ADB, FAO to mitigate hunger in Asia and the Pacific

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have signed an agreement to build food security across the Asia and the Pacific region. Despite the region’s impressive gains on achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the three-year “Asia Pacific Regional Food Security Partnership Framework" would support the need to bolster the mitigation of hunger in the region, the ADB said in a statement Friday. The three agencies will promote innovative financing mechanisms to attract private sector investment in agriculture and develop business models that bring benefits for investors and local small farmers, the bank said. According to the ADB, the framework establishes four pillars for collective and collaborative efforts. These are the “harmonization of cross-border and regional investments, promotion of stronger collaboration in the prioritized agricultural research, support to enhance intra- and inter-regional food trade, and facilitation of sharing of lessons and good practices in policy and institutional response to improve household food security," the ADB noted. ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda pointed out that the Asia and the Pacific region remains a home to some 578 million hungry people or two-thirds of the world’s hungry. “So it is high time to move out of our comfort zones and forge new partnerships, collaborative arrangements, and networks with the single objective of achieving food for all," Kuroda said. “Asia needs to wake up to the enormous challenge of feeding its population of five billion people by 2050," FAO director general Jacques Diouf said, underscoring that gross annual investments of $120 billion are required in the region for primary agriculture and downstream services. Diouf said several countries in the region have made significant progress in reducing hunger. “We should build on these successful experiences," he added. Meanwhile, IFAD president Kanayo Nwanze said the problem on food prices certainly forced the world to put agriculture back where it belongs — at the top of national, regional, and global agendas. “To boost agricultural productivity, strengthen food security, and create dynamic rural economies across the region, ramping up investment in agriculture is crucial,’’ Kanayo said. As hunger remains widespread in the region and that billions are still vulnerable to dramatic spikes in food prices, it only means that there are deep structural problems in the region’s food supply chain, the bank said. -- GMANews.TV