An SG 2000 field at harvest time

Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, has pointed to lack of infrastructure as one of the key problems facing Africa's farmers, preventing the kind of "green revolution" that took place in Asia. Speaking to African leaders in the plenary session on private public partnership (29 May) at the Fourth Tokyo Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), he said that "even if farmers increase their harvest, there are no markets where they can sell their produce. Or where markets exist, the farmers lack access to them."

As a result, he said, "they cannot convert the increased harvest into income, so their quality of life does not improve."

"This is one of the biggest differences between Africa and Asia," he added.

Mr. Sasakawa said that "addressing this problem requires an alliance of all stakeholders to include agricultural policy, infrastructure building and market development."

"The time has come to act. Together we can form an alliance to end poverty in Africa." He stressed that The Nippon Foundation "stands ready to play its part."

Produce from an SG 2000 field

Mr. Sasakawa, who is WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, said he had seen "how effective such an alliance can be in the elimination of leprosy. In just over two decades, the disease has gone from being a public health problem in 122 countries to just two countries today."

He concluded by highlighting the urgent problem of the soaring price of fertilizer "which has serious consequences for Africa's farmers." He called for this issue to be taken up by the G8 Summit in Japan later this year. He pledged to work with Africa's leaders "to improve the lives of farmers, which is the key to solving poverty in Africa."

Over the past 22 years, The Nippon Foundation has funded the Sasakawa-Global 2000 (SG2000) programme which has worked with small-scale farmers in 14 African countries to increase and diversify their food crops and improve rural livelihoods. The programme was launched in 1986, in co-operation with former US President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Norman Borlaug, father of the "green revolution" in India and Pakistan.

To strengthen the capacity of agricultural extension services, The Nippon Foundation has funded education programmes for mid-career extensionists at 13 universities and colleges in nine African countries. To date nearly 2,300 extensionists have graduated, or are currently benefiting from the programme.

The Nippon Foundation has invested over US $180 million in these programmes.

An SG 2000 Test plot

Notes to Editors

Yohei Sasakawa is Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, a private, non-profit foundation established in 1962 for the purpose of carrying out philanthropic activities, using revenue from motorboat racing.

Sasakawa joined the Foundation as a trustee in 1981, served as president from 1989 and became chairman on 1 July 2005. The Foundation's overall objectives include assistance for humanitarian activities, both at home and abroad, and global maritime development. Its philanthropic ideals embrace social development and self-sufficiency, and it pursues these principles by working to improve public health and education, alleviate poverty, eliminate hunger and help the disabled.