Since the economic crisis hit, there are about 100 million more people that are hungry. The UN attributes this rise in world hunger to unemployment and low wages. This, in turn, hurts people?s ability to buy and grow food. The economic downturn means small farmers cannot afford to plant to full capacity, and there are early signs that the credit crisis has dried up some of the private investment that was supposed to spark a second Green Revolution. As always, it will be the poorest that suffer first.
Jacques Diouf, the director general of the UNFAO, focused on agricultural investment as one of the solutions to help developing countries address hunger issues. The BBC quotes Diouf: ?Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger, and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth.?
Church-linked campaigners for justice in the fight against hunger have urged new approaches to trade that uphold right to food of the people, as the WTO launched its World Trade Report 2009.
?Food cannot be treated like any other commodity,? said Jos? Pablo Prado C?rdova, president of the board of directors of the YMCA Guatemala and vice-chairperson of the Food Strategy Group for the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an international Christian network committed to joint action on critical global issues. ?Many current trade policies undermine food systems,? he said.
The trade report of the WTO published on July 22 warned against protectionism as a response to the global economic crisis, noting that governments are facing pressures to adopt measures, which may restrict trade.
?This report focuses on trade in the midst of the global economic downturn but does not differentiate food from any other commodity,? stated Ester Wolf, a policy advisor with Bread for All in Switzerland, a church-linked group. ?Yet with a billion people now facing chronic hunger, we need to start with an analysis that recognises that all people have a right to food, not just a right to eat but the right to have the means to buy or produce their food.?
On July 10, the US-based Bread for the World group welcomed the stated commitment of the Group of Eight industrial nations at their meeting in L?Aquila, Italy, on reducing world hunger by increasing agricultural support and development in the poorest countries of the world.
David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, described the agreement by G8 leaders to contribute $20 billion over three years to a new initiative to combat global hunger as a sign of hope for millions across the world. ?The global economic collapse has been especially hard on the poor. An additional 150 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty and more than one billion people are struggling to feed themselves,? he said. ?We hope and pray that the promise translates into a durable commitment to support the efforts of hungry and the poor to lift themselves out of poverty.?
The additional resources would go towards rebuilding international capacity to address agricultural issues, and also to directly assisting farmers through improved access to higher-yielding seeds, fertiliser, credit and marketing. ?This would be the most ambitious international effort in many years to help millions of the poorest farmers of the world to significantly increase their crop yields to the benefit of their families and communities,? said Beckmann.
On food-related issues, the WTO trade report noted that several countries had introduced export taxes but it said these might have only limited effectiveness and risked standing in the way of a rapid recovery from the current crisis. It stated that recent evidence shows that while export bans have helped to contain domestic price rises, they have contributed to a worsened food crisis.
Malcolm Damon, director of an economic justice network in Southern Africa, said, however, that dealing with food shortages cannot be left to market conditions. He said the WTO report acknowledged the need to impose tariffs or other duties to offset export subsidies that generate unfair competition, but larger structural problems still exist.
Rogate Mshana, director of the World Council of Churches? programme on justice, diakonia and responsibility for creation, said that the report used, ?neo-liberal economics to advocate for more free trade as the means to improve global welfare, but there is little reference to the fact that trading partners aren?t equal.?
The world population, including developing countries like India may have to depend on GM food to overcome food shortages especially when these are dependent on rain Gods only.
The writer is advisor, Institute of Development Studies and Training, Chandigarh. He can be contacted at vasu022@gmail.com