UN stresses need for food security
New York, 05 Mar – (ANA) - Governments need to prioritize food security strategies and invest in their agricultural sectors to reduce poverty, a United Nations official said today, stressing that supporting small farmers was particularly
important to prevent food crises. David Nabarro, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition, told a news briefing in Geneva that one of the main challenges the world faces today is ensuring that it can meet the demand for food for nine billion people by 2050. To tackle this challenge, he said, countries should focus on making sure that they have the necessary measures in place to be able to provide food for their population. However, this has become more complex in recent years due to volatile food prices. During 2007 and 2008, rises in food prices triggered a crisis which saw riots in more than 35 countries as prices soared by as much as 30 to 50 per cent and 700 million people suffered from hunger. Since then, prices have remained inconsistent due to uncertainty in the world economy as well as changes in demand and shortage of supplies. (ANA)
FA/ANA/05 March 2012------------