REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The United States and Norway will pledge a total of $70 million on Monday to launch a fund, reported here for the first time, to help farmers and agricultural businesses in Africa, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spokesperson said. BY THE NUMBERSThe fund aims to reach a total of $200 million through additional contributions from donors and has the potential to benefit nearly 7.5 million people, the spokesperson said. USAID and Norway will each commit an initial $35 million. The fund has the potential to support 500 small- and medium-sized agricultural businesses, 1.5 million smallholder farmers and nearly 60,000 private sector jobs. The fund aims to spur hundreds of millions more dollars in commercial financing by reducing the risk of investing.

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Persons: Mor Kabe, Zohra, Samantha Power, Power, Daphne Psaledakis, Howard Goller Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Agency for International Development, USAID, of International, General Assembly, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Notto, Diama, Thies, Senegal, United States, Norway, Africa, Norwegian, Russia, China, Europe, West Africa