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Nigeria: Annan Addresses Global Food Crisis Today
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This Day (Lagos)
COLUMN
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 2 May 2008
Etim Imisim
Abuja
Former UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan will, today , address the global food crisis.
Annan will be speaking at Salzburg, Austria, on "green revolution" in Africa. Mr. Annan's address is a part of a three-day conference on African agriculture, which started Wednesday and ends tomorrow, featuring leading African agricultural and economic experts.
A statement from Nairobi-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), made available to THIDAY, said the former UN boss will present an "ambitious programme" for agriculture in the continent.
The alliance was established last year by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations and is chaired by Annan. "Global food prices have doubled in the last three years," the statement said.
"Africa is hardest hit, because the continent is dependent on food imports and food aid. The cost of cereal for low-income and food-deficit in the region may increase by an additional 74 per cent this year," the statement added.
Impacts of the crisis are already being felt across the continent. About 33 million young children are estimated to be malnourished, and food riots have been reported in over half a dozen countries. Annan will be proposing the doubling or tripling African food productivity.
He will take a look at the immediate, medium and long-term solutions for the crisis. He is expected to report on progress towards boosting sustainable food production and proffer means of reducing food insecurity in Africa, where "own food production is tragically low," the statement added. Nigeria's Dr. Akin Adesina, vice president of policy and partnership at AGRA, said the group was inspired by the Asian Green Revolution. The Asian experience made small farmers the primary beneficiaries of agricultural development, and "more than doubled cereal production and saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people."Therefore, the energy and resourcefulness of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers will be the key in Mr. Annan's recommendations.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme of the African Union seeks to achieve a six per cent annual growth in food production by 2015.
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This will however only be possible if African countries place agriculture at the centre of their development agenda. The World Development Report 2008, published by the World Bank, says Sub-Saharan Africa relies heavily on agriculture for overall growth. However, public spending for farming in the region is a mere four percent of total government spending. The World Food Programme this week called the worsening food situation a "silent tsunami" and said more than 100 million will be affected worldwide. The executive director of the UN agency, Josette Sheeran, called for "large-scale, high-level action by the global community, focused on emergency and longer-term solutions".
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