MANILA, Jan 6: International agriculture researchers and donors announced a plan on Tuesday to substantially boost crop yields in South Asia and help farmers increase their income to avoid a repeat of last year’s food crisis.

The 10-year programme, led by the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US government, aims to produce an additional 5 million tons of grain annually and increase the income of 6 million rural poor in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal by at least $350 a year.

“The food price spikes of 2008 were a stark reminder of what can happen when agricultural productivity growth — which is reliant on continued research and development — tapers off and demand begins to overtake supply,” said Achim Dobermann, deputy head for research at the rice institute.

He said the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia “can take big steps in the eradication of hunger, malnutrition and poverty in a region that has grappled with these afflictions for far too long.”

The initiative will focus on eight hubs in the four targeted countries, which play a major role in feeding close to a quarter of the world’s population. South Asia is home to 40 per cent of the world’s poor, with nearly half a billion people subsisting on less than $1 a day.

Almost half of the region’s children under five are malnourished, according to the rice institute.

By improving post-harvest technologies and practices and accelerating development of new cereal varieties, the project’s goal is for 4 million farmers to achieve a yield increase of at least 0.5 tons per 2.5 acres (hectare) on 12 million acres (5 million hectares), the institute said.

An additional 2 million farmers could achieve a yield increase of at least a ton per 2.5 acres (hectare) on 6 million acres (2.5 million hectares), it said.

The figures translate into at least 5 million tons of additional grain produced annually, with an additional economic value of at least $1.5 billion per year, it said.

The Gates Foundation is supporting the programme with a $19.59 million grant, and the US Agency for International Development promised to contribute $10 million over the first three years.—AP