The Hindu : National : Cut hunger by half by 2015, says Food and Agriculture Organisation

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Friday, Sep 16, 2005

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Cut hunger by half by 2015, says Food and Agriculture Organisation

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: TheFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday called upon the international community to honour commitments to cut world hunger by half by 2015.

The Rome-based agency urged governments and private sector corporations to adequately fund actions and initiatives that reduce hunger through rural development, while strengthening direct access to food by the most vulnerable, a press release said.

In a publication issued for the UN Summit in New York on mobilising resources to reduce hunger, the FAO said: "It is unacceptable that 843 million people in developing and transition countries continue to be hungry and that more than one billion have to live on less than one dollar a day. Unfortunately, the rate at which hunger is being reduced is painfully slow, slower than what is required to meet the World Food Summit goal, especially in Africa.''

During his recent visit to India, Director-General of FAO Jacques Diouf expressed concern at the slow pace of attempts to reduce hunger by half by 2015.

At the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, leaders from 186 countries had pledged to reduce the number of hungry people in the world by half later than 2015.

FAO maintains that to reduce hunger, it is essential that a larger share of new development funding be allocated to agriculture and rural development. The vast majority of the world's poor live in rural areas and research shows that agricultural growth, especially if focussed on small farmers, is the most important engine for the creation of employment and income for the poor.

The low level of public expenditure in national budgets and the long-term decline in official development assistance for agriculture and rural development in developing countries were totally at odds with the importance of agriculture in national economies, especially for the poorest countries which depended on agriculture, the report said.

According to FAO, private investment is the key to total capital formation in agriculture and it is the responsibility of governments to make this possible through research, public investment regulation, financial incentives and by building capacity.

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