GRAINS AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY

The World Grain Forum that took place in Saint Petersburg June 6-7 is one in a series of high-level meetings devoted to food and agriculture this year. Such meetings -including the G8 agriculture ministers gathering in Treviso last April and FAO's conference on How to Feed the World in 2050 next October in Rome- show that powerful momentum is building for resolving outstanding food insecurity issues and establishing a new global agricultural order that can finally ensure that everyone on earth has enough to eat.

THE FOOD CRISIS AND THE WRONG SOLUTIONS

The structural solution to the problem of world food security is an increase in productivity and production in the low-income food-deficit countries. This would require, in addition to official development assistance, innovative new solutions. To this effect, it is necessary to develop partnership or joint-venture agreements between, on the one hand, those countries that have the financial resources and on the other, those that possess land, water and human resources, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In reality, what is happening is a propensity for one of the two parties to take over the role of the other. Land acquisition and long-term farming leases appear to be favoured by foreign investors. Even in certain countries where land is an asset like any other exchange commodity and is used as a refuge against currency devaluation, protests from farm workers and indigenous populations are frequent. In other cases, the appropriation and distribution of land have become a source of latent conflict. If one adds to this the emotional, or sometimes, mystical value of what constitutes one of the bases of national sovereignty, you can easily imagine the risk of a social outcry when such land falls into foreign hands.

TURNING THE TIDE AGAINST WATER SCARCITY

Those who call water scarcity the challenge of the century are not exaggerating. The recent debate over a proposal to recycle waste water for drinking purposes in Australia, the drying of large portions of massive river basins like Lake Chad in Africa and the Aral Sea in Central Asia, the millions of people who struggle to grow crops on drought-stricken farms in Asia, Africa and in the Americas, all reflect the importance of conserving and making more productive use of our water resources, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Improving the food situation is fundamental to fighting hunger and improving lives on every continent. This means that to turn the tide against water scarcity, farmers must find ways to produce more food with proportionally less water. It takes 1000-2000 litres of water to produce one kilo of wheat and 13 000-15000 litres to produce the same quantity of grain-fed beef. By comparison, the amount of daily drinking water required by one person is estimated at a mere two to five litres. And yet each day, we \"eat\" an average of 2000 litres of water. Thus the effective daily consumption of water per person is 1000 times more than the apparent consumption through drinking. Without water, we can not produce; and without it we simply cannot eat. The planet is thirsty because it is hungry.

COMMUNICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF KNOWLEDGE

We have always said, \"Give people fish and they will eat. Teach them how to fish and they will always eat.\" Today, we also say, \"Help people to communicate and you will change their lives\", writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Between October 25-27, 500 delegates from across the world met in Rome at the First World Congress on Communication for Development, organized by the World Bank, FAO and the Communication Initiative, and hosted by the Government of Italy to examine how to share knowledge and information through social dialogue. This is underlined by the participation of many eminent policy and decision-makers, scholars, not to mention communications professionals. One of the most tangible contributions of the United Nations family of organizations, of which we are part, has been to help build the infrastructure for social dialogue within and between all the countries of the world. This has been a good investment, it turns out, because social science now tells us that communication lies at the heart of sustainable development. We are not talking about simply governments talking to citizens, an important responsibility though that is, but a horizontal, two-way process that allows governments to listen to people. A dialogue, not a monologue. It implies all participants in society having a voice, not just the powerful. In the past ten years, an entirely new economy worth over two trillion dollars in terms of goods and services has materialized. Information and communications technologies or ICTs have helped a number of emerging nations achieve phenomenal economic growth rates. But the pace at which the new frontiers are advancing also risks widening the gap between those who have access to the new communications technologies and the one billion of the world\'s population who don\'t. And by extension the danger is to further widen the rich-poor divide.

REVITALISING THE RURAL WORLD: THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF POVERTY

Today millions of families are still living in poverty because of a lack of access to land, the most basic production resource, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The reasons for this injustice have to do with the value that land has had throughout the ages. Land is an essential economic asset in rural societies, but its monetary value is not the only, or even the most important, consideration for millions of people. For indigenous peoples, land is the basis of their identity; it is their home and that of their ancestors, their pharmacy, and their place of work and leisure. In most societies, land means power, status, and membership in a social class. For many women, land is essential to their autonomy. Some of the agrarian reforms implemented in recent years have sought to offer solutions to these problems, with varying degrees of success, but we are still far from having solved the agrarian issue. New worldwide challenges, such as the globalisation of trade, the massive rural exodus to the cities, environmental degradation and civil strife (in many instances caused by the lack of access to, and control over, natural resources) demand urgent, global-level responses.

