Twenty-third FAO Regional
Conference for Asia and the Pacific
Apia, Samoa, 14-18 May 1996
Mr Chairman,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is fortunate that the Twenty-third
FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific is being
held in the capital of this Polynesian nation whose
territory comprises an archipelago emblematic of the
small island states so numerous in this part of the
world, for it shows how important each Member Nation,
however small or distant from FAO Headquarters, is to the
Organization.
May I express our deep gratitude to
Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II, to Prime Minister
Tofilau Eti Alesana, and to the Government and people of
Samoa for offering us, in the great tradition of Pacific
Island hospitality, such a gracious, cordial and
efficient welcome.
Landing on these far shores, one could
easily think one had found a bit of paradise on earth the
lush vegetation, the mountains cloaked with magnificent
forests and the clear waters teeming with fish! Yet such
beauty should not mislead us. Taro, one of the staple
food crops of Samoa, has been hit by a leaf disease that
seriously reduces yields; the forest cover has been badly
savaged by cyclones; and the gradual disappearance of the
mangroves has lowered fish production in worrying
proportions.
It was largely these characteristics
(seeming abundance but underlying difficulties so
representative of the Pacific countries), that dictated
the choice of Apia as the seat of a new FAO Subregional
Office established to cope more effectively with the
specific technical, economic, social and financial
problems of the countries of the Pacific.
FAO in its work has to contend with
the immense diversity of the countries making up the Asia
and Pacific Region. Ranging from luxuriant fertility to
the driest of deserts, the region includes every
conceivable type of climate, land and water resource,
crop and farming practice. It takes in the world's
largest and most populous countries and also tiny island
states dots in the ocean that may have no more than a few
thousand or hundred thousand inhabitants. It comprises a
host of coexisting social, political and economic systems
and a vast array of cultures. Stunningly modern
megacities exist side by side with rural landscapes that
look as if they have remained unchanged for millennia.
The region embraces some of the most advanced and richest
of nations and some of the poorest and least privileged.
Through one of those habitual human
paradoxes, the region's very diversity has been a source
of cohesion and unity. Cradle of ancient cultures and
civilizations, source of ancient wisdom (and no doubt the
part of the world where universality in human thinking
was first attained) today it still inspires the thoughts
and actions of many of the world's inhabitants. The
interdependence typical of our times has now added new
layers to this legacy from the remote past. What mainly
sets the region apart, however, is the wealth of its
human resources: dynamism and skill are fused in a
determined and clearlyfocused will to ensure adequate
food for everyone, to maximize development potential in
all domains, and at the same time to carefully safeguard
the future resource base. This is, after all, the region
that spawned the fundamental concept that we do not own
the Earth; it has only been placed in our stewardship for
future generations.
Recent history attests to the reality
of this strength. Barely 30 to 40 years ago, many
countries in this region were a long way from meeting
their needs, experiencing chronic shortages and sometimes
terrible famines. And yet many of the countries that had
to import huge quantities of grain every year and were
constantly in need of food aid now produce the amounts
they require and some have even become net exporters. The
aid that these countries received would never have
produced such results if they had not been in a position
to assimilate and successfully apply the set of
technologies we call the Green Revolution.
Despite some setbacks in the realms of
social equity and the environment, the spectacular
progress of this revolution in terms of agricultural
production has provided a firm foundation for remarkable
and lasting economic growth. The latest figures for 1995
indicate a growth rate of more than 4 percent in
virtually all the developing countries of the region.
Does this mean that the problems have
all been solved and that this is the best of all possible
worlds? Unfortunately, no, not by a long chalk. A number
of countries were sidelined by the economic take off of
which the region can otherwise be justifiably proud.
Serious problems of structural unemployment, inequality
in the distribution of income and rural poverty still
persist. Additionally, the corollary of some reforms,
such as those introduced to stimulate free trade in
staple food commodities, has heightened food insecurity
for small farmers, landless peasants and the rural poor.
Such problems only worsen as population growth soars,
agricultural, forest and fishery resources shrink, and
rural populations migrate to urban areas or settle on
increasingly marginal land.
Immediate action is clearly needed to
remedy inadequate distribution, deforestation,
shortcomings in water management, rampant urbanization
and the problems inherent in introducing technological
change everywhere while at the same time respecting the
environment. These are the principal thrusts of FAO's
action in the region. These are the concerns that have
placed two specific items on your agenda: one on
strengthening domestic marketing infrastructure,
institutions and services in the region; and the other on
the development of national policies and strategies for
water resources assessment and management in the rural
sector. The objective in each case is to draw
maximumbenefit from those elements that can meaningfully
contribute towards securing food security.
This objective reflects the
Organization's fundamental concern, which is precisely to
establish the food security triad of available, stable,
and accessible food supplies for all. This ardent
undertaking, briefly encapsulated in the FAO slogan "Food
for All", formed the basis for the decision by the
Conference of FAO to hold a World Food Summit in 1996.
The goal of the Summit is to enlist a solemn and top
level commitment to eliminate hunger and malnutrition and
to take specific action through combined world, regional
and national efforts to ensure food security for all. The
principal task of the Summit will be to give substance to
this commitment in the form of a Policy 0Statement and
Plan of Action that will constitute the charter of an
immense and powerful world campaign.
