner noted that the Development Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry were making good progress on harmonising their activities in relation to agricultural research.

They mentioned one example of a new partnership: a planned cooperative endeavour in Ethiopia involving the Development Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, and the Association for the Promotion of Private Plant Breeding in Germany. The purpose of this public-private partnership is the further development of food crops such as wheat and barley on the basis of genetic material from Ethiopia and Germany. This is intended to make a significant contribution to improving the food situation in Ethiopia.

The German involvement is set to last about 15 years, whereby the creation of sustainable structures should be ensured. As part of the project, future expansion to include strategically important crop species (e.g. sorghum) will be examined and set as a target. Through the strengthening of networking with similar projects in the East Africa region, it is intended that this approach will also be applied in other countries.

The private sector seeks to construct long-term cooperation with Ethiopia for research purposes. This cooperation should carry on afterwards, irrespective of whether the project still receives support from public funds.

For more information about Germany's efforts to promote rural development

Sustainable Rural Development Ethiopia: project description [pdf, 24,83k]