M.L. CAMERON (New Zealand): I shall bear your comments in mind, Mr. Chairman. The document before us, together with the Director-General's statement yesterday morning, provide a very useful summary of the current world food and agriculture situation and the short-term prospects. It is disappointing to note that once again increases in food and agricultural production in the developing countries as a whole have failed to reach the basic target of 4 percent per annum. The large number of MSA countries which have continued to show a negative rate of growth is a major cause for concern. In over half, of the developing countries surveyed, production failed to keep up with the population growth and in the developing countries as a whole per capita food production has stagnated.
The document notes that there are significant differences between those developing countries with the highest and lowest rates of growth, particularly in the levels of government involvement and domestic investment in the agricultural sector. We would agree there is a serious lack of information on domestic investment in agriculture in the developing countries, and would support any moves by FAO to improve this situation. Such work should, of course, assist the longer-term objective of helping countries develop their own expertise, in the collection and interpretation of investment statistics.
It has always been our view that the developing countries themselves must take the lead in according food production an effective higher priority among their development objectives. Strategies, of course, will vary from country to country, but will, we believe, need to include a more balanced pattern of investment - that is, an explicit acceptance of the key role in agricultural production of the small farmer, and a political willingness to share the available investment and technical assistance resources. We would hope that the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development will focus on this aspect, and that worthwhile and practical solutions to benefit the small farmer and hence food production will be forthcoming.
The increase in cereal production forecast for 1978 is encouraging, and seems certain to meet demand. However, the increasing dependence of developing countries on imports of food, particularly grains, is a cause for concern. We welcome the increase in cereal crop and the opportunity this provides to establish an internationally coordinated system of stock holding.
Particularly useful is the section summarizing the international agricultural trade situation. It highlights many problems - inadequate terms of trade for many agricultural commodities, sharp price fluctuations, the persistence and indeed in some cases the worsening of protectionism and restrictions on agricultural trade, the continued existence of structural surpluses of many commodities caused by the price support systems operated by many developed countries, the problems caused by subsidized exports and so forth.
These are all problems which affect New Zealand as a country dependent on agricultural exports for its livelihood, so we can understand and share the difficulties and impatience of the oil-deficient developing countries which are similarly dependent on agricultural exports, and whose problems are so much more acute than our own. We are convinced that developing countries would prefer trade to aid as a means of improving the wellbeing of their people, since it is a more durable and self-fulfilling solution to the problems of underdevelopment.
It is with regret, therefore, that we note as stated in the document that progress towards overcoming the problems hamstringing agricultural trade had been very limited over the past year. We look for an effort of political will on the part of the major participants in the MTN in particular to produce real improvements in trade access, not just new sets of trade rules.
As I have noted, New Zealand has been hard hit by the depressed condition of the international economy, and by agricultural protectionism. We have experienced a sustained decline in our terms of trade, now at levels of 25 percent below the 1962-72 average, and we have experienced several years of negative growth in per capita income. Necessarily, this has affected New Zealand's aid performance; naturally our progress towards our development assistance target is largely determined by the health of our economy. Nonetheless, our current level of assistance, while not what we would wish, compares with the average for developed countries, and a small increase was possible this year following more stable conditions in our economy.
We are also well aware of the need for greater concentration of aid on agriculture, and in our case aid for agriculture and rural development accounts for approximately 30 percent of our aid disbursements. It is pleasing to read in the document, therefore, that official commitments of external assistance to agriculture have increased sharply, and that increased emphasis is being placed on assisting the small farmer.
May we compliment the Secretariat on a concise and factual situation report. Our regrets are that more real progress cannot be recorded in it.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, delegate of New Zealand. I hope everyone will be as brief as you are.
LI YUNG-KAI (China) (Interpretation from Chinese): Although since the beginning of 1970 many regions of the world have suffered very frequently from natural calamities, food and agriculture production as a whole has been rising. Mankind has made continuous progress in developing and exploiting agricultural resources. Especially worthy of mention is the fact that many developing countries have achieved considerable success in developing food production to bring about self-sufficiency in grain, and in improving the international trade terms for agricultural produce by persisting in unity and implementing the principle of self-reliance or collective self-reliance.
These facts prove that developing countries can certainly push their food production forward so long as they lay emphasis on it, relying on the strength of the people to adopt effective policy measures to increase food production in accordance with their respective abilities, and learn to use the technology and experience of the world proceeding from the technical experience of their own countries.
International trade in agricultural produce will develop more healthily if developing countries persist in moving towards the goal of establishing a new international economic order, and put into effect a policy of mutual benefit so that each will make up what the other lacks.
We should also note the development of food production in the different areas of the world is very uneven. This is something that has aroused our concern. The problem of first priority is still how to feed the people in under-developed countries, and that means we must exert ourselves to speed up the development of food production and raise grain output according to local conditions.
The Report submitted by the Third Session of the Security Committee notes that developing countries should be assisted to increase the production of rice, legumes and tuber stocks by assisting technology. We think this is quite appropriate. At the same time, we think it is necessary to increase grain reserves at national or local levels on the basis that increased food production should provide for short crops in lean years being assisted by grain stores in good years.
Many developing countries have produced various kinds of tropical and subtropical crops by making use of their available agricultural resources, thus supplying the world market with more produce and contributing to all mankind. For these countries the export of farm produce often is their main source of foreign currency income. Therefore, efforts to increase trade terms for such produce should not be delayed in any way. In this connexion, we firmly support the demand of developing countries for the establishment of an integrated commodity programme and common fund, to supply a better solution for the problem.
Mr. Chairman, please allow me to give a brief account of the present situation in China. In our country stability prevails and the whole nation is going all out to speed up socialistic construction. We have further implemented various economic policies in the rural areas to strengthen support for all areas of agriculture. Hundreds of peasants have been mobilized to work against natural calamities. On the basis of a fair harvest of grain and cotton in 1977, we reaped satisfactory crops of grain and oilseeds this year. The grain already in store marks an increase of 10 million metric tons over the comparable period of last year. However, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtse River they were struck by continuous drought adversely affecting the growth of cotton crops in these areas.
At present the peasants throughout the country are busy getting in autumm crops. Most of the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions are expecting grain increases. Even in some of the places seriously affected by drought, increases in production have been achieved. Cotton production this year is expected to be better than last year. The 700 million Chinese peasants are full of confidence, taking positive measures, and determined to push agriculture forward.
CHAIRMAN: The world, and, of course, FAO in particular, are most concerned with all that foes on in China because the great majority of human beings on earth live there. Therefore we hope you get better weather and good harvests in future, and of course we wish this to every country. I would now like to call on another country, a major population area, which is India.
D.R. BHUMBLA (India): Let me first compliment the Secretariat for the excellent document CL 74/2 and Professor Islam for his excellent enunciation of the issues involved. I would also like to compliment the Director-General on his very valuable statement yesterday regarding the world food and agricultural situation, the FAO action programme and the issues which confront us. The Indian delegation would like to assure him of the full support of the Government of India for the programme of FAO under his dynamic leadership.
It is encouraging to note that agricultural production prospects for 1978 indicate an increase of 2.5 to 3% over 1977.
In the developing countries the rate of growth both of food crops and agricultural production has been much lower than in developed countries and far below the target of 4% set out in the International Development Strategy for the 1970s. Per capita food availability has been declining in the last decade and it has slowed down to 3% in the first six years of the present decade. Among the MSA countries there has been a negative growth during the first six years of the present decade.
With your permission, Mr. Chairman, may I also point out that in many developing countries again legumes or pulses occupy an important place. The very little information that is available indicates that whereas population has been increasing the production of these crops has remained static. In our opinion FAO should look into this problem.
It has been said that there are many causes for the variation in the productive pace in the developed and developing countries.
One of the key inputs in agricultural production is fertilizer. The delegates are aware that the developing countries import a very large proportion of their fertilizer. Prices of these fertilizers have been increasing or have increased during the last year, particularly of potassic fertilizer, 95% of which is produced in the developed countries.
