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West Africa needs 6 billion dollars for food crisis

West African ministers of trade, agriculture and finance on Monday in Abuja declared that six billion dollars was needed to implement emergency intervention measures to mitigate food crisis in the sub-region.

In a communique delivered at the end of a conference on the food crisis, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that two billion dollars was needed to provide food and nutritional support for the 44.4 million West Africans living in abject poverty.

Four billion dollars would be needed in emergency support to boost food production in the region within the next two years, mostly to provide input to small family farms.

"The money is expected to come from donors, the ECOWAS Commission and countries' funds," the ministers said.

The regional grouping also recommended that the mobilization of the international community to provide emergency budgetary support to mitigate the effects of spiralling cost of food items on the public finances of member-states who have had to divert desperately needed resources for the importation of food.

In addition the group recommended the removal of restrictive measures that frustrated intra-community trading in agricultural produce within the next two years.

As part of measures to promote long-term food security, member- states should improve their budgetary allocation to agriculture, invest more in agricultural research and devote greater resources to infrastructural development that would contribute to agricultural productivity.

Earlier Monday, ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas told the conference that rising food prices could undermine the stability and economic growth of West Africa, and called for urgent action.

"Our people must be able to feed themselves before they can contribute to economic development," he said.

Soaring prices for staples, driven by a global increase in the cost of oil and cereals, have sparked protests and riots in many West African nations, such as Burkina Faso and Senegal.

Chambas said the region needed to place greater emphasis on the agricultural sector to mitigate possible famine.

Dr Shamsudeen Usman, Nigeria's Minister of Finance, told the meeting that Nigeria alone would spend 670 million dollars on local food production and processing, dpa reported.