THE United States has committed more than $80m in funding under a new programme to help increase agricultural output in three southern African states it sees as having the potential to supply food to the broader region.

Samantha Power, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator said in a statement on Thursday that USAID financing in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania brings its total commitments to the region under its Feed the Future programme to $577m. 

The agency chose those countries for their abundant arable land with small-holder growers, having the potential to boost yields with some help, she said, asserting that USAID is looking at countries where political will has been expressed and in some cases followed by very meaningful shifts in resources.

Speaking ahead of the formal aid delivery announcement, the senior policy adviser at the State Department affirmed that USAID is trying to align and expand investments in accordance with plans “that we think are credible to that objective of regional breadbaskets.”

Admitting that African farmers have had a torrid time in recent years, she pointed at the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting supply lines and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent fertiliser prices soaring. 

“This year’s El Niño weather pattern brought an historic drought to Zambia and Malawi, while Tanzania endured severe flooding. In Zambia, growers reaped half the staple corn crop they did in 2023 and prices have soared,” the statement noted.

The new USAID programme, called the ‘Feed the Future Accelerator,’ includes initiatives such as providing smart-phone technology to farmers so they have access to information on weather patterns and soil health, and apply fertilisers more efficiently, she said.

It also involves boosting private investment alongside US government funding, the statement indicated, where a further elaboration specified that companies including Bayer AG unveiled investments, such as a new $35m seed-production facility in Zambia. 

A unit of Olam International Ltd said it will invest $80m over four years to boost its Zambia and Tanzania coffee supply chains, it elaborated, alluding further to investments the US is making in the Lobito corridor — a railroad connecting central Africa to an Atlantic port in Angola.

It will also help farmers in the region get their products to market more efficiently, with US officials backing plans to build a new rail link into Zambia, connecting it to the Lobito line, it added.