3 June 2008: In his opening statement to the High-Level
Conference on World Food Security in Rome, Italy, FAO Director-General Jacques
Diouf called on Heads of State to make urgently needed investments in
agriculture to address the global food crisis and ensure long term food security.

He said that, despite the pledges made at the 1996 World Food
Summit to halve world food hunger by 2015, resources to finance agricultural
programmes in developing countries had decreased significantly. He said,
against the background of billions of dollars spent on agricultural subsidies
in OECD countries, in particular for the production of biofuels, it is hard to
explain why it is not possible “to find 30 billion dollars a year to enable 862
million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right
to food, and thus the right to life.” Diouf noted that the “structural solution
to the problem of food security in the world lies in increasing production and
productivity in the low-income food-deficit countries,” which calls for
innovative solutions, including partnership agreements. He also highlighted
that the “challenges of climate change, bioenergy, transboundary animal and
plant diseases and agricultural commodity prices can only be met through frank
dialogue based on objective analysis devoid of partisan and short-term
interests.” [Statement FAO press
release] [FAO Conference website]
[IISD RS coverage]