Hunger undermines sustainable development

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Tuesday warned that there could be no sustainable development as long as millions of people suffered from chronic hunger and extreme poverty. "The poor are certainly not responsible for the bulk of resource depletion and environmental degradation. However, they suffer most from it," FAO Assistant Director-General, Hartwig de Haen, said in a statement distributed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. "Poor farmers care deeply for the limited resources on which they depend. Due to lack of sufficient access to land, water and appropriate technologies their actions are dominated by the struggle to survive," he said. More than 70 percent of the poor in developing countries live in rural areas and depend mostly on agriculture for their livelihoods. "Sustainable agriculture and rural development are the basis for success in fighting hunger and poverty," De Haen said. "Extreme poverty, low agricultural productivity and resource degradation may form a vicious circle. This circle must be broken if we are to achieve the international community's commitment to halve hunger and extreme poverty by 2015." FAO forecasts that world demand for food will increase by 60 percent by 2030. Most of the additional demand and production would be expected to originate in developing countries. The agency anticipated that close to 20 percent of the extra production would come from an expansion of land used for agriculture, mainly in Africa and Latin America, 10 percent from more frequent harvests, and 70 percent from higher yields. "[As a result of the land expansion] the possible encroachment into ecologically sensitive lands is still a major concern," De Haen warned. "The fundamental task is to realise the projected yield increases with minimum negative impact on the environment. In other words: we need sustainable intensification." This could be done by using and improving existing technologies, he said. Political will, concrete commitment, and involvement of all stakeholders was essential to achieve the twin goals of halving hunger and sustainable resource management. FAO estimated that reducing the number of hungry people by half would bring about annual benefits in the order of US $120 billion "as a result of longer, healthier and more productive lives". This would be to the advantage of poor and rich countries alike. De Haen encouraged developed and developing countries to support financially the FAO's Anti-Hunger Programme and the Action Plan for Agriculture, one of the five areas for action under the UN Secretary-General's so-called WEHAB initiative (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity).