Experts say that people all over the world are not starving because of a shortage of food, but because it is inaccessible

The permanent representatives of EU Member States to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will discuss the topic of ensuring food security in Prague on Thursday.  Rather than a shortage of food, their discussions point to the difficulty of obtaining it, whether due to trade obstacles, infrastructure problems, a lack of information, experience and, of course, also money in the poorest areas.  Debates were conducted for example on the organisation of the World Food Summit planned for November in Rome, on the role of the Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security, as well as on the 136th session of the FAO Council that will be held during the Czech Presidency, between 15 and 19 June. 

“Ensuring food security, primarily in developing countries, is an imperative mentioned almost at every international forum.  The FAO is the institution that is closest to this task, in spite of all of its obvious imperfections,” says Deputy Minister Hlaváč.  “It is evident that only a coordinated approach can yield results.  Development cooperation must strive to help developing countries initiate or increase their own food production, for example through investments in infrastructure, improvements in the management of land and water and, above all, through the education of farmers and the introduction of modern technologies.”

According to Deputy Minister Hlaváč, the role of agriculture in development cooperation should be enhanced.  “Well-functioning development projects aimed at helping developing countries secure their own food production should continue.  At the same time, however, ways should be sought to increase the efficiency of development cooperation and humanitarian aid and to improve the interconnection of development, trade, environmental and other policies,” says Deputy Minister Hlaváč.  According to him, it is essential to bring to a conclusion the debates on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).  “The continuation of the liberalisation of world trade will lead to its intensification,” adds Deputy Minister Hlaváč.

The seminar was opened by former European Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Franz Fischler, who attempted to identify the roots of the global food shortage and the reasons why the steps taken thus far have had nearly no effect.  Nearly half of the world’s population must make do with less than two-and-a-half dollars per day, and this is one reason why one of the Millennium Development Goals calls for the eradication of poverty and a reduction in the number of starving people globally by half by 2015.  About 70 percent of the poorest people live in rural areas.  Paradoxically, as Fischler emphasised, development agencies operate and focus their activities primarily on urban agglomerations, which may be one of the reasons for the slow progress in fighting poverty and starvation.  Developing countries which are already facing serious problems with their own agricultural production are at the same time those areas which will be the most affected by the impact of climate changes.  Globally, farmers face the task of doubling agricultural production in the future, while at the same time reducing water consumption.  Water is still being wasted all over the world; farmers usually do not know its real value and increasing water consumption in cities aggravates the problem even more.  According to Fischler, the EU promotes global responsibility and food security that goes hand in hand with environmental safety.  The need for a change in the focus of the Common Agricultural Policy is, from this point of view, plain enough.   

The session of the FAO Council is to discuss, for example, a Strategic Plan and a Mid-Term Programme of Activities of the FAO (2010-2013) and a proposal for a new schedule of sessions of FAO committees in 2010-2011.  A discussion about the so-called Global Partnership (GP) for Agriculture and Food Security was commenced at the Toyak G8 meeting.  The Global Partnership is considered to be the only international forum focused on food; the plan is for it to be able to administer a fairly large budget designated for ensuring food security.  The EU wants to build the GP on the existing foundations of the international community, without additional financing and administration. 

The World Food Summit should be held, at the suggestion of the Director General and under the auspices of the FAO, as a part of the FAO Conference in Rome (14-21 November).  The final decision on the holding of the summit will be made at the FAO Council session or, more precisely, this topic will be discussed by the plenary session on 17 June. 

The summit agenda is to be based on the outcomes of the High-level Conference “How to Feed the World in 2050” to be held at the FAO headquarters in Rome on 12 – 13 October 2009.  The summit, however, is not supported by the USA, Canada or even the EU, whose Member States agreed on this at the FAO coordination working group session in Brussels and at the meeting of their permanent representatives to the FAO in Rome.