Several conferences have been held during the last two decades, including the International Conference on Nutrition, on Population, on Environment and Development, the World Summit for Children and today, this historic World Food Summit in Rome. All these are aimed at addressing the question of hunger, poverty and malnutrition, with varying success.
My country, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, would wish to join the rest of the international community in congratulating FAO for this initiative. Sometimes as individuals, organizations and nations, we feel tempted under the withering blight of criticism to just withdraw and do nothing, yet our consciences would not allow us to do so in the light of the great humanitarian needs. The greatest and most urgent need confronting our world today is how to feed our growing populations.
The peculiar status of small island states with their fragile environments and economies is well documented and need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say that we still face serious problems, such as low yields, low commodity prices, increased protectionism, food dumping, agricultural subsidies, increased indebtedness. What is needed is for us as a world community to dispassionately assess the current status of food production and food availability and commit ourselves to finding the solutions to food security.
If I may be permitted, Mr. Chairman, I would like to share briefly three major policy initiatives which, as a small island state, we have pursued to address the question of poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
In a country whose economy is still agriculturally based, it was felt that a redistribution of wealth necessitated land accessibility. Therefore government sub-divided estates into smaller units and made these available to farmers on a lease to purchase agreement. There is already evidence of increased employment and production, especially among women, youths and the rural poor.
Banana production has dominated our economy for many years leading to the neglect of other agricultural activities. However, with the assistance of the international community we have begun to increase our production of other crops for food security and foreign exchange earnings.
There is no doubt that the Caribbean is one of the most peaceful, beautiful and healthy environments to which visitors are attracted. It is our policy to link tourism with agriculture and to ensure that a greater percentage of the tourist dollar remains to develop the people of our region. The agro-processing industry is being encouraged to utilize surplus fresh fruits and add value to the product.
It would be unwise to draw the conclusion that these initiatives would solve all our economic difficulties. In fact, a recent study on poverty assessment shows that there are still pockets of poverty in my country. It is at a forum like this one that we articulate the needs that are still there, with the hope that the international institutions and donor governments and communities which have helped to see us thus far will not become weary in well doing, but will rise to the needs of the occasion.
Our world is confronted by many social diseases, including hatred which manifests itself in violence of all sorts. But a far more prevalent disease of the human soul is the sickness of apathy and indifference. It is a sickness which affects individual families, nations and the world and which allows us to tolerate past and present atrocities and human tragedies.
Hunger and starvation come at different times in different ways, for different reasons. At times it is the logical consequences of poor choices and behaviour: a family left without the main breadwinner due to a vehicular accident or a drunken driver; a whole island left without food and water in the wake of the ravages of a hurricane, drought and volcanic eruption; a group of people caught in the middle of civil strife, as is happening now in the Great Lakes area in Central Africa. At times it is so unfair that innocent people are victimised by the poor choices and behaviour of others. But regardless of when, how or why they occur, hunger and starvation always hurt. In the face of these hurts we need to show compassion rather than apathy and be reminded that a hungry man is an angry man.
A two-fold responsibility should be encouraged: one of saying and one of doing. Interesting strategies have been documented in meeting these needs, for example, food for the most vulnerable age groups (the aged, nursing mothers and school children), food in exchange for community development work, etc. and we are grateful for these attempts by various organizations.
Other areas which need to be explored include: directed research to address the problems of developing countries in the areas of root crops, tubers and tropical fruits for high-yielding capacity; integrated pest management to reduce pesticide use and the cost of production on small farms; and the design and production of agricultural equipment to meet the needs of developing countries, some of which have small farms and a very rugged terrain; human resource development – the continued training of agriculturalists and farmers from developing countries to enable them to implement their own development plans. “When farm families become more involved in development and begin to get benefits of higher yields from their crops then they may decide to have fewer children which is a far more realistic way of bringing down population growth rates” (quote from the International Agricultural Development Journal, Vol. 5, page 2).
In combatting hunger, starvation, malnutrition, whatever we may wish to call it, the challenge is for us to make full use of everyone’s talents, abilities and resources and bring out the best of both men and women, government and non-government organizations, research and extension, traditional and new technologies, production and distribution, exploitation and conservation, donors and recipients, all to achieve the goal.
There is no doubt that the resources are available to accomplish this task but the question is whether there is the will to follow the way. In his book People in Rural Development, Peter Bachelor makes the point that “the key to development lies with working with people rather than relying on technology”.
I do believe that this august gathering will, through its deliberations, discussions and follow-up actions make it possible for peoples everywhere to have access to food and so be able to say “I was hungry and you gave me food – something to eat”, according to the Bible.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines wishes to pledge its support toward the implementation of the Plan of Action of the Rome World Food Summit.
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Publish date : 2024-05-19 05:12:19
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