African heads of state agreed a new plan of action against hunger on Thursday, the latest in a series of declarations that have so far failed to reduce the problem of food insecurity in the poorest continent, Reuters reported. Africa has made little progress in improving the volume and quality of its crops and 27 percent of Africans are chronically undernourished despite a series of past summits and resolutions. "Our meeting today is critical because Africa is still largely food-insecure despite the fact that the interventions required to turn things around for the better have been identified," said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. After four days of talks by technocrats and ministers in the Nigerian capital Abuja, heads of state endorsed recommendations to increase intra-African trade, invest more in agriculture, improve infrastructure and expand a school-feeding programme. The resolutions also included lowering and harmonising tariffs on agricultural goods, encouraging development banks to offer loans to farmers, and finding new funding mechanisms.
