June 5, 2008

Food crisis fuels call for farmer empowerment in developing countries


The world food crisis is a wake up call for developing nations to turn subsistence farmers into agricultural entrepreneurs able to feed growing populations, a representatives of a global farmers' organization said Wednesday (June 5, 2008).

 

Jack Wilkinson, head of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), told AFP on the sidelines of the 38th World Farmers' Congress in the Polish capital that governments should empower farmers so they can help solve the problem.

 

"This crisis is the effect of 20 years of neglect in agricultural policy," Wilkinson, himself a Canadian wheat farmer, said. "Farmers can solve this food crisis right now but we need the tools to do it."

 

A recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report estimated that in order to feed growing demand, food production must increase 50 percent by 2030.

 

Despite record production in 2008, food prices are expected to remain high, affecting the world's poorest people the most, the FAO said.

 

A declaration set to be adopted by IFAP's congress Wednesday pointed to the urgent need for developing states to invest in their farm sectors, build commodity supply chains to help small farmers market goods and implement risk management schemes to counterbalance exposure on the free market, among other measures.

 

Developing a basic food processing and storage industry to preserve crops is also sorely needed, Wilkinson said.

 

Many developing countries see 20 percent or 30 percent of their crop lost after harvest due to the lack of such facilities, he said, adding that these losses could have been prevented with existing technology which are in reality simple and inexpensive.

 

"Governments have a fundamental responsibility to put the fundamentals in place to allow farmers to move beyond subsistence," Wilkinson said.

 

"We'll recover from this one in about 12 months because farmers are very resilient, but we need to have policies in place from now until infinity to feed the people of the world."

 

We've got to respond to this not as a crisis, but as - 'this is the future'."

 

Grouping 600 million independent family farmers from 80 countries around the globe, the IFAP is the world's largest family farmers' organization.

 

The IFAP also urged governments in developing nations to work out strategies with farmers to realize their full production potential.

 

The IFAP pointed out that for decades, developing countries were relying on dumping-priced surpluses from the West to feed their people.

 

Developing countries have been able to buy grains from the developed world at prices below production costs thanks to the "crazy economy", Wilkinson said, pointing to subsidy schemes which sparked overproduction in industrialized nations in the 20th Century.

 

"Why not see this crisis as an incredible opportunity to support local agriculture in developing countries?" Wilkinson asked.

 

"Which prime minister is calling his farmers and saying we've got a problem here, what do you guys need so you can increase production by 20 percent. Do you need credit? Do you need a road built? Do you need collection stations? Do you need to clean the grain after harvest?," said Wilkinson.

 

"Not many have had these meetings yet and they need to start now," he said.