Quality Protien Maize:
A buffer against famine

Famine has plagued humankind since long before our earliest historical records, decimating populations, collapsing dynasties and destroying countries. The 20th and 21st centuries have been no exception, and in the 1900s alone, an estimated 70 million people are estimated to have died as a result of famine. (Source: Institute of Development Studies)

Perhaps the most famous of these disasters in recent memory is the 1983-84 Ethiopian famine, caused in part by a drought that swept major portions of sub-Saharan Africa. It was in the midst of this tragedy that Ryoichi Sasakawa decided to bring the strength of The Nippon Foundation to bear, tackling not only hunger, but one of its most important roots--the production of the food itself. In keeping with the philosophy of the foundation, he sought a program that would not only be sustainable, but that would contain a strong educational component, encouraging people to strive for self-reliance.

Sasakawa first of all established the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), a body that over the next two decades would devote all of its energy to addressing the problem of hunger in Africa. In order to assure that the project would rest on a strong scientific base and be able to work effectively throughout the region, he contacted Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his leadership in Asia's Green Revolution, and Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Global 2000 organization had already built a strong organizational structure in the sub-Saharan region.

Working with these powerful partners, SAA then created Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000), a name that has since come to be known across the region for large harvests and groundbreakingly nutritious varieties of maize.