ROME, Italy – World leaders trying to reduce hunger should focus on farmers and keep a wary eye on multinational companies, the president of a world farmer lobby told a meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
“In the final analysis, it will be the farmer who will make or break any strategy to achieve food security,” said Dutch farmer Gerard Doornbos, president of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
“It is therefore critical not to lose focus of the key player.”
Throughout the FAO meeting in Rome, delegates worried that the world will fail in its 1996 leaders’ pledge to cut in half the number of chronically hungry or starving people by 2015.
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During the first five years of the 20-year period, the number of hungry people has fallen at 40 percent of the rate needed to meet the goal.
The evidence is that leaders made the pledge at the 1996 World Food Summit and then returned home to pursue other policy priorities. Leaders are scheduled to gather again next June to try to re-ignite the commitment and priority.
“It is a matter of grave concern that we are now unlikely to meet the target of halving the number of undernourished people in the world by 2015,” lamented Japanese politician Mineichi Iwanaga in a speech to the meeting.
Doornbos rejected the pessimism.
“If the summit in June next year focuses on strengthening small-farm agriculture and on facilitating the self-help efforts of farmers, then I am convinced that (the) target of reducing by half the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition by 2015 is achievable.”
He said farmers need fair prices, a “reasonable” level of income and market access for their produce.
He also complained that multinational companies increasingly dominate the market, and trade rules are stacked against farmers in developing countries.
