Rome, Italy and Istanbul, Turkey
March 20, 2009
FAO
Director-General Jacques Diouf has called for more attention to
be paid to water management in agriculture and for increased
support and guidance for farmers in developing countries to
tackle water scarcity and the related problem of hunger.
“The future of water is in a more efficient agriculture,” Diouf
said at the opening of the Ministerial Conference of the 5th
World Water Forum being held in Istanbul.
“The millions of farmers around the world who provide us with
the food we eat must be at the centre of any process of change.
They need to be encouraged and guided to produce more with less
water. This requires well targeted investment, incentives, and
the right policy environment”.
Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all global freshwater
withdrawals, though important differences may exist depending on
the stage of development of countries.
It takes only two to three litres of water to satisfy the daily
drinking requirements of a person, but 3 000 litres to produce
the equivalent of our daily requirements for food.
Bold decisions needed
“Agriculture has a prime responsibility in meeting current and
future demand for food but also managing the environmental
impacts of production,” said Diouf.
He said growing hunger in the world — with nearly one billion
human beings, or 15 percent of the world’s population — not
getting enough to eat, could get worse unless “bold decisions
are made and concrete and urgent actions are undertaken”.
“The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes,
including population growth, migration, urbanization, climate
change, desertification, drought, land degradation and major
shifts in dietary preferences.
Agriculture’s role today is therefore two-fold – it has to close
the gap between supply and demand, both in the short and in the
long run, and also has to prevent future shocks, increase
resilience of the most vulnerable and mitigate environmental
impacts”.
New agricultural deal
Diouf called for a “new agriculture deal” that integrates the
fundamental role of this sector in overall human development and
strengthens the global governance of world food security.
“It is only by investing in productive sustainable agriculture
based on good water management that we will meet our food and
energy needs while at the same time safeguarding the natural
resources on which our future depends” he said.
Concluding his intervention, Diouf expressed the hope that the
5th World Water Forum will send a “call to the international
community to ensure the urgent investments needed in water
infrastructure in developing countries and to have a better
management of water resources that can address fundamental human
needs but also provide productive livelihoods for generations to
come”. |
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