Sowing the Seeds of a Farm Boom in Africa

Foreign Investment ▶ Big Ag takes on problems like climate change and food spoilage ▶ “Potential for Africa to feed its vibrantly growing population”

The 48 countries that make up sub-saharan Africa have increasingly acute food needs as climate change turns the region’s growing seasons more arid. The drought now devastating southern and East Africa, which threatens 50 million people with famine, is just the start, climate forecasters say. The World Bank projects that, given present trends, about 40 percent of the land used to grow corn in sub-saharan Africa will no longer be suitable for current varieties by 2030.

Monsanto says it has part of the solution. On small plots of land in