This Regional Conference, like the
others this year, has a dominant theme: the World Food
Summit, which will be held in Rome in November 1996. In
the 50 years since the founding of FAO, this will be the
first time that a meeting on world food has been held at
the level of Heads of State and Government. The fact that
the proposed Summit was unanimously approved by the
Conference of FAO and backed by the United Nations
General Assembly clearly attests that the problem has now
become very serious.
The sheer scale and nature of the food
problem have evolved witha speed typical of our century.
It is FAO's prime responsibility to alert world opinion
and world leaders to the deteriorating food situation
before it attains irreversibly catastrophic proportions.
There has undoubtedly been prodigious
progress in technology and knowhow in recent decades; the
transformation in plant and animal production, the
knowledge and use of inputs, progress in water management
and in resource conservation, storage and processing
techniques have revolutionized the rural and agricultural
sectors in many countries.
And yet, at the same time, the world
population has grown substantially even as the per capita
farmland continues to diminish. The current modes of
exploitation degrade the environment; forest cover is
shrinking fast, and as increasingly marginal land is
brought under the plough, the pace of erosion has
accelerated. Fishery resources are overexploited and in
this as in many other domains, nature can no longer
regenerate its resources as fast as people destroy them.
Additionally, even though there is now
enough food to feed everyone in the world, its
distribution remains terribly skewed. Political
upheavals, conflict, and the growing plethora of refugees
and displaced persons exacerbate the situation.
In the developing countries, nearly
800 million people are chronically undernourished and
some 200 million children under the age of five are
affected by acute or chronic protein and calorie
deficiency.
And yet, the right to food is
absolutely fundamental; it is the first and foremost
human right, without which the others have no meaning.
How can a hungry person be expected to exercise his or
her right to education, work, and culture, and to
participate fully in the political and social life of the
community?
Food and water loom prominently among
the major world challenges as we enter the third
millennium. The dimensions of the problem are ethical,
political and strategic, and could lead to extremely
violent and serious conflict unless we put things right.
FAO is so keenly aware of the need for
strong, immediate action that it launched a Special
Programme for Food Security for LowIncome, FoodDeficit
Countries, without awaiting the worldlevel decisions that
will be taken by the Summit.
The philosophy behind the Programme,
now in its pilot phase in about 15 countries and showing
promising results, can help to chart the major
orientations of the Summit.
Public opinion and the media will have
to be mobilized, however, with world political leaders
setting the guidelines for resolute and dynamic food
policies and solid sustained action.
The general debate on food will also
address the problems of investment and trade, which are
of particular importance.
Beyond the Summit itself, what is
needed is a truly global campaign, with cooperation and
consultation at all levels.
The drivingforce for this campaign to
ensure "Food for All" would come from National Committees
involving all segments of civil society: the private
sector, nongovernmental organizations, academic and
research institutions, women's associations and youth
groups. To muster the support and mobilization necessary
to ensure its success will demand longterm commitment and
sustained resources.
The challenge before the World Food
Summit is unprecedented. Even though much has been done
to overcome hunger and malnutrition, to bolster
agricultural growth and to ensure that the available food
is distributed more equitably, past actions have for the
most part been oneoff, uncoordinated efforts.
What are now required are articulated
actions that will target every country where the need for
programmes to secure or consolidate food security is
becoming increasingly acute.
The huge surpluses in the developed
countries were long and erroneously seen as a global
cushion against serious shortfalls. Even back in the
1970s the food crisis brought home how easily these
mountains of surpluses could vanish like snow in the sun,
leaving painful shortages. After a renewed period of
bumper surpluses, we arenow back to a situation where the
world's grain reserves have fallen below the level
considered necessary to guarantee global food security.
World prices have soared and the lowincome, fooddeficit
countries will have to pay out an additional 3 billion
dollars this year for their food imports.
The poet Aragon wrote that man's work
is never done. Nonetheless, it is precisely this state of
uncertainty that inspires human endeavour. Has not
impending disaster always driven people to come up with
the energy and inventive capacity required for their
survival? We are, all of us, now living in a state of
impending disaster.
And yet, paradoxically, this could
prove to be the hope and salvation of this and future
generations, if only we can read the signs of the times
and rise to the occasion. Prodigiously clear thinking,
imagination, courage, patience and tenacity will be
required, as will universal mobilization on a scale
largely unparalleled in human history.
Citizens of all countries and ranks,
of all ages and religions, associations and groups of all
kinds; professionals from all sectors; community leaders
in the intellectual, social, economic, political and
spiritual walks of life; government officials and
representatives at all levels; men and women from the
smallest villages to the largest international
organization will have to marshal their forces and rally
together for an allout joint effort.
Are there sufficient resources for
such a vast undertaking? Will the interdependence of our
global village outweigh the narrow short term interests
that divide it? I hope with all my heart that this is so.
Confidently, therefore, and from the bottom of my heart,
I wish you every success in the work of the Twenty-third
FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific.
Thank you for your kind attention.