The developing countries have been facing a number of obstacles in their trade in agricultural commodities. In spite of a slight recovery between 1975 and 1977, there has been a gradual decline in the share of developing countries in the rising world total from 46% in the 1950s to 37% in the 1960s. In 1975 the industrialized nations imported 26 billion dollars of manufactures from the developing nations and exported 123 billion dollars of manufactures to them in return. The trend towards protectionism seems to be gathering in many industrialized nations, and this is a matter of concern.
Yesterday the Director-General informed us that the negotiations on a new International Grains Agreement have broken down in Geneva. We note this with a sense of disappointment and hope that negotiations will be resumed soon.
Coming to the development assistance, the picture is no better. Though in 1977 there is an increase in real terms over the 1976 figure in external assistance to agriculture, it is less than half of 7% of GNP recommended by the General Assembly.
I am sure that we in India have been fully aware of the need to direct substantial resources to agriculture. I may inform the Council that in my country the performance on the agricultural front has shown definite signs of improvement. The record output of 125.6 million tons of foodgrains during 1977/78 is higher by 4 million tons over the earlier peak of 121.0 million tons during 1975/76. The notable feature of food economy in India in the recent past has been easy availability of foodgrains at reasonable prices, a significant increase in foodgrain stocks with the government and stoppage of imports of foodgrains. A high priority has been accorded to agriculture with maximum emphasis of expansion of irrigation facilities that will bring an additional 17 million hectares under irrigation, both major and minor, during the next five years, as we feel that provision of irrigation is a necessity to provide stability in agricultural production. The consumption of fertilizer has risen from 2.9 million tons in 1975/76 to 4.2 million tons in 1977/78 and is likely to be a little more than five million tons this year. We have some serious problems. Some of our States, particularly in East India, suffered from very serious floods and the production of rice, which has been mentioned in the document, is likely to be affected adversely. The document mentioned maize, groundnuts and cotton. Cotton production may not be affected as badly, but rice production will be affected slightly because of the very serious flood situation. We are grateful to FAO for their aid to some of the flood victims.
We also faced drought and the locusts for the first time during the last ten years and we are again very grateful to FAO for their help. It seems that this menace is now in a new cycle and every nation has to devote much of its time and energy to controlling this, particularly in Africa and Asia. We are not sure how bad the next season will be with respect to locusts.
We are also taking measures in the field of agrarian reforms and rural development so that the benefit of growth and progress percolates down to the poorest of the poor.
H. BAEYENS (Belgique): Monsieur le Président, j'ai à faire quelques brèves remarques au sujet de ce point de l'ordre du jour: la situation mondiale de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture, ainsi qu'au sujet du document que nous avons sous les yeux: CL 74/2.
Malgré une tendance générale à l'amélioration, la grande diversité des situations alimentaires et agricoles dans le monde doit nous inciter, d'une part à une grande circonspection, d'autre part à la modération de nos jugements.
De la lecture du rapport CL 74/2, par ailleurs fort intéressant et très documenté, se dégage cependant la difficulté d'une évaluation nette et complète, en raison d'un manque de données suffisantes, ou suffisamment exactes, en ce qui concerne notamment les situations nutritionnelles réelles, les taux d'investissement en agriculture, le niveau effectif des besoins, etc.
A ce propos, je voudrais attirer votre attention sur le Tableau 19, page 44 du Rapport, où manifestement une certaine prudence doit se manifester, car si on regarde les chiffres on ne peut pas manquer d'être frappé par des anomalies qui vraiment ne s'expliquent pas.
Je prends dans ce tableau la formation brute de capital fixe dans le secteur agricole en proportion du PIB agricole, et la deuxième colonne qui traite des montants par hectare. Je constate qu'au Danemark cette formation brute de capital est de 112 - ce sont sans doute des millions de dollars. Pour les Pays-Bas, le chiffre est de 612. Or, ces deux pays ont une structure agricole à peu près comparable, un niveau de vie à peu près identique. Il y a certainement quelque chose qui ne va pas dans ce tableau. Le Royaume-Uni figure avec 26. Donc tous ces chiffres perdent leur signification quand on se rend compte de telles divergences qui sont difficiles à expliquer.
Cela dit, je voudrais continuer mes commentaires au sujet de la situation générale.
Le rapport fait apparaître une poussée de la demande réelle à l'importation, logique si l'on compare les taux de croissance de la production de la population, mais qui reste dangereuse pour la poursuite de l'objectif global de la sécurité alimentaire.
L'étude des différents facteurs de cette tendance persistante doit conduire nos réflexions et nos actions vers la recherche d'un meilleur équilibre, là où le rapport alimentaire est déficitaire soit en fonction des cultures commerciales insuffisamment rentables, soit en fonction de structures socio-économiques défavorables au développement rural. Il faut donc identifier et recenser ces points critiques pour trouver les solutions adéquates.
Les amendements et les transferts de technologie ne sont pas toute l'aide alimentaire, et les termes de l'échange non plus. Sur le plan des besoins, tant que certaines structures n'ont pas évolué, il sera difficile de faire autre chose d'une année à l'autre que de dresser un bilan de ce que la nature aura permis. C'est pourquoi nous sommes soucieux de l'évolution des travaux qui, en matière de réforme agraire par exemple, permettraient un redéploiement de l'économie rurale de certaines régions particulièrement sensibles.
Sur le plan des échanges, et pour se référer à des négociations qui peuvent avoir une incidence aussi bien au niveau de la sécurité alimentaire qu'au niveau des recettes, il faut bien dire que dans une économie de marché il est difficile de penser à des politiques de doubles prix, car les autorités n'ont pas les moyens de semblables pratiques.
Mais sur le plan de la stabilisation des marchés, le rapport n'est pas très explicite sur les efforts qu'ont tentés les pays de la Communauté économique européenne en vue d'arriver à des accords de stabilisation pour les denrées utiles aux pays en voie de développement, et spécialement aux pays le plus gravement touchés, sans parler de politiques destinées à corriger des accidents de la nature ou les imperfections du marché.
Par contre, la relation qui est faite, en ce qui concerne le sucre, nous paraît solliciter, eu égard á la situation réelle du marché et à la position relative des pays membres et non membres, l'accord actuel.
CHAIRMAN: I thank the delegate of Belgium. I am sure that the Secretariat will give some explanation of the discrepancies in the figures that he mentioned and correct them if they are, in fact, mistakes.
M, SAITO (Japan): First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Saouma, the Director- General, for his comprehensive statement which contains the debut of the current world food situation, as well as overall FAO activities. I would also like to commend the Secretariat for supplying an excellent document for us on the State of Food and Agriculture.
I would like to make some comments on the present state of world food and agriculture, also to explain shortly my government's position on international cooperation. I was very pleased.to see the recent improvement of the world food situation indicated in the documents, especially the increase of supply and the stabilization of prices in cereals, which could contribute to making favourable conditions for all countries to create or increase their stocks and to ensure food security in accordance with the international undertaking on world food security.
On the other hand, we had to pay attention to the fact that there still exist problems in some regions which the document indicates as follows.
Firstly, food production in developing countries still remains at a low level. Secondly, the increase of cereal stocks is concentrated in major exporting countries. Thirdly, as a result of this, the world cereal supply has come to rely increasingly on food production in developed countries. In view of this situation we should not be over-optimistic about world food security in the future.
I believe it is a most fundamental task for the world community to increase food production in the developing countries, in particular those with a continuing food deficit, in order to ensure the further stabilization of food production and supply. When developing countries tackle difficult agricultural development problems, it goes without saying that self-help efforts by each individual country are fundamentally essential and at the same time further cooperation of the relevant international organizations and potential donor countries is required.
In the area of international agricultural cooperation, my Government, based on such recognitions, has provided the developing countries with financial and technical assistance for development projects within a bilateral and multilateral framework.
Furthermore, with a view to assisting self-reliance efforts of developing countries toward increasing food production, the Japanese Government has decided to increase the budget for assistance on a grant basis to 16 billion yen or about 80 million dollars for the 1978 fiscal year, compared with 6 billion yen in 1977. Under this assistance, fertilizers, pesticides, farm machinery and other agricultural inputs are provided to the developing countries concerned.
