This post originally appeared on Agri-Pulse.

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By Tjada McKenna, Assistant to the Administrator for USAID's Bureau for Food Security and Deputy Coordinator for Development, US Feed the Future initiative

Agriculture has been critical to America's growth as a nation. For many countries like ours, the path from poverty to prosperity has run through agriculture, but agriculture's promise has not yet been fully realized around the world.

This was no more apparent than in 2007 and 2008, when food price spikes pushed millions back to the brink of poverty and led to global instability. After a three-decade decline in global agricultural investment, in 2009 at the L'Aquila G8 Summit, the United States rallied world leaders to increase investments in agriculture that would boost global food security and nutrition. Feed the Future, President Obama's multi-agency global hunger and food security initiative, was born during this pivotal moment. At that time, President Obama pledged an initial $3.5 billion in investments in global agriculture, which leveraged more than $18 billion from other donor countries. Since then, Feed the Future and related US Government efforts have mobilized tremendous public and private support to unlock the transformative potential of agriculture to connect more people to the global economy and offer a path out of poverty. Our efforts focus on supporting the sustainable food security and nutrition priorities outlined by the host country governments and partners in the countries where we work.

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