Rising food prices… Recommendations at FAO summit mirror local strategies

Jun 06, 2008 News

Minister Persaud

Many of the strategies that have been implemented in Guyana to cushion the effects of rising food prices are among the solutions that were garnered at the recently held Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) summit in Rome, Italy.
Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday from Miami, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said that the final declaration from the meeting includes some of the measures that have already been put into practice here.
The need to support farmers in food production, rising prices of fuel and climate change were among some of the issues that were discussed at the summit.
“Our hope is not only about the declaration…but we hope that this declaration will result in tangible results,” the Minister said.
He said that Guyana’s participation in the conference will not only benefit the country but the entire region. According to the Minister, the Agriculture Investment Forum which begins here today will be a reflection of what took place in Rome earlier this week.
“Some of the discussion was reassuring…the solutions are consistent with what the global community is looking at,” Persaud added.
Persaud said that the Ministers participating in the conference were given a chance to share their views and situations in their individual countries as part of the presentations.
The need for investment in countries was also highlighted, he said.
The FAO begun emergency activities worth US$17M to respond to high food prices, which threaten to leave the globe’s 862 million people afflicted by hunger in an even worse situation, and push millions more people back into extreme poverty and hunger.
The start-up funds will cover the immediate needs to give small farmers in some of the poorest countries the seeds, fertilizers, and other tools they need to boost agricultural production for the upcoming planting seasons through 2009.
But the countries most affected, especially in Africa, will need at least US$1.7B to start to revive agricultural systems that have been neglected for several decades.
The objective of the conference was to assist countries and the international community in devising sustainable solutions to the food crisis by identifying the policies, strategies and programmes required to safeguard world food security in the immediate, short and long terms.

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