In this connexion, it must be pointed out that integrated rural development is of great importance for improving the productivity of small farmers who represent a large proportion in many developing countries. From this point of view I think it is timely that the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development will be held next summer under the auspices of FAO, and we hope that the Conference will bring great results and lead to an increase of food production.
Finally, I should like to express my appreciation of FAO's activities in research and information on agricultural improvement and the food situation in the world. In particular, my delegation supports the FAO activity providing a valuable tool for development through collecting and maintaining in a systematic manner relevant development assistance data with regard to ongoing activities supported from various external sources. In this context I think it is quite important that the Organization's activity be strengthened in order to further external assistance efficiently, as well as make appropriate arrangements for the operation of TCP.
In conclusion, I am confident that FAO, as a specialized agency of the United Nations, will continue to play an important role in solving the food problem under the leadership of Dr. Saouma.
W.A.F. GRABISCH (Germany, Federal Republic of): Let me first thank the Secretariat for the thorough information under this item of the Agenda. The basic document and the additionally available information allow us to expect in the short term a favourable development of agricultural production and of basic food supply. Also, in many parts of the developing regions further improvements are to be noticed. We are glad to learn now from document CL 74/2 Sup. 1 that there was a large increase in production in Africa. Cereal stocks will increase again. Agricultural inputs will be available in the medium term to a sufficient extent. The developing countries were again in a position to increase their earnings from agricultural exports. The terms of trade which have improved in 1977 unfortunately seem to have worsened in the beginning of 1978, but we hope that this tendency will not continue.
The Federal Republic of Germany, as the largest importer of food commodities, has increased her imports from developing countries again substantially. Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of our total agricultural imports from countries outside the European Economic Community come from developing countries. My Government continues to pursue a liberal trade policy. It advocates this course in particular in the multi-lateral trade negotiations which are about to reach their final stage.
We are all aware of the fact that production and supply must be improved in some regions and further endeavours will be necessary in this respect. It is encouraging that external assistance for agriculture in developing countries increased sharply in 1977. The statement in the document, however, that the World Food Council has agreed on a specific target does not reflect its recommendations: the World Food Council did not set such a target.
The document points out quite rightly that developing countries must be assisted to a greater extent than so far in the identification and preparation of investment programmes and projects. For this decisive phase of agricultural development the competent international organizations have to offer a great deal of experience and comprehensive expert knowledge. This is true in particular for FÁ0. The Director-General has recently pointed out in a document for the deliberation of the United Nations Committee according to Resolution 32/174 of the General Assembly, generally known as Committee-of-the-Whole, that FAO is prepared to participate to a greater extent in the identification and preparation of projects. Let me mention in particular FAO's efforts to obtain more information about the internal investment in agriculture of developing countries. A better knowledge of developing countries' own efforts is important for strengthening cooperation with bilateral and multi-lateral donors and for the continuation of the activities initiated by the Consultative Group on Food Production and Investment in developing countries, CGFPI, with regard to the development and implementation of country plans.
We therefore welcome the initiative taken by the World Food Council to overcome that impasse situation of lack of information about bottlenecks encountered by all concerned.
Finally, I wish to state that my Government is ready to give more support to the development of agriculture in developing countries if our partners from the developing countries wish us to do so. Our budget for this purpose was increased by 17 percent. We have already stated that at the 4th Session of the World Food Council in Mexico.
I. OZORAI (Hungary): The report of the Director-General on the state of food and agriculture 1978 is fair, frank, comprehensive and yet concise. It is my pleasure to express my delegation's appreciation of the excellent document. The major features of food production and other global issues have been brilliantly dealt with by Dr. Saouma in his address and by Professor Islam in his introduction. I would only like to refer to some minor issues contained in the document.
We are not quite happy with the general rise in consumer food prices, as stated in the document itself, and I should like to point out that within the overall set of difficulties which had been created by rising food prices an even more dangerous and worrying problem is concealed. The rise in food consumer prices is actually afflicting obviously the poor who, as a part of urbanization, inflate the already overgrown cities in many developing countries. Increasing marketing costs and margins, and the consequent decrease in the farmers' dollar are not only adding to the hardship of the poorest segments of the population in a good number of countries, but this fact is also strongly diminishing the motivation of farmers in the developing countries concerned.
Both in the report before us and in some other documents to be discussed by this Session of the Council, there are some remarks upon the share in the per capita external assistance which LDCs and MSA countries are receiving. Increasing aid is really encouraging. However, we are fully convinced that this aid contribution is due to the rather limited absorbtive capacity of some of the countries. One may wonder whether assistance programmes aiming at institution building in MSA and LDC countries should receive some special attention in FAO and, if I may add, in its sister organizations as well.
Institution building projects in agriculture - both in the broader and narrower definition - even if not considered as direct aid, are no doubt a major means in preparing these countries to utilize foreign aid more easily and more efficiently.
Lastly, may I refer to an issue which is only briefly touched upon in the paper before us though mentioned by many of the delegates around me. I am referring to the investments in agriculture which we consider to be a key issue of the medium and long-term development in agriculture and food production. We fully concur with what has been said in the State of Food and Agriculture 1978 about the scarcity of available information on domestic investment in agriculture in most developing countries. At the same time we most welcome FAO's efforts to collect more data on this. We should like to state that we are looking forward to hearing of any further survey or any other information on national agricultural investment at a not very distant meeting of the Council. We are very interested indeed in learning how developing countries have been assisted in their domestic investments in agriculture.
I glanced at the list of the special chapters published so far in the various reports on the state of food and agriculture from 1957 up to now, but investments in agriculture in the developing world had not been so far elaborated on. An analytical survey on investments to be published in this series may not only summarize the data to be collected on this issue but try to offer a comprehensive insight on the ways and extent in which FAO's assistance to developing countries is triggering new investments and securing the international work done by FAO, the World Bank and other organizations to meet the investment requirements of the developing countries.
P. ELMANOVSKY (France): Je voudrais tout d'abord, en commençant cette intervention, remercier, comme certains de mes collègues ont été amenés à le faire, M. le Directeur général de la FAO pour les précisions qu'il nous a données dans son exposé général et aussi pour un point plus particulier car il a honoré notre pays en pratiquant la langue française pour prononcer cette intervention. Qu'il en soit donc véritablement remercié.
Le point qui est soumis à notre attention a fait l'objet d'un rapport et d'un complément très circonstancié et nous en remercions le Secrétariat. De nombreux points ont été évoqués dans ce document et je n'en reprendrai que quelques-uns pour éviter, comme vous le souhaitiez, les répétitions.
Un point que je note au passage est celui qui a trait à la lutte contre le péril acridien qui a touché d'assez nombreux pays, soit du Moyen-Orient, soit d'Afrique. J'ai été heureux de constater, comme vous l'avez souligné, que l'ensemble économique auquel nous appartenons, la Communauté, a participé à cette lutte et qu'il entreprend des efforts de coopération continus avec la FAO à ce sujet.
Sur l'aide publique au développement, nous sommes amenés à souhaiter que les efforts soient poursuivis et ainsi je rappellerai ce que nous disions à Mexico et qui est repris dans la Résolution: ''Il faut que tous les pays fournissant ou susceptibles de fournir une aide étudient, au sein des instances dont ils font partie, comment on peut soutenir de façon plus efficace les efforts des pays en développement et identifier les problèmes des goulets d'étranglement qui freinent l'accroissement de l'aide officielle au développement dans ces groupes et chercher à les surmonter''.
Je rappellerai aussi que, comme l'a fait notre collègue de la République fédérale, aucun objectif n'a été fixé pour cette APD par le Conseil mondial de l'alimentation. Il faut en effet une certaine liberté, une certaine marge d'appréciation en fonction des situations; mais il convient de rapprocher de cette partie du document les efforts qui sont faits dans le cadre de l'Aide alimentaire et plus particulièrement de l'aide alimentaire en céréales dans le cadre de la FAO. C'est à juste titre que la FAO a insisté sur le fait que c'est en Afrique et dans les pays les plus gravement touchés que les problèmes demeurent le plus préoccupants en raison du fait même des progrès réalisés quant à l'augmentation de la production agricole.
