Kofi Annan Will Head African Farming Body

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - An African agricultural organization established last year by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has recruited former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to be its chief.

Annan said Thursday that he has agreed to be chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which aims to boost harvests on a continent where many go hungry. Better seed varieties and water management are among its first priorities.

The organization was set up last year by a grant of $150 million from the Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation.

``Sub-Saharan Africa is the only area of the world where food production is worsening each year,'' Annan said.

He said that three quarters of the land is without fertilizer and the soils are the most depleted in the world. The number of underweight children has increased by 10 percent in the past three years, he said.

The situation is likely to worsen with climate change, expected to wreak havoc with crop yields that already are well below the global average, he said at the annual African meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Drought is expected to devastate this year's maize harvest in southern Africa, leaving millions of people in countries like Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho dependent on foreign handouts.

``Africa is not responsible for emissions'' of greenhouse gases, said Annan. ``But we are paying the highest price. We are paying for the crimes of others.''

Annan was U.N. chief from 1997 to the end of last year.