Human Wrongs Watch
While demand for food will increase due to population growth, urban migration and other factor, agricultural output growth will slow to an average of 1.7 per cent annually over the next 10 years, increasing resource constraints and environmental pressures, as well as driving up food prices, according to a new report. The UN called on academics to get involved in essential research to help reduce rural poverty and assist small-scale farmers.
Researchers have much to contribute towards fighting rural poverty. Photo: FAO
The Organization of Economic Co-operation (OECD) and Development and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) state in the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, adds “Higher demand will be met increasingly by supplies that come to market at higher cost.”
With farmland area expected to expand only slightly in the coming decade, additional production will need to come from increased productivity, including by reducing productivity gaps in developing countries,” it says.Millions of People in Extreme Poverty
“For consumers, especially for the millions of people living in extreme poverty, high food prices have caused considerable hardship,” FAO’s Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, said.
on 30 July, da Silva called on academics to get involved in essential research to help reduce rural poverty and assist small-scale farmers as part of the global fight against hunger.
“One of the great challenges we have today is to use academic knowledge to understand and improve the life of rural populations throughout the world,” said da Silva at the World Congress of Rural Sociology in Lisbon, Portugal.
“To do so, we need to look at the reality outside of university walls.”
Fight against Hunger, Unsafe Food…
Graziano da Silva outlined the most pressing issues in the fight against hunger, including food insecurity, nutrient deficiencies, unsafe food and unequal competition between small-scale and large food producers.
He called on academics to conduct research into these areas to advance discussions on responsible agricultural investments and food security.
Da Silva also pointed to the integration of small-scale farmers into the agricultural chain and the issue of governance in this sector as additional areas of academic concern adding that “there is a growing concentration in the agricultural and food chain, and this has an impact on small-scale farmers.”
In addition, he called on academia to come up with proposals to improve the working conditions in rural labour markets, which are often extremely poor and lack social protection measures.
Read also:
Mauritania: Sharing Every Bit of Food … Just to Survive
Burkina Faso: Families Eating the Seeds They Should Plant
Demand for More Milk and Meat Feeds 13 Big Killers
Sahel: No Food for 16 Million People Facing Hunger
2012 Human Wrongs Watch
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Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
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