A cet égard, le plan régional pour l'alimentation en Afrique destiné à intensifier les efforts pour permettre au continent africain de réaliser son autosuffisance alimentaire dès 1985 a été préparé par notre Organisation avec la collaboration de la Commission économique pour l'Afrique. Ce document nous avait été demandé lors de la Conférence régionale de Freetown en 1976. Nous demandons sa rapide mise en oeuvre et nous notons avec satisfaction la coopération qui s'est instituée avec le Comité inter-Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel, assumant ainsi un rôle de coordination des aides extérieures et des efforts nationaux.
J'en viens maintenant à d'autres points qui apparaissent dans le rapport qui nous a été soumis et également à de nombreuses interventions qui ont été faites par les uns ou par les autres en ce qui concerne le protectionnisme des pays développés à l'égard soit des exportations de produits agricoles, soit de certains produits industriels.
En ce qui concerne mon pays, ce domaine relève de la compétence communautaire et sans doute le représentant de la Commission de la Communauté européenne interviendra à ce sujet. Qu'il me soit permis simplement de rappeler quelques faits:
Les négociations commerciales multilatérales se poursuivent toujours à Genève dans le cadre du GATT. Elles portent sur les obstacles tarifaires et non tarifaires. Il convient de laisser à chaque organisation sa compétence particulière.
On a parlé aussi du système des préférences généralisées, mais là aussi je rappellerai que ce système a été mis en vigueur par la Communauté, la première, alors qu'à la deuxième conférence de la CNUCED, à New Delhi, en 1968, on avait prévu que ce régime ne s'appliquerait qu'aux produits manufacturés et dans le cas des produits agricoles transformés,selon la règle du cas par cas, c'est-à-dire à l'appréciation des pays donateurs. Je rappelle que la Communauté a été plus loin puisque nombre de produits agricoles non transformés bénéficient maintenant d'importantes réductions tarifaires. Enfin, on a évoqué l'importance des subventions à l'exportation. Je rappelle que le système appliqué par mon pays dans le cadre de la réglementation communautaire, sous le nom de ''restitution", ne correspond pas à une volonté de dumping. Nos prix s'alignent sur ceux du marché mondial quels que soient les produits.
Ceci m'amène à rappeler que nous avons toujours prôné la mise au point d'accords internationaux de produits dotés de mécanismes suffisamment adaptés pour assurer un juste équilibre des prix réduisant ainsi les perturbations constatées. A cette occasion, je ne puis que regretter la suspension provisoire des négociations sur les céréales où, malgré les efforts incessants de la Communauté, tout particulièrement pour tenir compte des intérêts des pays en voie de développement, des difficultés continuent à se faire jour.
Je demeure cependant persuadé qu'il sera possible de parvenir prochainement à un résultat pour ces produits comme pour les produits laitiers et la viande pour lesquels également nous avons soumis des propositions.
Enfin, j'ai noté dans le rapport qu'en ce qui concerne le sucre on dit que la chute des cours est due en grande partie aux exportations en sucre de la Communauté. C'est une façon de voir les choses. Il conviendrait de la modérer en rappelant également que la Communauté, si elle exporte beaucoup de sucre, premièrement, importe 1 300 000 à 1 400 000 tonnes de sucre en provenance des pays en développement membres de la Convention de Lomé. Ce sucre n'est pas indispensable à la Communauté et lorsqu'on parle de nos importations il faut bien tenir compte du sucre communautaire exporté à la place de celui que nous recevons sans en avoir un besoin absolu.
D'autre part, je rappellerai en passant que, malgré ces chiffres élevés, depuis trois ans la Communauté économique européenne en matière de sucre a réduit ses superficies de 4,5 pour cent. Si nous avons maintenant des chiffres de production plus importants, c'est uniquement parce que les rendements et les conditions atmosphériques ont permis de retrouver la normale. Je tiens donc à ce que cette rectification soit faite compte tenu des nombreuses critiques que nous entendons à ce sujet.
Q. H. HAQUE (Bangladesh): Speaking for the first time in this Session on my own behalf and on behalf of my delegation we sincerely hope that we shall achieve concrete results in this session. We heard with great interest the statement by the Director-General in the morning yesterday. It was very comprehensive, it was frank, direct and with concrete proposals, the normal way he speaks. I. like the way he speaks. I am sure Dr Sen was right yesterday when he said that one of his important discoveries long back was a young man with shining intelligence who would create a new FAO. We thought he was right. We also heard from the distinguished President of the World Food Council. His statement is reassuring. The item under consideration, namely, the State of Food and Agriculture 1978, is one of the important issues for deliberation in this session. I compliment the Director-General and his colleagues for an excellent review of the State of Food and Agriculture in document CL 74/2. We find the documentation informative and useful. I particularly compliment Professor Islam, the ADG, for his brillant presentation yesterday. The presentation was learned; a presentation from a professor ought to be learned.
I will state without hesitation that in many respects the short-term global food situation looks comfortable. For the first time cereal stocks have reached 19 percent, and the revised estimate is 21 percent of the annual projection, outside of China and the U.S.S.R., which is slightly above the minimum safe level recommended by FAO, and for the first time, cereal production has passed 1 1/2 billion tons with satisfactory harvests in the major producing areas of the world. But you know where the stocks lie, the developing countries lack food security even today and they need assistance to build their own stocks. The FAO Food Security and Assistance Scheme can do a good job in this area. We heard Professor Islam saying yesterday that not only are stocks concentrated in a few countries but that they are concentrated in a few areas in those countries and in case of urgent need, movements will be most difficult.
This reminds me of a saying that we have in Bangladesh. There is a type of fruit in Bangladesh which is very tasty but it has a hard shell so birds cannot pierce through the shell to get into the tasty fruit. There were birds, those who were going hungry, but there were abundant fruits which had ripened. A person told the birds, "Why are you hungry? Why don't you eat the fruits?". I hope this will not be the situation of the developing countries.
The global survey concents the difficulties and shortfall in production faced in many other parts of the world, particularly in food deficit developing countries. Further, the marginally improved production in some other developing countries has been mainly due to favourable climatic conditions and not as a result of structural changes in agriculture or resource increased flow from the international donor community. Due to favourable monsoons, agricultural production increased by 6 percent in the developing countries of Asia and the Far East minus China in 1977, following a year of no growth in 1976, while in Africa, production declined in 1977; and thirdly, drought in the critical Sahel zone continues to reduce harvests. The global situation is further weakened by the fact that import requirements of the developing countries of food grains are continuously on the increase. The import requirements of MSA countries are estimated at 17.4 million tons in 1977-78, which is 1.2 million tons more than in 1976-77. And here I am tempted to quote from the Director-General's statement to ECOSOC, a statement which I like most. He told the ECOSOC - and I quote - "In 1976 the non-oil exporting developing countries spent over $10 billion on commercial food imports, equivalent to one-third of this account deficit. These massive food imports are estimated to offset the benefit by more than 80 percent of the official development assistance received in 1976. In other words, the money spent by the developing countries on food imports has offset the ODA by more than 80 percent in 1976. The Donor Community is yet to reach the target of 100 million tons of food, and in spite of the call by the World Food Conference in 1974 and repeated urging by the World Food Council and the UNGA.
We heard from Professor Islam yesterday that according to preliminary estimates it may have reached ten million, but we have to see what has been the shipment. Food aid, even to the least developed countries is not yet fully on grant basis, which is a major recommendation of the World Food Conference and the World Food Council. The developing countries, particularly food deficit ones strongly urged the Donor Community in Mexico City last June to convene the new Food Aid Convention to ensure food aid at ten million tons, irrespective of the results of the negotiations for the new international Grain Agreement or arrangement in Geneva; but we are aware that in Geneva no progress has yet been made towards that end. We heard from Professor Islam yesterday that it has been postponed without any fruitful results. We feel that a new Food Aid Convention has become absolutely necessary to achieve the minimum level of food aid to the developing countries, particularly the food deficit ones.
