16 November 2009
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda arrived in Rome, Italy to attend the World summit on Food Security which officially opened yesterday.
The plane carrying president Banda touched down at Ciampino Airport in Rome at 12:45 hours after a one and half hour flight from the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Zambia's ambassador to Italy Lucy Mungoma and other senior Government officials were on hand to receive president Banda on arrival
Mr Banda's touch down at Ciampino Airport was closely followed by that of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who is also in Rome for the same summit.
Mr Banda was later driven to Westin Excelstor Hotel where he would stay while in Rome.
The world summit on food security, the third at heads of State and government level since 1996, has been convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to secure a broad consensus on the total eradication of hunger from the world by 2025.
The summit has been called against a backdrop of increasing global food insecurity worsened by the global economic crisis with food prices remaining stubbornly high beyond the reach of most people.
The FAO says it is unacceptable that more than one billion people worldwide, mostly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their daily nutritional needs.
Director General Jacques Diouf said the UN organisation estimated the number of hungry mouths worldwide could increase by 100 million as a result of the global economic and financial crisis.
He said significant additional investment in agriculture averaging $209 billion per year, was required in primary agriculture and downstream services such as storage and marketing to eliminate poverty and achieve food security in developing countries.
For Zambia, president Banda and his delegation bring to the summit an encouraging overall national food security situation in which the 2009 maize yield stands at 1.89 million tonnes, 31 per cent above the 2008 harvest.
Statistics also show that wheat production increased by five per cent over the 2008 output.
The good harvest is attributed to the good agricultural policies that Government has put in place such as the farmer input support programme which has made inputs not only afordable, but also accessible and available to farmers throughout the country.
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