On behalf of the Director-General of FAO Jacques Diouf, and on my own behalf, I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific for the commemoration of World Food Day 2002 which marks the 57th birthday of FAO. It is also a special occasion for Thailand and the FAO regional office, which was established in Bangkok 50 years ago.
This year's World Food Day theme, Water: source of food security states a well-known fact. It also highlights what is not so well known, namely, that the limited availability of water for agriculture is increasingly affecting the ability of the world's farms to produce enough food for a growing population.
This is especially true of the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for more than half of the world's agricultural water use. Three-fourths of the world's farm population lives in countries in this region and, on average, the water availability for agriculture in Asia and the Pacific is one-sixth of that in the rest of the world. Asia-Pacific farms have to feed half of the world's population living in the region, which includes two-thirds of the 800 million hungry people in the world.
Warnings of water scarcity may sound strange at a time when large parts of our host country Thailand and other countries in Asia are affected by severe floods. But it is only a matter of time before the floods recede and soils become dry again. The successive floods and droughts in the region show the uneven distribution of water through the year, with most of the water flow in the big rivers confined to just a few months.
The WFD 2002 message emphasizes that enough water is available to produce food for all if we learn to manage this finite resource wisely and produce `more crop per drop'. This is all the more necessary because the use of water by agriculture is facing growing competition from industrial and urban domestic consumers.
This year's WFD theme aims to increase awareness among governments, civil society and the international community of this fact. Above all, it is a call for strengthening political commitment to ensure adequate investment, suitable policies, institutions and infrastructure to ensure fair and equitable access to as well as efficient use of the water available for agriculture.
Declining national and donor support to development of water resources is a cause for concern. We at FAO estimate that irrigation needs about one-third of the US$30.7 billion additional annual investment required in agriculture in developing countries to ensure food security.
We have to introduce improved technologies and farming practices, and train farmers to manage and use water wisely, and help decision makers to develop and enforce policies that encourage sustainable water use. We have to increase productivity of the region's large rainfed areas and modernise wasteful water delivery and irrigation systems. Irrigated agriculture will need to be rethought. This will involve a shift from a supply-driven to a demand-responsive approach, with greater participation by water users.
It is also a reminder to agriculture to shoulder its environmental responsibilities much more actively. Intensive agricultural water use can result in large-scale environmental damage in the form of water-logging and salinization. Indiscriminate and improper use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can cause irreparable damage to surface and groundwater reserves, leading to environmental catastrophe.
The WFD theme reminds us of the close link between water and politics. This precious natural resource is at the root of a number of difficult international and intra-national water sharing disputes in the region. FAO, through its technical cooperation programmes, is helping ensure fair and equitable access to shared water resources. Policies and agreements to guide agricultural water use are as important at the international as at the national and local levels.
The choice of the WFD 2002 theme by FAO supplements its leadership role in the commemoration of the UN's International Year of Mountains this year. More than half the world's population relies on water that originates from mountains, which for this reason are also known as `water towers of the earth'. Asia and the Pacific has the world's highest peaks and some of the world's mightiest rivers emerge from these mountains. Hence, sustainable management of mountains and watersheds are of particular interest and importance to this region.
The WFD theme is also closely linked to the upcoming International Year of Freshwater in 2003 and the Third World Water Forum, to be held in Japan next year. We at FAO will continue to seek close partnership with interested partners and various stakeholders to play an important role.
Thank you
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