WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The Group of 20 will back the creation of an emergency food reserve in West Africa to avert the risk of future shortages in the world's poorest region, French Cooperation Minister Henri de Raincourt said on Friday.
Raincourt said the idea was to create a stock of 67,000 tonnes of food to serve 11 countries from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, also known as ECOWAS, which are officially ranked as least developed countries.
During its year-long G20 presidency, France has aimed to promote growth in sustainable agriculture and to encourage the creation of food stocks that could respond to shortages in impoverished countries.
"We can cross a stage which is decisive for the creation of emergency food stocks," Raincourt told reporters on the sidelines of a G20 development meeting in Washington.
"The aim of these stocks is to allow the population to have access to food during 45 days. It is the period which is needed -- we saw this recently during the famine in East Africa -- for the international community to mobilize itself and deliver aid."
Raincourt said the ECOWAS countries, many of which are former French colonies, had been selected for the trial project because they had proposed themselves as candidates.
The cost of creating the food inventories would be around $45 million and African organizations had already signaled they could foot the bill for some of this, he said.
"Today when a crisis takes place, there is a call to the international community, so we think that the international community should mobilize itself to create these stocks before the crisis occurs," Raincourt said.
"If it works, it will of course be extended. If it only works partly, then we will make an analysis and do the necessary corr
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