The fertilizer supply on a global basis continues to improve although international prices have risen in 1978. We heard from the President of the World Food Council that the supply situation has increased and that the price is beneath the peak reached. I must say this is very confusing. We know that in 1974-75 wheat prices rose over $300 per ton. Today it is 130-140. Tomorrow it might rise to $250 per ton. Are we to be happy that it is below the peak reached in 1974? I leave it to your judgement. As a result of these high prices, the LDC and the MSA countries continue to have deteriorating conditions in their procurement abilities. From our experience we know that fertilizer use in Bangladesh picked up beyond expected proportions estimated and our capacity to procure fertilizer through AID and our own resources remains adequate to meet the demand. Fertilizer assistance in 1976-77 is estimated at only 400 thousand tons as against a target of one million tons set by the Seventh Special Session of the UNGA, which is less than half.
The IFS scheme of the FAO is inactive. We all know it is inactive due to drying up of resources. In 1976 we in Bangladesh received substantial assistance from this scheme. We urge upon donors to contribute to this scheme, as it was found to be particularly helpful to the LDC and the MSA countries.
External assistance to developing countries in agriculture, including ODA, declined in 1976, although it is estimated that in 1977 this has increased, but still it remains about half of the target level agreed Upon at the World Food Council of $US 8.3 billion, with 6.5 billion (in 1975 prices) on concessional terms to enable the developing countries to reach a production growth of 4 percent annually. We very strongly feel that unless external resources both by multilateral and bilateral donors, particularly ODA, are substantially increased in the near future in order to meet the target of $8.3 billion by 1980, agricultural production in developing countries will continue to stagger at the mercy of the vagaries of nature, and the number of hungry and malnourished in the world will go on multiplying. I believe that if we are serious - and we in Bangladesh believe that we are - to usher in the New International Economic Order, attainment of ODA at 0.7 percent of the GNP is an important cornerstone. But, unfortunately, the present trend is in the reverse direction in the case of some major donors, with the exception of a few. And here I look at my friend and colleague from the Netherlands and also my colleagues from Sweden and Norway; and I put them on dock for achieving an ODA level of 0.9 percent already. The World Bank says they will surpass 1 percent by 1985. I put them on dock for leaving others behind and for having reached 0.9 percent already.
Mr. Chairman, you are aware that the Fourth FAO World Food Survey revealed that the number of hungry and malnourished in the world increased from 400 million to 450 million in spite of the pious hope by the World Food Conference and the 7th Special Session of UNGA that hunger and malnutrition will be erased from the face of the globe within a decade. I am tempted to quote from the statements Robert McNamara made to the Board of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank in September of this year, first in respect of the ODA and then with respect to the malnourished and hungry, and I quote Robert McNamara: "Since 1970 when the U.N. National Assembly adopted a target of 0.7 percent of GNP for concessional aid, it has never exceeded half that level and there has been a steady deterioration against the objective. The fact is that in 1976 and 1977 the absolute amounts were less in real terms than in 1975 or 1972 or in 1971."
Robert McNamara said about the hungry and malnourished: "The population of the developing countries is projected to increase from 2.1 billion in 1975 to 3.5 billion in the year 2000. A failure to reduce the proportion living in poverty will result in the number increasing from 710 million in the year 1975 to 1 300 million in the year 2000".
We heard the distinguished President of the World Food Council yesterday. I was encouraged by his optimistic view that if we do not erase hunger and mainourishment from the globe in, as expected, the decade ending 1985, we will do it by a decade from today. I have the World Bank survey on the projection of the ODA by the members of the DAC countries. This is most discouraging. There will not be any substantial change in the flow of ODA from 1978 to 1985, except from the few whom I have put in the dock.
I come from a country where 83 percent of the people are below the poverty line, and you are aware that our per capita GNP has gone down below $US 100; we continue to import about 10 percent of cereal requirements annually. Here the word must be told about the absorption capacity and the efforts made by the developing countries before this word "absorption capacity" becomes chronic. Something has to be said about it.
I appreciate what Mr. Saouma told the ECOSOC in June of this year. He told the ECOSOC - and I quote -"A far greater share of aid must go to MSA countries which are remaining more and more as the main focus of the world food problem. In many cases aid must be used in the first place to build up the absorption capacity for handling more aid, notably assistance in training national staff to identify, prepare and implement projects." This is a concrete suggestion.
As regards the efforts of developing countries, there are not yet any figures, we heard from Professor Islam yesterday. Dr. Saouma told ECOSOC; "The developing countries had for the most part responded to the world food crisis in 1974 by gradually stepping up resources devoted to this sector and they are anxious that all data be systematically compiled on their efforts, and FAO is ready to do this task." The developing countries are making efforts, it is recognized, and we will ask FAO to compile data to put this on paper to show the world what they are doing within their resources.
Now Bangladesh, through our experience during the last seven years of our existence as an independent, sovereign country, we learned that we cannot continue to depend so heavily on international assistance for our food and agriculture. We agree with the Director-General when he told ECOSOC: "no country can claim independence..."
CHAIRMAN: May I remind the delegate of Bangladesh he has been talking for over 20 minutes now. Can he please abridge his speech.
Q. H. HAQUE (Bangladesh): I will finish it in five minutes, but I am handicapped by the Statement.lt was . an important thing when ECOSOC was told: "No country should claim independence when it cannot cope with its food problems." Bangladesh has been making great efforts to improve food production. You will be happy to hear that our food import requirements have gone down from 3 million tons in 1974-75 to 1.8 million tons in 1977-78 and 1.5 million tons in 1978-79, in spite of our population growth of 2.8 percent.
Agricultural production increased by about 7 percent in 1977. My government attaches highest priority to food production and population control, and this is reflected in our two-year plan as well as the five-year plan to be launched in 1980. We are determined to be self-sufficient in food in the shortest possible time, and to contain the population to a reasonable figure before the turn of the century.
Bangladesh agriculture is still mostly dependent on nature. Only 2 percent of our crop area is irrigated, which produce 10 percent of our harvest. In Bangladesh, we have potentials, and much depends on the flow of increased resources for agricultural development and food production in terms of physical imports. I assure you, Mr. Chairman, we will make best use of the assistance.
I cannot conclude without saying a word about the emergency requirements of the developing countries, as my country is one of the major recipients in the emergency assistance of the WFP. We ara all aware of the large-scale emergencies that took place in 1978. We are happy that the World Food Programme allocation has been increased from $45 million to $55 million in the current year. We feel that $55 million should be the minimum level over the coming years as well.
One recommendation of the World Food Council in Mexico City was that the international emergency food reserves (IEFR) should be established on a continuing basis with 500,000 tons of food grains annually. We note with concern the present level of balance in IEFR food grains, and the announcement of 125 000 tons by the United States Government for 1979 should be appreciated, but we recommend that in order to meet the increasing needs of developing countries, the target of 500-000 tons should be fully met and this should be for the exclusive use of the WFP.
In conclusion, we sincerely hope, with the President of the World Food Council, that together we will succeed, and let it not be a ritual in this Council to review the deteriorating state of food and agriculture for the hungry millions.
I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, and apologise to you and to my colleagues for this lengthy intervention, and I thank you for your indulgence. I look forward to a successful conclusion.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for this interesting intervention, but for future interventions I hope Members will abridge information into a very brief statement.
P.A. MORALES CARBALLO (Cuba) : Muchas gracias, Sr. Presidente; haremos nuestro máximo esfuerzo por reducir nuestra intervención y hacerla lo más corta posible; de todas formas, permítame dos palabras para felicitarlo por la manera tan eficiente con que dirige nuestros trabajos, así como también quisiera hacer extensiva esta felicitación a los distinguidos Vicepresidentes y demás miembros de la Mesa; de manera muy especial quisiéramos referirnos a la excelente intervención del Director General.
Al analizar el documento GL 74/2, presentado por la Secretaría, podemos observar que a pesar de algunas mejoras en la producción alimentaria en el período, el aumento medio anual de la producción de alimentos en los países en desarrollo ha sido muy inferior a los objetivos del 4% fijado en la estrategia internacional del desarrollo del Segundo Decenio de las Naciones Unidas.
También es necesario tener en cuenta que un rasgo sobresaliente de la producción de alimentos en los últimos decenios ha sido el crecimiento de las exportaciones de los países desarrollados, lo que se ha traducido en una reducción de la participación de los países en desarrollo en el comercio internacional, acentuando su dependencia de abastecimiento desde los países industrializados.
