As world hunger is on the rise for the third year in a row, the UN rural development agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will host, on the side lines of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7),  an event that examines joint strategies to increase food security and poverty reduction for farmers in Africa. The event will focus on the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) approach that encourages farmers to move away from “growing and selling” their produce to “grow to sell.”