Chefen for FNs Fødevare- og Landbrugsorganisation (FAO) plæderer for, at verdens småbønder ikke må lades i stikken, for de producerer den slags fødevarer i mange u-lande og 2014 er internationalt år for “det lille familiebrug”.
WAGENINGEN (Holland)15 March 2013: FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said Friday, that a global review of nutrition (ernærings) strategy can, for example, involve rethinking the role of traditional crops (afgrøder), which have lost space in modern diets (kost).
“Every region has a variety of non-commodity crops that were used in the past as food. One example is quinoa, which is being celebrated in 2013 in an international year”, he noted at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands.
Quinoa is an Andean “super food”, a highly nutritious, cereal-like (korn-agtig) crop rich in protein and micronutrients.
While 870 million people suffer from hunger, there are also over half a billion who are obese (overvægtige) and susceptible to (udsatte for) non-communicable (ikke-smitsomme) diseases.
Bør være plads til både storfarme og småbønder
The FAO head praised the university for supporting the development of both industrial agriculture and small-scale production, adding that its research made an important contribution to understanding family farming.
“I believe there is room for both agricultural models in the world today, we need both of them,” he said.
Pointing out that 2014 will be the International Year of Family Farming, Graziano da Silva said that in most developing countries small-scale farming is the main producer of the food consumed nationally and also the main source of employment in rural areas.
He noted that in recent decades rural populations have become older and in many cases predominantly female.
Women therefore need to be empowered, provided with the rights, policies, tools and resources necessary to support the role they play in all aspects of rural life and food security.
People especially youth also needed better economic opportunities that would keep them in the rural areas, he added.
Lokalt tilpasset enkel teknologi
Although science and technology must drive agricultural productivity and production increases, Graziano da Silva cautioned that technology can not simply be exported from one country to another and be expected to work perfectly. It must be adapted to local conditions.
“Agriculture is too sensitive and location specific. Soil, climate, water availability and so many other factors influence how one technology will work elsewhere”, he said.
“We need to ask farmers what they need, what they want, see what could fit, how it needs to be adapted and ensure that whatever we do ends up being ‘owned’ by the farmers themselves,” he added.
FAOs rolle
Graziano da Silva spoke of fundamental changes taking place in FAO as it concentrates its work on the world’s most pressing food, nutrition, agricultural and rural development problems.
“FAO’s mission to contribute to ending hunger in the world is as valid today as it was in 1945 when it was created … but the challenges are different today,” he said.
He said that FAO has developed new strategic objectives to respond to emerging global trends and challenges.
These strategic objectives are: ending hunger and malnutrition; producing sustainably; reducing rural poverty; improving food systems and their fairness; and increasing resilience (modstandsdygtighed) to external shocks.
Kilde: www.fao.org