Se ha comprobado, además, que los promedios nacionales de consumo de alimentos en los países en desarrollólo sólo muestran de por sí una situación extremadamente trágica, sino que ofrecen una indicación global de agravante déficit nutricional que padecen la mayoría de las poblaciones de estos países.
Asimismo, una característica básica de la situación presente analizada por la cuarta encuesta alimentaria mundial de la FAO es la desigual distribución de los alimentos entre los diferentes grupos socioeconómicos. Los datos que se exponen en el mencionado estudio demuestran que los grupos más pobres de la población tienen acceso generalmente a cantidades menores de alimentos, que se traducen en un consumo insuficiente para una considerable parte de dicha población.
Tampoco debemos de olvidar la grave situación que atraviesan algunos países, como por ejemplo India, Viet Nam, Lao, provocada por catástrofes nacionales y naturales.
Toda esta situación analizada se agrava por la importante expansión de las exportaciones de los países desarrollados de economía de mercado, la cual obedece en la mayoría de los casos a las políticas proteccionistas y de subsidios, influyendo la concesión de elevadas subvenciones a sus producciones y a sus exportaciones, así como la creación de fuertes barreras arancelarias y no arancelarias a la concurrencia de la producción agrícola de los países en desarrollo.
Desafortunadamente tenemos que destacar que la situación general de los productos básicos, y en especial los de origen agrícola, se ha deteriorado considerablemente. A pesar de los esfuerzos realizados durante la IV UNCTAD y la aprobación de la resolución 93 (IV) sobre el programa integrado, la coyuntura económica general de los mercados de estos productos ha sido adversa a logros sustanciales y verdaderos, habiendo un estancamiento en el proceso de negociaciones económico-comerciales en general y de los productos agrícolas en particular.
Hav que reconocer que la falta de voluntad política y el bloqueo sistemático al avance de las reuniones preparatorias incluidas en el programa integrado así como a las labores de las sesiones de la Conferencia sobre un fondo común por parte de los países capitalistas desarrollados ha hecho fracasar la aplicación de los acuerdos recogidos en la Resolución 93 IV, haciéndose también manifiesta dentro del marco de los convenios de productos básicos.
Ante esta situación se hace necesario tomar medidas prácticas que conlleven, si no a cambios substanciales, sí a mejoras considerables de este estado de cosas. En tal sentido, nuestra delegación considera un deber, siquiera sucintamente pronunciarse en contra de la posición obstacularizadora de los países desarrollados con relación a las negociaciones económicas comerciales, en especial la referente, a los productos básicos de origen agrícola; apoyar las proposiciones tendientes a aclarar las negociaciones de los productos básicos cuyas reuniones preparatorias se hayan celebrado hasta el presente; reiterar la necesidad de que los beneficioes de todos los esquemas del sistema generalizado de preferencia se apliquen a los productos agrícolas en su totalidad, y exhortar a la Comunidad Internacional, y en particular a los países desarrollados, a que adopten políticas comerciales que tiendan a la estabilización de los mercados internaciones, de tal forma que la liberalización del comercio ofrezca condiciones más favorables para los intercambios comerciales de productos agropecuarios.
Todos estos fenómenos fueron analizados de manera exhaustiva en la XV Conferencia Regional de la FAO para América Latina, celebrada el pasado mes de agosto, donde se resalto la problemática que encuentran las exportaciones agrícolas latinoamericanas en el mercado internacional, destacándose particularmente la gravedad del recrudecimiento de las políticas proteccionistas de los países industrializados, señalándolas como uno de los principales obstáculos que se oponen a la expansion de las exportaciones de nuestra región; añadiéndose también la necesidad de desarrollar acciones concertadas para reforzar la capacidad negociadora de la region en los foros internacionales.
Siquiera brevemente, no quisiéramos desaprovechar esta intervención para señalar que en el Cuadro 2 del documento CL 74/2 referente al índice anual de variación de la producción agrícola en 1970/77 se presenta a nuestro país con un índice que no es el acertado. Nuestro Ministerio de Agricultura nos ha indicado que con posterioridad, nosotros podemos hacer una aclaración al respecto, independientemente de que nosotros también con posterioridad a esta reunión, podemos conversar más detenidamente con la Secretaría. La agricultura, creemos que es necesario referirnos brevemente a la situación de la agricultura cubana en los últimos años, la cual se ha orientado hacia la diversificación y espe-cialización de la producción y a la aplicación de técnicas avanzadas con el objetivo primordial de satisfacer las necesidades de alimentación de nuestra población que en los últimos 20 años ha crecido en un 75 por ciento. Paralelamente, se está trabajando en el sentido de incrementar los fondos exportables con el fin de substituir en lo posible las importaciones de productos agropecuarios, lo cual ha requerido de grandes esfuerzos de tipo organizativo e inversionista.
La superficie cultivada en nuestro país se ha incrementado considerablemente en los últimos años mediante los trabajos de desmonte de áreas de tierras que permanecerían ociosas y la transformación de las praderas naturales. Estos ejemplos constituyen una pequeña muestra de lo que es posible realizar cuando se cambian las caducas estructuras económicas y sociales que constituyen una traba al desarrollo armónico y proporcional y promueven al beneficio solamente de una pequeña minoría.
Por toda la problemática expuesta en el documento CL 74/2 así como por las intervenciones de los delegados que me han precedido, podemos deducir que la solución del problema alimenticio en el ámbito mundial está en dependencia de las posibilidades de cada país de apoyarse en sus propias fuerzas políticas por las cuales se han definido la mayor parte de los países en desarrollo.
Sin embargo, esto no libera a la Comunidad Internacional de sus responsabilidades. Esta política puede tener éxito si los países subdesarrollados reciben ayuda financiera y técnica internacionales y si se comprende que sus esfuerzos son de interés para toda la humanidad.
Consideramos que la labor de la FAO en función de mejorar la situación agrícola y alimentaria de los países en desarrollo es muy importante y que las medidas tomadas a fin de priorizar acciones concretas en los países, tales como el Programa de Cooperación Técnica y la Cuenta para Pérdidas Posteriores a la Cosecha, entre otras, han demostrado que la Organización es capaz de realizar pasos concretos en función del desarrollo y que a la vez ayuden a resolver los problemas inherentes al logro del Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional.
M. PANJSHERI (Afghanistan) : First of all I express my Government's warmest appreciation and deep sense of gratitude to Dr. Edouard Saouma, the Director-General of FAO for all the assistance given to us. Sir, we highly commend yor excellent policies and programmes and foresight, particularly TCP and the special project for the Prevention of Food Losses. The Democratic Government of Afghanistan also expresses her sense of indebtedness to your Excellency for granting the membership and providing an opportunity to participate in this very significant international august gathering.
As this is my first opportunity, since the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to be present in this august gathering, I consider it my duty to briefly draw the attention of the distinguished delegates to the important historical liberating event that has occurred in the life of people of Afghanistan.
The liberating armed uprising of the people of Afghanistan on 27 April 1978 as the starting of the national and democratic revolution which was carried out under the leadership of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in conformity with the prior instruction and command of our great leader, Noor M. Taraki, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, and the participation of the Khalgin heroes in the armed forces, separated Afghanistan for ever from all kinds of oppression and exploitation systems and joined the country with peoples revolutionary regimes as an equal in brotherhood.
During half a century the people of Afghanistan, under the oppressive and tyrannical regime of Mohammad Nader Shah's dynasty, and its last despotic remnant, Mohammad Daoud, tolerated mediaeval anti-men miseries and tortures,a kind of colonial and tribal feudalistic regime connected with the dark reaction of imperialism.
The ruling Nader-Daoud, family was the most reactionary type of feudal aristocracy, which tried every possible deceiving and Machiavellian means to prevent the rapid and healthy economic, social, cultural and political development of Afghanistan. Thus, by keeping the people of Afghanistan in ignorance and poverty they safeguarded the greedy interests of their own family and those of the oppressive and exploiting ruling classes and internal and external forces of reaction.
