The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General Jacques Diouf on Tuesday while addressing the present global food crisis urged International community to not only take measures to deal the current world food emergency but also see it as an advantage offered by the higher food prices and assist farmers to prevent similar situation in future.
The chief of FAO in a press statement published in official website said, “The time for re-launching agriculture is now and the international community should not miss the opportunity.”
He said that it is time to take a dual approach with policies to assist millions of poors whose livelihood are at immense risk with increasing food prices and measures to help farmers in producing more and more grains.
Seeking to take advantage of the new situation FAO called for more and more food production where it is needed to facilitate the livelihood of rural poors by containing the soaring prices of food grains and generating employment opportunities by giving them access to land, water, seeds and fertilizers.
He said increasing access to essential farming needs to small farmers, who are affected the most, will enable them to produce adequate amount of food thereby increasing their supply at higher prices while improving their income which ultimately benefits consumers.
Dr 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 fertilisers. This will enable them to increase their supply response to higher prices, boosting their incomes, improving their livelihoods, and ultimately benefiting consumers as well”.
FAO therefore put across an urgent attention of spending on agriculture and other public resources in terms of irrigation, land availability, financial assistance to small farmers, and access to technology, agricultural research, transport and communication which can boost up the efforts against food crisis.
“To ensure that small farmers and rural households benefit from higher food prices, we need to create a favourable policy environment that relaxes the constraints facing the private sector, farmers and traders,” Dr Diouf added.
For now the food crisis will be discussed in early June at a FAO-sponsored worldwide conference in Rome on June 3-5, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.
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