United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon arrives at a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome June 3, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
ROME, June 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon mapped out a twin-track strategy to tackle soaring food prices as world
leaders opened a three-day summit here Tuesday in a global response to the food
crisis.
"You all know about the severity and scale of the
global food crisis. Before this emergency, more than 850 million people in the
world were short of food," Ban told the summit, hosted by the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The high-level conference comes as the world is
experiencing a dramatic increase in food prices.
Agricultural commodity prices rose sharply in the
past two years and continued to rise even more sharply in the first three months
of 2008, with foodstuffs such as rice, corn and wheat all reaching record highs,
sparking riots in many countries and worsening the situation of the 850 million
people already affected by chronic hunger.
A joint report by the FAO and the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned last week that food prices
were expected to remain high over the next decade even if they would ease from
their recent peaks.
In a twin-track strategy, Ban said the international
community must take immediate steps to increase food availability to vulnerable
people as a short-term response.
He called on developed countries to help poor
countries expand food assistance through food aid, vouchers or cash, scale up
nutritional support and improve safety nets and social protection programs to
help the most vulnerable.
Small farmers' food production should be urgently
boosted by distributing seeds and fertilizers in time for this year's planting
seasons, Ban said.
Some actions have been taken at international level
to meet immediate needs.
The World Bank announced last week the establishment
of a 1.2 billion U.S. dollars' financing facility to boost food production,
including 200 million U.S. dollars in grants targeted at the world's poorest
countries.
The FAO also called for 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in
new funding to provide low-income countries with seeds and other agricultural
support.
The UN chief in particular warned against food export
restrictions imposed by certain countries in the face of higher food prices on
the global markets to ensure domestic supply.
"Some countries have taken action by limiting exports
or by imposing price controls... They only distort markets and force prices even
higher," Ban said.
"I call on nations to resist such measures and to
immediately release exports designated for humanitarian purposes," he added.
Ban also urged developed countries to open markets
for agricultural products from developing countries and eliminate subsidies to
farmers, a thorny issue hindering the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round
negotiations.
The international community must act for longer
resilience and contribute to global food security by "eliminating trade and
taxation policies that distort markets, not least through rapid resolution of
the Doha Round," he said.
Developing countries have long complained about
heavily subsidized food from Europe and the United States being dumped on their
markets, damaging their own farmers.
Ban said the world needs a dramatic increase in food
production to feed people and higher food prices provide an historic opportunity
to revitalize agriculture, especially in countries where productivity gains have
been low in recent years.
"The world needs to produce more food," he said.
"Food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet the rising
demand."
In the long term, Ban said investment in agriculture,
especially in developing countries, was vital to ensure global food security.
"These are parallel tracks -- immediate needs must
not be met at the expense of long-term solutions," he said.
On the more controversial issue of biofuels, Ban said
the international community should reach a greater degree of consensus.
An FAO report said the growth of biofuel production
is a factor contributing to higher food prices, a claim denied by major
producers such as the United States, the European Union and Brazil.
Aregentine President Cristina Fernandez
de Kirchner (L) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon on the sidelines of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
summit in Rome, capital of Italy, on June 2, 2008.(Xinhua
Photo/Telam) Photo
Gallery>>>
ROME, June 3 (Xinhua)
-- World leaders gathered here Tuesday for a three-day summit, seeking ways of
tackling soaring food prices and helping millions of people in the fight against
hunger. Full story
ROME,
June 3 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday
appealed to world leaders for 30 billion U.S. dollars a year to re-launch
agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food. Full story
HARARE, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Delegations from 162
countries gathering in Rome to seek ways out of a global food crisis, will be
addressed Tuesday by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, according to local
media reports. Full story
TEHRAN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday
that his country has clear strategies, proposals and plans for fair and
appropriate distribution of food worldwide, the official IRNA news agency
reported.Full story
