The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf on Tuesday urged the international community to seize the opportunity of high food prices to boost agriculture.
"The time for re-launching agriculture is now and the international community should not miss the opportunity," Diouf said in a statement published on the FAO website.
High food commodity prices call for a twin-track approach featuring policies and programs to assist the millions of poor whose livelihoods were at risk, and steps to help farmers in the developing world take advantage of the new situation, according to FAO.
"We must produce more food where it is urgently needed to contain the impact of soaring prices on poor consumers, and simultaneously boost productivity and expand production to create more income and employment opportunities for the rural poor," Diouf said.
"We have to ensure that small holder farmers have proper access to land and water resources and essential inputs such as seeds and fertilizers. This will enable them to increase their supply response to higher prices, boosting their incomes, improving their livelihoods, and ultimately benefiting consumers as well," Diouf said.
The issue of food prices will be discussed on June 3-5 when world leaders meet in Rome at the FAO's invitation to attend a High Level Conference on World Food Security.
While high food prices exacerbate food insecurity and create social tensions there is a danger of the emergency overshadowing the longer-term aspects, Diouf warned.
"To ensure that small farmers and rural households benefit from higher food prices, we need to create a favorable policy environment that relaxes the constraints facing the private sector, farmers and traders," he added.
That would mean reversing the decline in the level of public resources spent on agriculture and rural development and investing more in agriculture, Diouf said.
Farmers in the developing world have had to battle constraints including lack of infrastructure such as transport and communications, access to technology and extension services and well-functioning marketing and credit systems, according to FAO.
Lack of irrigation, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is another major problem that must be resolved. When food prices soared in the 1970s many Asian governments chose to invest in irrigation and agricultural research, and this set the stage for rapid productivity growth that saved millions from poverty and hunger, Diouf recalled.
"A similar response is urgently needed today -- particularly in sub-Saharan Africa," he added.
Last December FAO launched an emergency Initiative on Soaring Food Prices to provide 37 Low-Income Food Deficit countries with the seeds and inputs to boost their domestic food production. FAO has called for 1.7 billion dollars of international fund to implement the plan.
Source:Xinhua
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