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Rome, Italy
29 April 2008
FAO
Director-General Jacques Diouf today called on the international
community not only to take immediate action to de-fuse the
current world food emergency but also to seize the opportunities
offered by higher food prices and prevent similar dramatic
situations occurring in the future.
In a statement published on the FAO website, Dr Diouf said, “The
time for re-launching agriculture is now and the international
community should not miss the opportunity.”
High food commodity prices called for a twin-track approach
featuring policies and programmes to assist the millions of poor
whose livelihoods were at risk, and steps to help farmers in the
developing world take advantage of the new situation.
“We must produce more food where it is urgently needed to
contain the impact of soaring prices on poor consumers, and
simultaneously boost productivity and expand production to
create more income and employment opportunities for the rural
poor,” Dr Diouf said.
“We have to ensure that small holder farmers have proper access
to land and water resources and essential inputs such as seeds
and fertilisers. This will enable them to increase their supply
response to higher prices, boosting their incomes, improving
their livelihoods, and ultimately benefiting consumers as well,”
Dr Diouf said.
June summit
The issue of food prices will be discussed on June 3-5 when
world leaders meet in Rome at FAO’s invitation to attend a High
Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of
Climate Change and Bioenergy. Guests whose presence at the
summit has already been confirmed include Presidents Sarkozy of
France and Lula of Brazil, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
While high food prices exacerbate food insecurity and create
social tensions there was a danger of the emergency
overshadowing the longer-term aspects, Dr Diouf warned.
“To ensure that small farmers and rural households benefit from
higher food prices, we need to create a favourable policy
environment that relaxes the constraints facing the private
sector, farmers and traders,” he added.
That would mean reversing the decline in the level of public
resources spent on agriculture and rural development and
investing more in agriculture, Dr Diouf said. Investments by the
private sector in agriculture and related sectors would be
forthcoming if appropriate investments in public goods were put
in place
Constraints not just low prices
Besides historically low prices, farmers in the developing world
have had to battle constraints including lack of infrastructure
such as transport and communications, access to technology and
extension services and well-functioning marketing and credit
systems.
Lack of irrigation, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, was
another major problem that must be resolved. When food prices
soared in the 1970s many Asian governments chose to invest in
irrigation and agricultural research, and this set the stage for
rapid productivity growth that saved millions from poverty and
hunger, Dr Diouf recalled.
“A similar response is urgently needed today – particularly in
sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.
Last December FAO launched an emergency Initiative on Soaring
Food Prices (ISFP) to provide 37 Low-Income Food Deficit
countries (LIFDCs) with the seeds and inputs to boost their
domestic food production. FAO has called for 1.7 billion dollars
of international financing to implement the plan. |
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