Oxfam report: Agriculture in a time of global food crisis

Today, one in six people is starving. A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has meant that just in the last year, 100 million more people have been pushed into hunger, bringing the number to 1.02 billion – the highest in four decades.

The great tragedy is that there is enough food grown in the world to feed everyone. Half the world’s food is lost as waste and the other half the hungry cannot access.

To coincide with World Food Day (October 16), Oxfam is releasing a new report that examines food security in the wake of the global food crisis, exposing structural problems with agriculture and international trade.

In the report, titled ‘Harnessing Agriculture for Development’, Oxfam says agriculture is back onto the development agenda after years of neglect. Teresa Cavero, author of the report and head of research at Oxfam in Spain, says: “It is essential to see the present crisis as a moment of opportunity to move to a more just model of economic growth and development.

“At the same time, it is an opportunity to shine a light on practices such as agriculture ‘outsourcing’ that are of increasing concern for food security in poor countries that are nevertheless land-rich. This highlights the importance of land rights and sustainable access to land for reducing poverty and increasing food security,” adds Cavero.

Barry Coates, Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director says countries are woefully behind schedule to meet the Millennium Development Goal to halve hunger by 2015. “Without more action this goal will be missed. We need to move fast and act decisively. The focus needs to be on helping poor farmers who have been left to fend for themselves on the front-lines of hunger, poverty and climate change.

Coates says that the issues of agriculture and climate change are going to become increasingly important. With three out of every four poor people dependant on agriculture, it is part of the problem and needs to be part of the solution.

“Oxfam welcomes the New Zealand initiative to ramp up research into agricultural emissions. We hope the Government will insure that it can be relevant to small farmers in the developing world.”

The effects of climate change on global agriculture will be significant, including higher temperatures, greater rainfall variability and more frequent extreme weather events such as floods and droughts.

Coates says, “Agriculture and livelihoods haven’t been given the attention they deserve by New Zealand AID’s programmes in the Pacific and elsewhere. Small-scale farmers could hold the key to increasing global food production in a sustainable way while coping with the effects of climate change.”

To make a stand against poverty on World Food Day, join the Stand Up campaign and urge governments and policy makers to fulfil their commitment to achieve the Millennium Development goals (http://www.standup.org.nz/events/)

The report ‘Harnessing Agriculture for Development’ is available on the Oxfam website: http://www.oxfam.org.nz/resources/onlinereports/bp-harnessing-agriculture- 250909.pdf

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