Agriculture.ph Blog

The recently concluded World Food Summit discussed among others the global food crisis, climate change and biofuels. One very important and positive outcome of said summit based on their declaration is the strong affirmation of all countries for the need for significant investment in agriculture which includes the call for the doubling of investment in international agricultural research. All governments recognize the need to significantly increase food production and to empower and provide support to small farmers to boost their productivity. We need this policy declaration as agriculture has really been neglected for so long hence the global food crisis today. But there are also grey areas as per the food summit declaration. One is on export bans and other trade distorting measures which contributes to and exacerbates the crisis. The summit only recognized this as a problem but no action taken like elimination of export bans. IFPRI studies shows that elimination of export bans would stabilize grain price fluctuations, reduce price levels by as much as 30 percent, and enhance the efficiency of agricultural production. The second grey area is on biofuels. The summit recognized only the challenges and opportunities of biofuels. They should have distinguished more forcefully between smart and non-smart types of biofuels. Corn is not a smart bioethanol crop, much more in developing countries because of its implications to food security. Smart bioethanol crops like sweet sorghum should be further developed, promoted and commercialized because it also ensures food and environmental security. Strong action is also needed by governments to put up new and or enhance existing safety nets for poor people who are the most vulnerable among the population. We should also build up long term resilience of poor people to crisis like global warming, droughts, typhoons, floods and many others. Mitigation on and adaptation with climate change must be given high priority attention and investment as this will have great impact in agriculture and the poor. The summit could have been more successful if they were clear as to who is responsible for its implementation and monitoring. This has been the case before and food production stagnated or declined, and poverty and hunger continued to escalate inspite of having targets like that of the millenium development goals (MDGs). We know that the developed countries has started to make their commitments and pledges including international organizations which is a welcome development and we need more. The developing countries must do the same, put up the needed policy support, and give the highest priority and investment to their agriculture sector. There should be a new way of doing things to address the global food crisis. The billion poor people of the world, being very vulnerable will continue to suffer because of soaring food prices if we don`t do it right. The world today must act as one NOW!

Written by: By William D Dar, Director General, ICRISAT

Source: www.map-abcdf.com.ph