FAO Looks to Existing Technology to Halt March of Hunger

As long as millions of people are still suffering from chronic hunger and extreme poverty, there cannot be sustainable development, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told the World Summit on Sustainable Development yesterday.

With more than 70 percent of the poor in developing countries living in rural areas and depending mostly on agriculture for their livelihoods, FAO Assistant Director-General Hartwig de Haen said unless the rural poor gained access to land, water and appropriate technology, their actions will be “dominated by the struggle to survive”.

FAO also endorsed the Action Plan for Agriculture in the UN Secretary-General's so-called WEHAB Initiative at the Summit.

Agriculture has a significant impact on natural resources and the environment, de Haen noted, accounting for 70 percent of fresh water use, and nearly 40 percent of land use. He said it is both a source and a sink of greenhouse gas emissions, and agricultural practices can enhance or reduce plant and animal genetic diversity, depending on the choices made.

The organisation projects world demand for food to increase by 60 percent by 2030. Most of the additional demand and production is expected to originate in the developing countries. It also anticipates that close to 20 percent of the additional production will come from an expansion of land use, 10 percent from more frequent harvests per year and 70 percent from higher yields.

"The possible encroachment into ecologically sensitive lands is still a major concern, de Haen told the plenary of the summit. “The projected 20 percent increase in irrigated area is another challenge. Given the already high share of agriculture in total fresh water use, this expansion must largely come from water savings through efficient gains in current agricultural water use."

However, FAO said it still believes that sustainable intensification of agriculture can be achieved by using and improving already existing technologies, claiming that so-called integrated pest management can reduce pesticide use substantially, integrated plant nutrition systems can reduce fertiliser needs by 10 to 30 percent, and conservation agriculture can raise crop yields by 20-50 percent while sequestering 200-400 kg of carbon per hectare per year.

Hopes are also pinned on the controversial biotechnology amid concerns for possible risks to human health and the environment.

Mobilising the resources needed for the agriculture and rural development components of FAO’s Anti-Hunger Programme and the WEHAB priority actions for agriculture was not an unreasonable prospect, de Haen said. Excluding financing through credits, it would require roughly 16 billion U.S. dollars annually. This could be equally shared by developed and developing countries, he said.

"For the developed countries, the amount of 8 billion U.S. dollars is less than they transfer to their own agriculture every 10 days," de Haen said. "The developing countries would have to increase their national budgets for agriculture on average by 20 percent."