FAO calls for more investments and new technologies to ensure food security
Sunday, 27 September 2009
ROME, Sept 26 (Xinhua): Global food security can be achieved by increasing public investments and developing new efficient technologies, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)'s newly published paper.
The report set-out the future world targets and challenges in feeding an ever growing population. The data coming from the Rome- based agency depicted a gloom scenario, characterised by more hungry people and less food availability.
According to FAO's estimates in 2050 there will be 2.3 billion people more to feed leading to a 70 per cent increase in global food production. World population is set to reach 9.1 billion, with a third more hungry mouths to feed.
Demographic growth, together with rising incomes, will boost global food demand. But if food demand and supply will fail to meet, the risk is leaving some 370 million people in hunger by 2050, amounting to nearly 5 per cent of the developing countries' population.
In the report there is an understated call to industrialised countries to fulfill many of their commitments to the third world.
The top priority for world leaders, according to FAO, is two- fold: boosting agriculture production so as to meet famine needs and increasing public and private investments in research, aid to development and in the adoption of new technologies, farming techniques and crop varieties.
Agriculture is vital to the growth and well-being of a nation ( especially if developing) in that it not only produces food but also generates income and supports rural livelihoods. This is why it is important to increase investment in the sector so as to boost production output.
The paper highlights the multiple challenges facing agriculture in the 21st century. Aside the obstacles in guaranteeing food supply for a soaring world population, there's growth of the bio- energy markets draining and threatening part of arable land and production and the need to adapt to climate change through the use of more sustainable techniques.
For the Rome-based UN's agency it is a crucial moment in global discussion on food emergency. The FAO paper opens the road to the High-Level Expert Forum to take place in Rome on October 2-13, which will bring together 300 leading experts from academic, nongovernmental and private sector institutions from developing and developed countries.
Talks are to focus on finding solutions to tackle world famine in 2050. The forum's results will then prepare the ground for the World Summit on Food Security, scheduled in Rome for November 16- 18.
There is no doubt that today combating world famine has become a tougher challenge due to the economic downturn. The recession has inevitably worsened the situation, increasing the number of poor and hungry people, and the world is far from reaching the United Nations Millennium Goal that pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.
In past months the UN has repeatedly released negative data showing that today there are more than a billion hungry people, a number fated to rise.
The issues of world hunger and agricultural growth have been at the center of the Group of Eight (G8)'s agenda. In April the agriculture ministers warned that reaching global food security and tackling poverty and hunger remain far away goals due to a lack of successful strategies and limited governmental actions. The ministers concluded that industrialised nations had done little in the past to fight world famine and poverty.
However, no clear proposal or solution for raising food production was mentioned at the G8 meeting and even if FAO's Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem said on Wednesday to be " cautiously optimistic about the world's potential to feed itself by 2050" many tough challenges lie ahead.
First of all, new agricultural strategies and technologies need to be implemented in the short run. FAO's paper clearly stated that most gains in production will be achieved by increasing yield growth and cropping intensity on existing farmlands rather than multiplying the amount of arable land.
The issue of food security is also strictly to climate change. Food production is threatened by the rise in temperature and FAO expects crop yields to drop by between 20-40 per cent if new technologies are not rapidly introduced.
Another major problem is water scarcity and the need to increase efficiency in the use of natural resources.
FAO has identified top priority areas for action where improved farming techniques and new technologies could be used to increase production output, such as developing special crop varieties that increase yields.
The report set-out the future world targets and challenges in feeding an ever growing population. The data coming from the Rome- based agency depicted a gloom scenario, characterised by more hungry people and less food availability.
According to FAO's estimates in 2050 there will be 2.3 billion people more to feed leading to a 70 per cent increase in global food production. World population is set to reach 9.1 billion, with a third more hungry mouths to feed.
Demographic growth, together with rising incomes, will boost global food demand. But if food demand and supply will fail to meet, the risk is leaving some 370 million people in hunger by 2050, amounting to nearly 5 per cent of the developing countries' population.
In the report there is an understated call to industrialised countries to fulfill many of their commitments to the third world.
The top priority for world leaders, according to FAO, is two- fold: boosting agriculture production so as to meet famine needs and increasing public and private investments in research, aid to development and in the adoption of new technologies, farming techniques and crop varieties.
Agriculture is vital to the growth and well-being of a nation ( especially if developing) in that it not only produces food but also generates income and supports rural livelihoods. This is why it is important to increase investment in the sector so as to boost production output.
The paper highlights the multiple challenges facing agriculture in the 21st century. Aside the obstacles in guaranteeing food supply for a soaring world population, there's growth of the bio- energy markets draining and threatening part of arable land and production and the need to adapt to climate change through the use of more sustainable techniques.
For the Rome-based UN's agency it is a crucial moment in global discussion on food emergency. The FAO paper opens the road to the High-Level Expert Forum to take place in Rome on October 2-13, which will bring together 300 leading experts from academic, nongovernmental and private sector institutions from developing and developed countries.
Talks are to focus on finding solutions to tackle world famine in 2050. The forum's results will then prepare the ground for the World Summit on Food Security, scheduled in Rome for November 16- 18.
There is no doubt that today combating world famine has become a tougher challenge due to the economic downturn. The recession has inevitably worsened the situation, increasing the number of poor and hungry people, and the world is far from reaching the United Nations Millennium Goal that pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.
In past months the UN has repeatedly released negative data showing that today there are more than a billion hungry people, a number fated to rise.
The issues of world hunger and agricultural growth have been at the center of the Group of Eight (G8)'s agenda. In April the agriculture ministers warned that reaching global food security and tackling poverty and hunger remain far away goals due to a lack of successful strategies and limited governmental actions. The ministers concluded that industrialised nations had done little in the past to fight world famine and poverty.
However, no clear proposal or solution for raising food production was mentioned at the G8 meeting and even if FAO's Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem said on Wednesday to be " cautiously optimistic about the world's potential to feed itself by 2050" many tough challenges lie ahead.
First of all, new agricultural strategies and technologies need to be implemented in the short run. FAO's paper clearly stated that most gains in production will be achieved by increasing yield growth and cropping intensity on existing farmlands rather than multiplying the amount of arable land.
The issue of food security is also strictly to climate change. Food production is threatened by the rise in temperature and FAO expects crop yields to drop by between 20-40 per cent if new technologies are not rapidly introduced.
Another major problem is water scarcity and the need to increase efficiency in the use of natural resources.
FAO has identified top priority areas for action where improved farming techniques and new technologies could be used to increase production output, such as developing special crop varieties that increase yields.