AGRICULTURE WEATHERING ECONOMIC CRISIS BETTER THAN OTHER SECTORS: UN-BACKED REPORT

Since food is a basic necessity, the agriculture sector has taken less of a hit than other industries as a result of the current economic crisis, according to a new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

So long as the global economy begins its recovery within the next two to three years, the "Agriculture Outlook 2009-2018" – jointly released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – says that drops in agricultural prices and in the production and consumption of farm goods will likely be moderate.

The recession will dampen food prices, in turn easing pressure on cash-strapped consumers, it added.

While prices have fallen from their record highs in 2008, they are still high in many countries, and the new report projected that the prices of all farm commodities, except for beef and pork, will probably not fall back to their pre-2007-2008 averages.

Crops are estimated to cost 10-20 per cent more in the next decade, when adjusted for inflation, compared with the average for the 1996-2006 period, while vegetable oil prices are expected to surge 30 per cent.

The FAO-OECD study also said that the main forces underpinning agricultural commodity prices and markets over the medium-term are an expected economic recovery, renewed food demand growth on the part of developing countries and the emerging biofuel markets.

But it cautioned that extreme price volatility, as experienced last year, could occur again, given that commodity prices are increasingly tied to oil and energy costs, with environmental experts cautioning of erratic weather conditions.

The report points to access – and not availability – as a longer-term problem, stressing that poverty reduction and economic growth will be a large part of the solution.

It also called on governments to boost domestic agricultural development through infrastructure investment and incentivizing sustainable soil and water use, among other targeted policies.
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AGRICULTURE KEY TO AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT, STRESSES UN-AFRICAN UNION REPORT

AGRICULTURE KEY TO AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT, STRESSES UN-AFRICAN UNION REPORT
New York, May 28 2009 3:00PM
African nations will be hit hard by the global economic crisis during the course of 2009, the United Nations and the African Union (AU) say in a new report, which stresses the need to focus on agriculture, the mainstay of economies on the continent.

"Modernising agriculture is crucial to development and industrialisation in Africa, to food security, sustained poverty reduction and integration of Africa in the global economy," says this year's Economic Report on Africa.

The report, an annual publication of the AU Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (<"http://www.uneca.org/">ECA), calls for special attention to agriculture, since Africa is heavily dependent on this sector for providing employment, generating economic growth, foreign exchange earnings and tax revenue.

"Agriculture is still the mainstay of economic development and yet a very neglected sector for decades in Africa," Rob Vos, Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division at the Department for Economic and Social Affairs (<"http://www.un.org/esa/desa/">DESA), told reporters as he launched the report.

He noted that Africa, which has the largest agricultural potential per hectare and per capita, is still a net food importer. "What Africa needs is a long-term focus on agricultural development and a transformation that would help further economic diversification, job creation and, through that, poverty reduction," he said.

The report, entitled "Developing African Agriculture through Regional Value Chains," highlights the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), adopted by the AU in 2003.

In the framework of the CAADP, it points to a strategy that creates regional value chains that link agriculture to other sectors of the economy as the best way to initiate and sustain development in Africa.

These value chains will include forward and backward linkages, from agribusinesses, agro-processing, ethanol production, other industrial processes to soil management, high-yielding seed varieties and fertiliser production, according to the report.

Lila Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana of the AU noted that the theme of this year's report not only tackles a major sector of the African economy, but is also relevant to the theme of the AU summit to be held in July in Sirte, Libya, which is investing in agriculture for economic growth and food security.

The report adds that the impact of the global financial crisis has already resulted in lower demand for Africa's export and a sharp decline in commodity prices. At the same time, it says that sustained economic reforms, exchange rate adjustment, easing of inflation and efforts to revive domestic demand will contribute to low but still positive growth rates in some African countries in 2009.
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BAN URGES STEPS TO REVITALIZE AGRICULTURE, ENSURE FOOD SECURITY FOR ALL

BAN URGES STEPS TO REVITALIZE AGRICULTURE, ENSURE FOOD SECURITY FOR ALL
New York, May 13 2009 2:00PM
Warning that the global food crisis is far from over, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged Member States to agree on a set of decisions that will revitalize agriculture, support small farmers and promote food security for all.

"The food crisis is not yet behind us. Indeed, it may have widened its scope," Mr. Ban told the opening of the high-level segment of the Commission on Sustainable Development in New York.

The two-week session of the Commission, which began last week, is expected to culminate in policy decisions in areas such as agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.

Mr. Ban said that high food prices mean 100 million people in low-income countries are at risk of joining the ranks of the malnourished. As a result, the World Food Programme (WFP) will need to increase its budget from $500 million to $750 million to maintain its operations.

At the same time, he noted that there is broad-based international support for addressing this issue. In particular, he was pleased with the Commission's initiative to convene a ministerial roundtable on a sustainable green revolution for Africa.

"Investing in an African green revolution will serve not just food security but progress across all the Millennium Development Goals, including environmental sustainability," he said, referring to the set of anti-poverty targets global leaders have pledged to try to achieve by 2015, known as the MDGs.

"To achieve a Green Revolution, African farmers, must have access to land and security of tenure. They also need access to markets, technology and improved infrastructure," he stated, adding that this includes women farmers.

In the midst of a global recession, things can deteriorate "frighteningly fast," the Secretary-General pointed out, saying "it is but a short step from hunger to starvation, from disease to death."

The international community, he said, must offer short-term emergency measures to meet critical needs. But it must also make longer-term investments to promote food production and agricultural development, enhance food security and maintain and accelerate momentum towards the MDGs.

"The decisions taken here must help to revitalize agriculture and support the productivity and resilience of small farmers, in particular, to achieve food security for all," Mr. Ban told delegates.
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CHINA BREAKS GROUND IN ‘SOUTH-SOUTH’ AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION, UN AGENCY SAYS

In creating a $30 million trust fund to boost the food output of developing countries, China has cemented its role as a major global player in cooperation between developing countries, the United Nations agricultural agency said today.

"This historic agreement underlines the importance of the role which China has come to play in the global arena today," José Maria Sumpsi Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said after signing an agreement with the Chinese Vice-Minister for Agriculture.

Under the agreement, China will provide technical experts and resources to developing countries to improve their agricultural productivity and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a list of targets for cutting extreme poverty and other global ills by 2015.

The trust fund will have a strong focus on Africa, but will not exclude other regions, FAO said, and will last for three years, with China releasing $10 million per year.

The agency notes that China has been providing technical cooperation through FAO in Africa for many years and in 2005 it formalized a Strategic Alliance for south-south cooperation in which developing countries help each other through transfer of knowledge, personnel and technologies.

The Strategic Alliance is carried out under the umbrellas of FAO's National and Regional Programmes for Food Security and envisages the provision of up to 3,000 Chinese experts and technicians to developing countries under the trust fund arrangement.

Five hundred experts and technicians from China were fielded to Nigeria between 2003 and 2007 and, overall, over 700 Chinese experts have been fielded to all regions of the world since the inception of the south-south cooperation programme, FAO said.
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