Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed Wednesday to provide agricultural assistance to African nations with an aim to double the rice production in the region from the current 1.4 million tons in the next 10 years. Japan would help develop irrigation systems, improve the varieties of crops and train workers in the agricultural sector in the region, Fukuda pledged in his speech to open a three-day Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokohama. Fukuda promised to allocate a "significant portion" of Japan's 100-million-dollar emergency food aid, out of concern that African nations are "in great difficulty as a result of the recent sharp rise in food prices." In addition to its assistance in the agricultural sector, Japan announced its plan to double official development assistance (ODA) to Africa by 2012, including up to 4 billion dollars of soft loans to improve infrastructure in the region, DPA reported. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation would also provide 2.5-billion-dollars in aid to businesses in Africa in the next five years to double private Japanese investment, Fukuda said. To achieve the millennium development goals, Japan would train 100, 000 people in health care in the next five years in the region, where there is a shortage of 1.5 million health workers, Fukuda said.