To avoid talking at length, I respectfully call on the distinguished delegates and the world public ' opinion to consider the facts and figures of the various Organs and Agencies of the United Nations and other international organizations concerning Afghanistan, to witness that Afghanistan, despite its enormous natural and human resources, has remained, during the fifty years of the dark regime of the aristrocratic family of Nader and Daoud, among the 29 least developed and most backward countries of the world, a situation which was not tolerable to the people of Afghanistan any longer. During the past half century all necessary objective and subjective conditions in the country, regional and international possibilities, were available for Afghanistan to rank among the developed and progressed countries and for it to actively fulfill its international peaceful obligations with other peace loving nations of the world.
These were the reasons for the national and democratic revolution of the people of Afghanistan to occur triumphantly, culminating in the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, and transfer of power to the masses under the able guidance and dynamic leadership of Mr. Noor Mohammad Taraki, president of the Revolutionary Council, Secretary-General of the People's Democratic Party and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The basic lines of the revolutionary duties of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan consist of the elimination of economic backwardness, creation of an independent national economy, acceleration of the rate of economic growth, development and modernization of agriculture and animal husbandry, rapid industrialization and raising the standard of living of the people. ¿. Therefore, the Revolutionary Government has rightly placed adequate emphasis on the implementation of Democratic Land Reforms for the elimination of feudalistic and pre-feudalistic relations for the interest of the toiling farmers and with their participation, reclamation of arid lands, expansion and improvement of irrigation system and the solution of the grazing land issue.
I deem it appropriate and expedient to mention here that our country has an agricultural-based economy since about 85 percent of the population, including nomads are dependent upon traditional rural economy pursuits. It contributes over 50 percent to the gross domestic products, more than 50 percent export earnings and about 85 percent of the raw material for indigenous industries. The livestock production accounts for appoximately 10 percent of gross domestic products and about 30 percent of the annual national exports. Our important cereals are wheat, corn, barley and rice. Fruits and vegetables also occupy a pivotal place in our economy. Total annual foodgrain production amounted to about 4.35 million tonnes during 1977-78.
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is fully aware of the fact that land reforms play a very significant role in building up rural-based economy of any developing country. Therefore, the basic lines of revolution have accorded top priority for the implementation of democratic land reforms in the interest of the toiling farmers and has sought their active cooperation as well as participation. We are currently engaged in translating the international slogan "land belongs to the actual tillers" into action. I am glad to report that a sizeable area of agricultural land has already been acquired from big landlords who have been having feudal relations with the small farmers and landless labourers. The allotment of land will have an intensive follow-up programme.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan has initiated a large number of projects and enacted a few very important laws/decrees for a balanced socio-economic development for people's prosperity and well being. Decree No.6 has been enacted and 11 million people have been freed of Afs 30 billion debt. Thus, these people are independent of the feudalistic oppression of the enemies of society. The Government proposes to settle all of them by giving cultivable land as well as adequate imputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, credits and marketing facilities through cooperatives. Each village will have an Extension worker who will help them in availing themselves of these facilities. It is expected that the allotted agricultural land would be enough to sustain a family of husband and wife and children below 18 years of age. In addition, there will be cooperative as well as collective (State) farms which will provide employment to a sizeable section of rural population. The total production would largely meet the domestic needs. However, the available quantum of aid needs to be reviewed for enhancement because the Government proposes to launch production-oriented programmes in a big way.
A significant section of our total population are nomads (about 2.5 million) and they face some big problems such as: lack of marketing facilities of their products; lack of credit and transportation facilities; lack of pastures, and lack of drinking water, education and medical facilities.
The Democratic Government has addressed itself to these problems and a programme is being worked out to extend credit and marketing facilities and provide other amenities of health and education to this section of population also.
Finally, I would like to raise the question of the landlocked countries, where there is a big problem of commodity trading. I would ask FAO to increase its aid and consider the question of the trading problems, and whether it may be possible for these countries to have access to the ocean through other nations.
J.A. BAKER (United States of America): I will be as brief as I possibly can. I would like to commend the FAO for its comprehensive reporting of the world food and agricultural situation in the documentation that has been provided to us for this item, we especially welcome FAO efforts to include data on per capita food availabilities against dietary requirements and consumer food reserves and their recent trends. FAO data on the production of grain and stocks is generally in accordance with United States published data in the earliest years, even though our data is calculated on a somewhat different basis. We note in particular the current stock levels of major grains provide a measure of world food security that we have not had since the early 1970's. We now estimate that despite significant increases in consumption, world grain stocks will reach a level above that which FAO has previously indicated would be required for world food security.
We agree with the FAO report that despite these improvements in the world food outlook, the situation for the poorest and least developed countries remains unsatisfactory. For this reason the United States has increased its commitments for food aid and has earmarked a greater proportion of its bilateral assistance for those countries where the need is most urgent. Our strong emphasis is, on programmes directly benefiting the small farmer in the poorest area.
We feel that the quality of the project through which the assistance is channelled requires as much attention as the quantity.
We welcome FAO efforts to improve the collection of information on domestic investments in agriculture in developing countries as the trends in this area are especially relevant to the problems which continue to concern all of us.
There are other observations I would like to make on the documentation but I feel a certain compensation on the side of brevity is called for at this point. I will therefore include some of these comments in our discussion on food security as I believe they are more relevant in that context.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much indeed. We have listened very carefully to you because your country has the greatest capacity of providing food to mankind and I hope that when we come to food security we shall listen to your side in the way in which perhaps the poor and hungry can look up to the United States reserves, not in a very hard shell but in a softer way of getting this food to the countries.
M. HAMDOON (Iraq) (Interpretation from Arabic): If I may I should like to express my thanks for the information provided in the documents before us and for the global and objective analysis provided by the Director-General of the Organization. I do not wish to repeat what has already been said by colleagues who have preceded me as to the agricultural situation for 1978, since they have been very exhaustive in their statements. Nevertheless, I wish to draw attention to the volume of investments made by developing countries in the area of agricultural and food development. I wish to speak of Iraq as a developing country.
Millions of dollars are earmarked every year for agriculture development so that Iraq may reach self-sufficiency on one hand, and on the other hand participate in providing aid and exporting food to relieve the hunger situation which exists in a number of countries in the world. As for the reforms, I must say that millions of hectares of land are presently under irrigation and being utilized for the production of food and agricultural commodities for the future. I wish to draw attention to the very high spending that is necessary for agricultural development: $6,000 per hectare. 2 million hectares still have to be managed and this should be done as soon as possible. The Iraqi Government is using its best endeavours to develop the agricultural sector, to build dams, develop areas, set up agricultural stations, stations for animal husbandry in the great agricultural development areas, and set up agricultural cooperatives and agricultural extension work, launch campaigns; and this sum exceeds 20 percent of the State budget.
Iraq is importing grains and cereals in years when rainfall is not sufficient. 1978 was one of those years and we hope we shall soon be able to participate in providing aid to neighbouring countries suffering from malnutrition and hunger.
S. TATARITIS (Greece): May I first congratulate the Secretariat for the preparation of the very informative and comprehensive document we have before us on the State of Food and Agriculture for 1978. We have heard the opening statement of the Director-General, Mr. Edouard Saouma, which he so eloquently delivered yesterday. Mr. Saouma has somehow provided guidelines, if I may say so, for our discussions. In his statement he raised the points which are of the utmost importance to us all and in particular to the developing countries, and he expressed clearly his hopes and fears. Therefore, with your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I wish to refer to the document in general and to some points raised by the Director-General.
It is encouraging to note that the improvement in the world food and agriculture situation consolidated in 1976 has continued in the last year. Improvements in production took place in the developing countries individually as well as at world level. The developing countries, with an increase of about 3 percent in food production, although they did not obtain the excellent results of the previous year, have done better than the developed countries and in particular those of Western Europe. Nvertheless, we agree with the Secretariat's estimates that the world food situation remains fragile and there is little ground for complacency. Much of the improvement is due to more favourable weather conditions, although the climate remains always an uncontrollable element. Many unsatisfactory elements still exist, particularly in respect to longer-term problems. Despite the increase in cereal stocks since 1974, not sufficient progress has been made to overcome the many long-standing problems of world food security which are preoccupying us all. The need also of massive investment expansion in the agriculture of developed countries remains intense.
