Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged the global leadership to create an equitable food-governance system both at national and international levels to make food available and accessible to the hungry people across the world.
“Only production of food alone cannot guarantee food security. Available food must be accessible, particularly to the marginalised and the vulnerable, for which a fair and equitable food-governance system is required at both national and international levels,” she said.
The PM mooted the proposal while addressing the World Summit on Food Security at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Headquarters in the Italian capital at 4:00pm (local time).
With Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi in the chair, the opening session was also addressed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of Italian Senate Renato Schifani.
Mayor of Rome Giovanni Alemanno delivered the welcome massage.
Hasina in her speech also depicted the disastrous link between the global climate change and food production in the globe.
“Indeed, food security is also directly related to climate change. Bangladesh stands out as a stark example where agricultural production has become hostage to frequent and erratic natural disasters, thereby adversely affecting food production,” she told the meet.
Hasina mentioned that significantly, the demands for meeting the adverse effects of climate change are diverting funds allocated for sensitive social sectors as health, education, energy etc.
“Shortage of funds has also severely restricted our research efforts in agriculture, particularly in food production. Further breakthrough on high yielding rice or agro-based products could be developed, though the growing need for discovering varieties resistant to salinity, drought, and water submergence has become urgent.”
“The picture we see now is a cruel one for a world where one-sixth of its population, over a billion, are faced with the spectre of hunger,” she added.
The Bangladesh premier noted that the vast majority of these people reside in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) facing food shortages, negation of development gains, and erosion of Millennium Development Goals.
She observed that the threat to food security seems now to be more than ever before, against the backdrop of sudden scarcity of food and its price spiral in 2007-2008, the recent worldwide financial meltdown, and the looming impacts of climate change.
Indeed, the unprecedented increase in food prices during the last two years aggravated further the predicament of the LDCs, already reeling under declined remittances, reduced export earnings, credit crunch, and unemployment at home and abroad, due to the global recession.
Hasina informed the assembly world leaders that her government on assumption of power got confronted with all these challenges.
As a first step, she said, the Bangladesh government began implementing the agricultural policies which, “during our previous tenure from 1996 to 2001, helped us attain food autarky and won us FAO’s prestigious Ceres Award.”
“We also reduced substantially the prices of fertilisers, and ensured water supply for irrigation with uninterrupted power supply. We are also striving for fair prices for farmers, and removing bottlenecks in the marketing chain,” she said.
“We have also revived diversification of crop varieties; building food-grain storage capacities to ensure sustained supply of food around the year; putting in place social safety nets like cash and food transfers; and other poverty-alleviation programs.”
The government adopted in May 2009 a National Food Policy Plan of Action under which all national development partners’ efforts and resources would be harmonised for ensuring inclusive food security, the PM said.
Hasina stressed the need for implementation of the Rome Declaration provisions covering sustainable agricultural policies, transfer of technology, equitable and fair trade rules for food and agricultural products with special and preferential treatment for LDCs.
She said the summit declaration provides scope for strengthening global governance on food security, including enhanced role of the Committee on Food Security (CFS).
She viewed that a better coordination amongst FAO, IFAD and WFP would “definitely contribute to our goal of attaining food security.”
For implementing the provisions of the declaration, a substantial fund is essential. In this context, she said, the recent G-8 decision in L’Aquilla to mobilise $ 20 billion over three years for small farmers in food-deficit developing countries is encouraging.
Hasina said the summit declaration summed up the threats facing food security, as well as suggested remedial measures and her government would indeed be guided by the declaration in its endeavour to attain food security
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