Secretary-General calls for $30b to restructure world agriculture, create long-term food security

As the Financing for Development Conference continued in Doha, Qatar, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for an infusion of $30 billion to help restructure world agriculture and create long-term food security.
“This is not charity,” Mr. Ban stressed at a side event themed “Tackling the Food and Hunger Crisis, Investing in Food Security, Safety Nets and Small Holder Agriculture”. “It is an investment in our collective future. Ending hunger is critical to global stability and prosperity.” He noted that in 2007, an additional 75 million people had become undernourished, a number higher than the entire population of Turkey. Food prices were still twice as high as they had been in 2002 and the situation was expected to get worse as global population grew, climate change accelerated, prices fluctuated and the financial crisis continued to unfold. The most vulnerable people needed food today, he said, emphasizing that, for that purpose, Governments must avoid export bans. For medium-term needs, smallholder farmers must get fertilizers and seeds, and for the longer term, the underlying structural problems plaguing the food system must be solved.