ON HUNGER, THE ONLY RIGHT NUMBER IS ZERO

By Jacques Diouf and - - Reprint | | Print |

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ROME, Sep 29 2010 (IPS) - With riots in Mozambique and food prices climbing to their highest level in two years, the early Autumn of 2010 made many observers suspect that the world was headed for a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis.

On September 1, FAO announced that its food price index had risen five percent in a month to its highest level since September 2008. And the same day rioting over bread, electricity and fuel prices in Maputo ­ uncomfortably reminiscent of the civil strife that broke out in some 20 countries around the world when food prices last soared three years ago.

But todayÂ’s situation is very different from what it was then. While it is true that wheat prices are now 40 to 60 percent higher than a year ago, the food price index is still some 20 percent below its peak in mid 2008.

Meanwhile, unlike in 2007, globally there are now ample stocks of cereals ­ 100 million tonnes more than three years ago. And despite the drought that badly affected Russia’s wheat harvest, prompting the Government to impose an export ban, at global level cereals production in 2010 will be the third highest ever this year.

I believe there is no objective reason for a new world food crisis. Governments should therefore behave responsibly and avoid panic buying and refrain from imposing export restrictions that end up by hurting consumers abroad and their own farmers at home.

TodayÂ’s higher food prices do, however, make it more difficult to bring down the level of undernourishment in the world and achieve the goals on hunger reduction to which the international community has committed.

I refer to the objective of the first Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of hungry people across the globe from 20 to 10 percent by 2015, and the 1996 World Food SummitÂ’s target of halving the number of hungry people from its 1990-92 level to 420 million by 2015 also.

FAO’s latest estimate of the number of hungry ­ 925 million ­ is 500 million off that mark. And at 16 percent, the proportion of hungry people as part of total population is six percent wide of the first objective.

And while the number of hungry admittedly dropped 98 million from last year this was due more to renewed economic growth, especially in developing countries, and to food prices that until recently were declining.

It is thus clear that with only a few years left to 2015 the worldÂ’s leaders must act swiftly and resolutely if they are to honour the solemn pledges they made. They must quickly free up the resources to launch the large-scale agricultural investment which is the only way to ensure that the worldÂ’s poor countries are able to feed themselves.

The 1Billionhungry campaign that I launched last May is intended to bring pressure on political leaders to take a bold, hunger-changing initiative. More than 700,000 signatures have so far been collected on a petition calling on them to act and over a million are expected by the end of the year.

I hope and pray they will heed that call for we have little time left. On hunger, the only right number is zero, and we still have a very long way to go. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

(*) Jacques Diouf is the Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).