Food Security

FAS leads USDA’s efforts to help developing countries improve their agricultural systems and build their trade capacity. We also administer food assistance programs that not only help meet the nutritional needs of recipients around the world, but also support agricultural development and education to ensure long-term food security.

Programs

Food Security

Food for Progress

Provides for the donation of U.S. commodities to help developing countries modernize and strengthen their agricultural sectors.
Supports projects around the world to reduce hunger and improve literacy and primary education, especially for girls.
Supports field-based projects that provide development assistance and emergency food relief using locally procured commodities.
Funds set in reserve to help the United States respond to emergency food needs worldwide.
Fellowships and Exchanges

Borlaug Fellowship Program

The Borlaug Fellowship Program offers mentoring and training to researchers and policymakers from developing countries to help promote food security and economic growth.
Fellowships and Exchanges

Cochran Fellowship Program

Provides short-term, U.S.-based training opportunities to agricultural professionals from developing and middle-income countries.
Fellowships and Exchanges

Faculty Exchange Program

Provides semester-long U.S. training opportunities to university-level agricultural educators from developing countries.
Provides fellowships to U.S. citizens to assist developing countries in establishing school-based agricultural education and youth extension programs.
Fellowships and Exchanges

Embassy Science Fellows Program

Places U.S. Government technical experts at American embassies abroad to provide expertise on issues relating to the environment, science, technology and health.
Supports collaboration between teams of scientific and technical experts from the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
Supports joint research, education, and extension projects between U.S. and international agricultural professionals.
Fellowships and Exchanges

Scientific Exchange Program

The Scientific Exchange Program supports scientific training, collaborative research and mentoring between U.S. scientists and international agricultural professionals.

Data and Analysis

Attaché Report (GAIN)

China: Overview of the PRC Draft Food Security Law

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is in the process of drafting a “PRC Food Security Protection Law” with the stated purposes of safeguarding the nation’s grain supply, ensuring domestic food security, and protecting the PRC's economic and social...
In the nine-year period from 2012 to 2020, Venezuela's economy declined 88 percent, which led to a drop in demand for agricultural products.
The closure of the Haiti-Dominican Republic border on September 14 due to a binational dispute over the construction of a canal on the Haitian side of the Dajabon River has exacerbated the food security situation in Haiti and caused mounting losses for Dominican farmers.

News and Features

USDA will provide $466.5 million in FY 2024 funding to strengthen global food security through the McGovern-Dole and Food for Progress programs, Secretary Vilsack announced today.
Stakeholder Notice

USDA Seeks Input on $50-Million Food Aid Pilot

FAS is seeking stakeholder input on a pilot project to include non-traditional commodities in the U.S. government’s international food assistance programs.
USDA hosted an stakeholder event June 27 to begin sharing ideas for how to make the 2026 observance of the International Year of the Woman Farmer a momentous and transformational one.