World Agric. boss optimistic about global food situation

Accra (Greater Accra), 17 March '99 -

Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO, on Tuesday praised Ghana for her efforts at ensuring food security but said much has to be done to address existing constraints. "For instance, you need to import about 500,000 metric tonnes of cereal this year, but these could have been grown here under the right conditions." At a news conference in Accra, Dr Diouf pledged FAO's support to enable Ghana to achieve food security through the FAO's special programme for food security. He said though his two-day official visit was short, the extensive discussions he held with President Rawlings, the Speaker of Parliament, the Minister of Food and Agriculture and other ministers had given him an insight into the agricultural sector. "We discussed bilateral, regional and international issues and

the specific needs, constraints and the agricultural environment of Ghana. "We talked about how to combat Swine Fever in Africa, the code of conduct for responsible fishing, the land use policy in Ghana, the protection of the forest, the quality and marketing of food, rural-urban migration and others". Dr Diouf said improving transfer of research results to farmers and linkages between researchers and farmers were also discussed. He commended Ghana for her support to the FAO regional office in Accra and also for supporting his candidature to seek re-election as Africa's candidate to head the world food body. He said Ghana has been selected among 39 of the beneficiary African countries for the Special Programme for Food Security. The programme responds to urgent need to boost food production in 80 low-income and food deficit countries. The programme, Dr Diouf said "starts with a two to three-year pilot phase with on-farm demonstrations by participating farmers to their fellow farmers on four components. These are improved water control or small scale irrigation and intensification of sustainable crop production systems through the introduction of widely accessible technologies, including high yielding varieties. Diversification of production systems including aqua culture, small animals and tree crops are encouraged while obstacles to increased food production are eliminated through participatory approach. The second phase would build on the achievement of the pilot phase to create the conditions for large-scale replication. Dr Diouf underscored the importance of the programme to help reduce by half the over 800 million chronically hungry people by the year 2015. "Though an average of about 2,700 calories of food is available to a person a day, which is enough to meet everyone's energy needs, 840 million people, including two million children under the age of five, suffer from chronic under- nutrition". According to FAO projections, world food production will have to double more than its present level to feed the 8.3 billion people available. Answering questions about international trade barriers and tariffs, Dr Diouf said though the world food body plans to discuss "these issues, in addition to subsidies, it is important for developing countries to address marketing problems, transportation and food distribution in their own countries.