International leaders are expected today to pledge $15 billion to boost agricultural production in developing countries in a radical aid shift designed to help them to feed themselves and export to the world.

Britain will contribute $1.8 billion (£1.1 billion) as the US and Japan lead the way in an approach that reduces food aid and reallocates it to long-term investment in farming in Africa and the developing world.

The move came after decisions by the G8 Summit to highlight the contributions of the richer nations to the world aid effort in what was seen as a move to shame countries such as Italy which have fallen well short of the commitments made at Gleneagles four years ago.

With many of the development goals — notably on reducing the number of women dying in childbirth and food aid — way off target, the summit agreed to a proposal from Gordon Brown for next year’s G8 in Canada to be given an assessment of how the aims could be attained in time.

The L’Aquila Food Security Initiative will be one of the biggest aid shifts in decades and could be controversial in America, whose farmers are the largest exporters of some crops. A senior G8 source said the emphasis should be on “helping Africa feed itself”.

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