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U.N. summit pledges to ease global food crisis

ROME: World leaders at a U.N. summit embraced an ambitious strategy to combat a food crisis that is causing violent riots and threatening to push up to a billion people across the globe into hunger.

Delegates from 181 countries pledged on Thursday to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production to combat rising food prices, but some nations and groups maintained more concrete measures will be needed.

After three days of wrangling, delegates at the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation approved a declaration resolving to ease the suffering caused by soaring food prices and step up investment in agriculture.

The summit struck a balance on the contentious issue of biofuels, recognising “challenges and opportunities” in using food for fuel.

The declaration called for swift help for small-holder farmers in poor countries who need seed, fertilizers and animal feed in time for the approaching planting season. U.N. officials and humanitarian groups have pointed out that such an approach has already helped millions of farmers in Malawi, where food security has strongly improved thanks to a support package based mainly on a fertilizer subsidy.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had told the summit that import taxes and export restrictions must also be minimised to alleviate hunger, and the document called for “reducing trade barriers and market-distorting policies”.

The strategy laid down at the Rome Summit would have to translate quickly into farm and trade policies in each country, as even before the crisis there were some 850 million undernourished people in the world, with the number increasing rapidly, according to senior U.N. officials.

Soaring fuel prices drive up costs of fertilizers, farm vehicle use and transport of food to market. — AP

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