NRI Welcomes World Summit on Food Security Declaration (16-18 November)
20 November 2009
The Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich welcomes the signature of the World Summit on Food Security Declaration following its ratification by all 192 members at the conclusion of the Summit last week.
Dr Richard Hodges:
Dr Richard Hodges, Coordinator of NRI’s grain storage research programme commented: "It is very welcome to see that the International Community has reinforced its commitment to further reduce both pre- and post-harvest losses as part of this global declaration. Having worked with both the FAO and World Food Programme (WFP) I have seen firsthand how pests can ravage reserves, be they subsistence farmers’ granaries; traders’ stores; or even large depots. "
Background:
“The silent hunger crisis — affecting one sixth of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world.”
Jacques Diouf, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
Last week the World Summit on Food Security took place in Rome, Italy. Convened at the request of FAO Director-General Dr. Jacques Diouf, the meeting was attended by Heads of State, Heads of Government and appropriate Government Ministers from across the FAO’s 192 members, intent on kick-starting the urgent international response required to eradicate hunger.
In the past 6 months the global food insecurity situation has worsened as the total number of people that suffer from chronic hunger worldwide has surpassed 1 billion, approximately 1 in 6 of the global population, with this number set to increase by a further 100 million before the end of 2009.
Yet despite this ongoing crisis, Jacques Diouf asserted that ‘the planet can feed itself provided that the decisions made are honoured and the required resources are effectively mobilized’, a sentiment NRI echoes having worked in this area for more than 100 years.
Dr Richard Hodges stated ‘Agriculture provides the livelihoods for 70% of the world’s poorest people, an increase of investment in agriculture is essential to tackling hunger and poverty; is a pre-requisite for wider economic growth and; is long overdue.’
Official Development Assistance (ODA) for agriculture, forestry and fisheries has fallen from 19% in 1980 to just 4% today. Similarly agriculture-based economies spent, on average, a mere 4% of their total budgets on agriculture in 2004.
The Summit Declaration:
The declaration, unanimously signed by all present, reaffirmed the UN’s current target for halving current levels of hunger by 2015 as well as committing all nations of the world to eradicate hunger at the earliest possible date. To help it achieve this aim the Summit agreed to substantially increase aid to agriculture in developing countries to help the developing world populations become more self-sufficient whilst also recognising that recent progress has been undermined by food, financial and economic crises among other factors.
In order to achieve its aim, the declaration estimated that agricultural outputs would need to increase by 70% by 2050 if the world is to be able to feed an expected global population of around 9 billion people while complementary measures would need to be put in place to ensure access, physical social and economic, by all people to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.
To deliver this the Declaration set out four central objectives:
- To Ensure urgent national, regional and global action to fully realize the target of Millennium Development Goal 1 and the 1996 World Food Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the proportion and the number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by half by 2015;
- Join our efforts and expertise to work in the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition – building on existing structures to enhance governance and cooperation – promote better coordination at global, regional and national levels and ensure that national and regional interests are duly voiced and considered. We therefore commit to fully implement the reform of the UN's Committee for World Food Security (CFS), which, as the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for a broad range of committed stakeholders to work together, is a central component of our efforts to further advance the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition.
- Reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture, food security and rural development in developing countries, and promote new investment to increase sustainable agricultural production and productivity, reduce poverty and work towards achieving food security and access to food for all.
- Proactively face the challenges of climate change to food security and the need for adaptation of, and mitigation in, agriculture, and increase the resilience of agricultural producers to climate change, with particular attention to small agricultural producers and vulnerable populations.
Crop Storage and Pest Management:
We commit, considering diverse conditions in each country, to support increased production and productivity of agriculture, and to reduce pre- and post-harvest losses.
Principle 3 of the World Summit on Food Security Declaration 2009
As part of its commitment to sustainable rural development the Declaration pledges to give special attention to crop and livestock systems with a specific focus on smallholder farmers, ensuring food security beyond production, helping them to ensure quality and safety for consumers.
Dr Richard Hodges
With 30 years of experience as a researcher and consultant on the storage of durable agricultural commodities, Richard Hodges is considered an authority on grain storage, post-harvest technology and integrated pest management strategies. Indeed he has worked in many countries on the quality management of food aid; he has also having acted as technical director for an awareness raising video for extension services in East Africa on the threat posed by the Larger Grain Borer (Prostephanus truncatus) and the biological control of storage pests. .
He continued, " NRI’s groundbreaking research in this area has seen the storage loss that result from this pest reduced from about 10% to about 5% in just 8 years, although we hope to reduce this even further over the coming years. We very much look forward to continuing our work in this area in conjunction with both UN agencies at the international level and local stakeholders."
For more information on the FAO’s current campaign please visit www.1billionhungry.org. To contact NRI about its work with the WFP and FAO please email nri@gre.ac.uk