FIGHT BIRD FLU IN ANIMALS FIRST SO IT DOESN

The current bird flu scenario should not cause panic and fear but spur rational and immediate action to fight the disease at its origin: in animals, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. In this article, Diouf writes that avian influenza is first of all an animal disease that requires a veterinary response. The virus can be defeated and contained if countries and the international community work closely together and set up efficient surveillance and disease control programmes. Virus outbreaks in animals need to be detected at a very early stage; infected poultry has to be slaughtered, and animals at risk have to be vaccinated. Affected countries and the international community urgently need to invest more in support of veterinarians and animal health workers, because they represent the first line of defence against the virus. We cannot afford to wait to battle the disease in pharmacies and hospitals, but need to get rid of the virus in infected farmers\' backyards. Investing in prevention will be cheaper in the longer run than the cure.

A LONG ROAD AHEAD IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER

Almost nine years since heads of state and governments representing 186 countries gathered at the World Food Summit pledged to half hunger by 2015, progress is insufficient, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In this analysis, Diouf writes that in three of the four developing regions, more people were undernourished in 2000-2002 than in 1995-1997. Only Latin America and the Caribbean achieved a modest reduction in the number of hungry people. While the main responsibility for addressing poverty and food insecurity in the developing countries remains with the countries themselves, their efforts can only be fruitful within a favourable international environment. Indeed, we have seen expressions of solidarity and strong commitment to address the problem of food insecurity and poverty. Unfortunately, there is still a notable gap between commitments and action. The urgent measures that need to be taken at the international level include: creation of a fair and equitable international trading environment and the reduction and cancellation of the debt burden of the poorest developing countries. The recent announcement by the G8 finance ministers to write off more than USD 40 billion of debts of 18 African countries is a step in the right direction. But we still need to enhance international development assistance in conformity with relevant international commitments and to reverse the negative trend of resource allocation to the agriculture sector.

BIODIVERSITY ESSENTIAL TO ELIMINATING HUNGER

World Food Day, October 16, presents an occasion to reflect on the nature and extent of hunger in the world today, which affects more than 840 million people, writes Jacques Diouf, Director General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). In this article, Diouf writes that this year FAO has decided to stress the importance of biodiversity for the world food supply, present and future. What this means is that the conservation of the varieties of plants and animals that we have today is fundamental to preserving an array of essential natural processes, from pollenisation by insects to the regeneration of soil with microorganisms. It also means that we must create the conditions for plants and animals to be better able resist blights and disease. The reduction of biodiversity seriously jeopardises world food security. The food supply is growing ever more vulnerable, and opportunities for growth and innovation are growing fewer in agriculture, the capacity of which to adopt to environmental changes is weakening.

AGRICULTURE AND THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

The silent tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging many rural areas of developing countries and jeopardising the human right to food of millions of people, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Hunger and poverty, aggravated by HIV/AIDS, create a vicious cycle. Where farmers and their families fall sick, they cultivate less land and shift to less labour-intensive and less nutritious crops; agricultural productivity decreases, and food insecurity and malnutrition rise. In this article for IPS, the author writes that while agriculture offers no cure for the HIV/AIDS infected, it can contribute to prevent and mitigate the crisis. Labour-saving technologies such as lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women, and the elderly and improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding need to be developed.

BRAZIL CAN WIN THE WAR AGAINST HUNGER

Brazil has set itself the goal of eliminating hunger within four years and, in President Lula\'s first week in office, decided to postpone the 700-plus million-dollar purchase of jet fighters to help pay for it, writes Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In this article for IPS, Diouf writes that Brazil\'s greatest enemies are the poverty and hunger within its borders, not military threats from its neighbours. It is in everyone\'s interest, rich and poor, to eliminate hunger. In the view of the FAO, hunger is as much a cause as an effect of poverty. As long as large numbers of the population are hungry -- and thus unable to study or work properly and likely to die young -- it is fanciful to assume that it will reach its full potential for economic growth. Getting rid of hunger is not simply a moral obligation but also an investment that is bound to generate very high returns on the relatively modest sums involved. In the global war against hunger, everyone will be a winner. Brazil is now showing the world that if you are really determined to eliminate hunger, it is both possible and not excessively costly.