Rome, Italy
November 19, 2007
Agriculture will play a crucial
role in the key issues facing humanity this century,
FAO Director-General Jacques
Diouf said today. “I should like to see the new agriculture
aligned with a new FAO”.
Mr Diouf was addressing FAO’s supreme governing body, the
192-member Conference at the start of a week-long session due to
decide on proposals for a major reform of the Organization, and
to vote on its budget.
“During the course of this week you will be making decisions
that will have a profound impact on the future of the
Organization,” Mr Diouf said. “Those decisions will be made in a
new agricultural context on the world stage. In the last two
years agriculture has returned to the international agenda,” he
added.
Central role
The centrality of agriculture was underscored in the World
Bank’s recent 2008 World Development Report, the first to be
devoted to agriculture for a quarter of a century. “It is time
to place agriculture afresh at the centre of development, taking
account of the vastly different context of opportunities and
challenges that has emerged,” Diouf said, citing the report.
“On climate change, energy supply, natural resources depletion,
population movements, and indeed on the very health and security
of nations, agriculture is central both to the problem and to
its resolution,” Diouf said.
Equally pressing was the challenge of feeding a world population
estimated to top 9 billion by 2050, he added. “This will require
a second Green Revolution aimed at virtually doubling food
production in the first half of this century.”
The Director-General underlined FAO’s fundamental contribution
in addressing these issues and recalled that he has proposed two
high-level meetings to discuss them next year.
The first meeting, scheduled for June 2008, will focus on
climate change, bioenergy and food security, while the second
will address issues such as population growth, migration and
urbanization and their impact on future food security.
Recent activities, way ahead
The Director-General highlighted FAO’s work over the past two
years, including its role in the ongoing fight against bird flu,
its food safety activities and its efforts to reverse erosion of
the world’s genetic resources for food and agriculture.
Regarding the way ahead, Diouf said that FAO was being called on
to “reform with growth” as a result of the Organization’s first
Independent External Evaluation, which includes over 100
recommendations for changes.
Such reform would enable FAO to play a still more incisive role
in helping to cut the numbers of the 850 million human beings
still suffering from hunger and malnutrition and achieving the
Millennium Development Goals’ target on hunger and poverty
reduction, Diouf said.
He welcomed the evaluation’s recognition of the “unique
importance and relevance of FAO’s role in the United Nations and
in the world” and hoped Members would “allow FAO to maintain the
balance of the recommendations made by having the necessary
financial means to implement the proposed reforms.”
Over the past few years, FAO’s work has been affected by a
series of effective budget cuts.
The Conference observed a minute’s silence for the victims of
the cyclone in Bangladesh. It was attended for the first time by
the Russian Federation, which joined last year. It also welcomed
the Republic of Montenegro and the Principality of Andorra as
new Members and the Faroe Islands as an Associate Member. |
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