The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Agricultural biodiversity key to eliminating hunger: experts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Agricultural biodiversity key to eliminating hunger: experts

Special Correspondent

A series of measures are suggested to end hunger and poverty

CHENNAI: An international consultation of experts and policy makers from varied backgrounds, that considered how agricultural biodiversity can help the world achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), has suggested a series of measures to achieve an end to hunger and poverty.

The consultation was held because "an assessment made five years after the adoption of the MDG indicates that progress in reducing hunger and poverty is inadequate."

Recognition of the possibilities of agricultural biodiversity is central to poverty alleviation and hunger reduction programmes since it provides "uncommon opportunities for developing decentralised and locale-specific community food security systems involving field gene banks, seed banks and grain banks developed and managed by local women and men." This approach will further help enlarge the `food security basket' by including nutrition-rich but under-utilised crops. Hence, it is only natural to conclude that that this is the most sustainable and affordable way to achieving MDG in relation to elimination of hunger and poverty.

Coherence among Ministries

The experts and policy makers, who met at the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here, have urged international agencies and nations to recognise that incorporation of agricultural biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in national development plans, along with the creation of cross-sectoral linkages and coherence among concerned Ministries at national level, is important to realise the MDG.

The consultation formed the Chennai Platform of Action for a Hunger and Poverty-Free World. It wanted nations to introduce legislations to use land and other natural resources to enhance the ability of all to make use of agricultural biodiversity and its associated traditional knowledge for promoting farm employment and income generation in harmony with traditional rights, cultural diversity, ecosystem integrity and gender equity.

The Chennai Platform of Action is designed to assist nations and international agencies to achieve as soon as possible the United Nations MDG relating to halving hunger and poverty by 2015. The consultation called upon nations to recognise and reward the invaluable contributions of rural and indigenous people, particularly women, in the conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity and confer social prestige and economic benefit to its primary conservers.

Promote local markets

It wanted nations and agencies to restructure research and development priorities to enhance productivity, profitability and value chain development of a wider range of agricultural biodiversity.

It also wanted local markets promoted and facilitated access to international markets for traditional and functional foods.

The consultation was organised by the MSSRF, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, the Global Facility for Under-utilised Crops, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Canadian International Development Agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Ford Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

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