Humanitarian restoring agriculture to war zones wins World Food Prize

The founder of an organization which restores the ability to farm on land devastated by conflict has won the 2023 World Food Prize. Heidi Kühn of Roots of Peace is this year’s laureate for the $250,000 prize. It is given each year to someone who has dedicated their career to eradicating global hunger through improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food. It is considered the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture. Food security and conflict are inextricably linked, with 75% of people who are malnourished living in conflict zones. An estimated 60 million people in nearly 70 countries and territories live at risk of land mines, according to the United Nations. Roots of Peace works with other organizations which remove land mines and unexploded bombs from land, and then it provides farmers with technical assistance and training so they can increase production and sustainable livelihoods. It has operated in at least eight countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Vietnam. Kühn argues that removal of land mines is fundamental for every other aspect of development, and commitment to eradicating them should be the 18th United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, of which there are 17. “None of the other 17 can possibly happen unless the land mines are first removed,” Kühn told Devex in an interview. “Then we can layer food security, then we can layer the high-value crops. We can provide the exports to new markets.” The former journalist and mother of four started Roots of Peace in 1997 in the basement of her home in Marin County, California. She credits a close connection with the land of her home state to her desire to see conflict areas turned from places of violence to productive and fertile vineyards and orchards. Roots of Peace began by partnering with California vintners to remove land mines in Croatia and restore that land to agricultural productivity. Kühn has most recently begun to expand her work to Ukraine, where an estimated 30% of the country’s land may have land mines after years of fighting in the east of the country and the current conflict which started in February 2022. In Afghanistan, she’s worked with female farmers to grow a wide variety of crops that can be exported, including almonds, apples, grapes, pomegranates, and melons.This has resulted in a fourfold increase in income for agricultural households, she said. Kühn’s work has helped grow agricultural exports from Afghanistan to an estimated $491 million since 2010. Roots of Peace remained operational in the country after it fell in August 2021, and continues to employ women despite restrictions put in place by the Taliban. “We’re there to do a job and we’re there to help the people. We are not political,” Kühn said. While the organization has continued to pay its employees despite the Taliban takeover, they may soon be forced to stop: In March, the U.S. Agency for International Development told Kühn it would cease providing her organization economic development funding for Afghanistan. Kühn was managing a $30 million USAID contract for Roots of Peace’s work in the country. If the decision isn’t reversed — Kühn said she’s been “knocking on every door I could possibly knock on”— she’ll need to start laying off staff on June 1. “[The money] runs out in September, right in the middle of the harvest,” Kühn said. “We cannot forget Afghanistan … and let these farmers down at a time when they need us the most.”