JEDDAH, 9 October 2003 — The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began a two-day joint high-level technical meeting at the IDB headquarters here yesterday, with the aim of formulating regional programs for food security.
“Toward sustainable food security and poverty alleviation of the Near East countries” is the theme of the deliberations at the meeting inaugurated by IDB President Ahmed Muhammad Ali and FAO Director General Dr. Jacques Diouf. Some 50 participants and experts from regional economic and UN organizations and bilateral and multilateral donors are among the participants. “I hope the meeting will realize its objective of tackling national and regional food security strategies, issues related to food safety and trade facilitation, livestock, sustainable water resources use, and improved management for food security,” Ali said.
Governments, with support from FAO and other development agencies, have addressed food security and its related elements in many ways. But today, some 800 million people in developing countries — about 20 percent of their total population — are chronically undernourished. With a growing world population, the present figure of 5.7 billion is expected to rise to 8.3 billion by 2025. This situation will worsen unless very determined and well-targeted actions are taken to improve food security.
“The prevalence of under-nourishment in the population is 12 percent and mainly affects the rural areas. Poverty results primarily from low productivity. In the Near East region, the key constraints are the limited arable land — only six percent of the world total, against 54.8 for the developing countries. This is coupled with the issue related to availability of water,” Diouf said. “There must be ‘more crop for every drop’,” he said and called for efficient use of water.
There is a need for increased investment in agriculture in the region, as recommended by the World Food Summit of 2002. Diouf commended the IDB for supporting the special program for food security (SPFS), which was launched by FAO in 1994. The program is now operational in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It has been formulated for Jordan and is being prepared for Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. It focuses on low-cost irrigation systems costing $200 to $2,000/ha.
“FAO is working closely with relevant regional economic organizations in many parts of the world to ensure that appropriate strategies and programs are designed, implemented and followed up to meet major production, distribution, trade and investment challenges,” he said.
