The Philippine-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is encouraging developing economies in Asia and Pacific to boost their investment in the agriculture sector to address the widespread hunger and cushion billions of people from future spikes in food prices.
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said Asia’s economies are rebounding strongly from global economic and food price crises of 2007-2009 and prices have stabilized. But they remain 85 percent higher than 2003 levels and are expected to jump by 15 to 40 percent until 2019.
People with rising incomes will also demand diversified food choices, adding strain to the region’s already stretched agricultural resources, he said.
– These statistics belie a crisis that will only get worse in the years to come unless immediate action is taken. Add to this rapid population growth, climate change and water shortages, and the need for action is blindingly apparent, Kuroda noted.
He said ADB has committed 2 billion dollar (12 milliarder DKR) a year for its food security plan for the region, focusing on boosting productivity, agricultural research, and the food supply chain.
At a side event to the “Investment Forum on Food Security in Asia and the Pacific” Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers Association, said small agricultural producers constitute the bulk of the food producers in Asia and the Pacific, providing food not only for the region but also other parts of the world but lack the necessary support from their respective governments and financial institutions.
Penunia said that many investments of the ADB, International Funding for Agricultural Development and other financial institutions, national government and big agri-business companies are problematic, even causing increased food insecurity in the region.
FAO: ALT FOR LIDT BISTAND TIL LANDBRUGET
Meanwhile, a United Nations’ body said on Wednesday, that Asian countries need to increase investment in food production by 50 percent to 120 billion US dollar a year to ensure they can afford to feed their large and growing populations.
With the number of hungry people in the world increasing by about 100 million to 1 billion last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said food production in the developing world had to double by 2050.
Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said that in Asia-Pacific alone, the ranks of the undernourished rose by over 60 million in 2009 to 642 million.
– The sheer magnitude of food insecurity is the result of the low priority that has been given to agriculture in economic development policies as shown by the drop in the share of agriculture in Official Development Assistance, from 19 percent in 1980 to about 5 percent today, Diouf said a video address.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