In addition, the recent changes in production estimates and prices show that the future world food outlook may be grim. The full picture of the world situation is thus not very satisfactory.
In brief, first, food production, particularly in the food priority countries, was much lower in the last years than in the 1960's. The average annual increase last year was 3 percent. The increase in production in the developing countries during the 1970's remains so far beyond the international development strategy and the World Food Conference target of 4 percent.
Secondly, acute food shortages continue to exist in a large number of developing countries in Africa and South Asia. Third, the negotiations for a new international agreement establishing an internationally alternate coordinated grain reserve to guarantee minimum world food security were suspended in May. They resumed this September but without significant results.
Fourth, the number of malnourished people increased to 455 million in the first quarter of 1970 and this increase occurred mainly in the developing countries.
Fifth, external assistance to increase food production, particularly in the poorest countries, has remained on the same level since 1975.
Sixth, food aid remains insufficient for the increased means and there is still no agreement to ensure the minimum level of 10 million tons of grain required for food aid.
Seventh, world food production is also seriously affected by the instability of prices.
Eighth, the world fish catch fell by about 2 percent in 1977 and the world fishing industry is facing new problems as a result of the extension of the 200 mile exclusive jurisdictions. Many countries will require special assistance if unfavourable effects on the present and future fish catch are to be avoided. FAO's estimation is that with further adjustment to the exclusive 200 mile fishery jurisdictions, little if any recovery in fish production is expected in 1978 while demand is steadily increasing.
The FAO Council, and the FAO Director-General more particularly, have always followed with concern the negotiations to establish a new international wheat and grain agreement, and in this respect a new food aid convention. We think that the successful conclusion of these negotiations is an urgent priority. It is therefore necessary that the governments participating in the negotiations to replace the International Wheat Agreement of 1971 reaffirm their commitment towards food security to a level of assured food aid of at least 10 million tons.
The Greek delegation wishes to reiterate that the international emergency reserve of 500 000 tons of cereals established by the Seventh Special Session of the General Assembly as an interim measure should continue on a permanent basis. It should constitute a continuing reserve available to the World Food Programme as it was recommended during the World Food Council ministerial meeting in Mexico. In this respect we appreciate the relevant initiative of the Director-General to appeal to potential donor countries for additional contributions, either bilateral or multilateral, in certain cases of emergencies such as the Sahelian drought, the difficulties in Viet Nam, and the serious locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa. It is a source of satisfaction to know that the appeals made by the Director-General in conjunction, with the appeals of the affected countries, have resulted in more than 100 million dollars worth of mobilized help from the international community.
We are all conscious that trade in food and in other agricultural products has been the subject of specific discussions in the multilateral trade negotiations and the UNCTAD negotiations within the integrated Programme for Commodities. Despite the difficulties that have arisen in these negotiations, greater and continuous attention must be given to the food and other trade problems of the developing countries in view of the benefits that a reduction of tariff barriers would have for these countries in their effort to resolve their food problem. On this subject we share the view of the Director-General of FAO who emphasized in many statements the fundamental importance of concluding both a grain agreement and a new Food Aid Convention.
There is no doubt that the food problem facing the developing countries cannot be solved without a major acceleration in the growth rate of production, mainly in the food priority countries with slow rates of growth in food production so far, a high degree of malnutrition, large and growing food deficits and serious constraints on importing food. We all recognize the responsibilities of the international community to increase its development assistance for food production in developing countries. Nevertheless, two constraints exist, first the inadequate financial resources and secondly, the shortage or lack of well prepared or viable investment projects.
We appreciate very much the efforts of the Director-General for the mobilization of adequate resources for investments in agriculture, as well as his efforts to provide Member Nations and financial institutions with an expanded, flexible and independent investment service. We think that the Council must support these initiatives in order to determine how food production improvement in a certain number of countries can be accelerated by receiving adequate investment and.policy support.
J. ABEYGUNASEKERA (Sri Lanka): On behalf of Sri Lanka I congratulate all the Vice-Chairmen and commend the Director-General for his inspiring speech which he made yesterday morning.
We found document CL 74/2 a useful summary of the world food and agriculture situation. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned paddy production grows to a record level in 1977. In 1978 too our crop situation has been excellent. However, disaster struck Sri Lanka in the shape of a cyclone last week. We are still assessing the damage. Certainly our crop prospects for 1979 will be affected. This illustrates very well the fragile situation of developing countries which, even while they enjoy bumper harvests, overnight they face national disasters which completely change their position. In the recent past we have depended less on imports. We have, however, had to contend with high prices for our imports. For example, international prices for fertilizers rose in 1978 and despite heavy subsidies by the Government our farmers are finding it difficult to buy fertilizer due to the high cost involved. Our fertilizer stocks as a result are moving very slowly. We must also not forget the fact that to reach a 4 percent growth rate of food production in the developing countries much more fertilizer than is shown in the FAO projection is required. Fertilizer consumption is closely tied to the use of high-yielding varieties and is therefore crucial in increasing food production. We are happy to note that developing countries are increasingly resorting to high-yielding varieties. This meets adequately the criticism that the developing countries are not allocating enough resources for agriculture. We note with some concern that although the Nineteenth Session of the FAO Conference called for 20 million dollars for the FAO Seed Improvement and Development Programme the resources provided have amounted only to about $ 3 million during the last two years. The importance of this programme in promoting the use of high-yield varieties therefore cannot be overstated.
As regards agricultural export earnings, although the share of developing market economies has risen slightly between 1975 and 1976 this percentage is much lower than those in the mid-1950's. Many developing countries who were exporters are today importers. This is indeed a matter for concern and highlights the dependence of these countries on the developed.
We also note in 1978 petroleum prices remained stationary but export unit values for many manufactured goods increased twice as fast as agricultural products. This dramatizes the balance of payment difficulties of developing countries who largely import their manufactured goods from the developed countries. Finally, we are concerned that as regards official commitments of external assistance to agriculture the poorer countries have generally continued to receive less per caput than the relatively better off ones.
A.J. PECKHAM (United Kingdom): I have a lot of points of detail which I will not worry the Council with but I will pass direct to the Secretariat but despite your injunction that we should not repeat what has been said before I would like to congratulate Professor Islam on this remarkably good paper. I note the welcome recovery, what Mr. de Br ito has referred to as a measured optimism with regard to some of the difficulties that began way back in 1972 while, however, appreciating the considerable problems which remain, especially in Africa, and it is on that point that I want to make my main remark. One or two people have referred to the response by donor countries and I should, just like to say on behalf of the United Kingdom that our aid policy, as is well known, is directed towards the poorest people in the poorest countries. We recognize that the great majority of the poorest people live in the countryside and therefore we are concentrating more and more on agriculture and on rural development. I hope that is perfectly plain in view of the comments that have been made. We fully recognize the aim of all states to raise the level of local food production, both within our bilateral aid programme and in our support to multilaterial institutions such as FAO, in order that they may, if at all possible, attain self sufficiency. That is our plain policy.
Now, I would also like to make a reference to the terms on which we grant aid. They are extremely concessional. In 1977 the grant element of .the whole of the United Kingdom aid programme was 95 percent. In addition to that we announced in last July that the burden of past loans was to be removed from 17 of the poorest countries and that means we are waiving a redemption of £900 million, which I hope with regard to our colleague from Bangladesh, will help such countries. I think it is a very significant contribution to what they can do to help themselves.
Now, I would only really like to make two further points of detail. They are technical. One, with regard to the seed programme, we strongly support the development of improved seed varieties and are actively engaged in assisting the training of staff from the developing countries in this key field of seed technology.
Secondly, with regard to pesticides, although the report deals with pesticide production capacity no mention is made in CL 74/2 of the efficiency with which people use pesticides. This we think is important because the faulty application of pesticides presents environmental problems and can result not only in reduced agricultural production by itself but also in a low return to producers. Those are the points of detail that I wanted to make, the others I will pass on.
M. DESSOUKI (Egypt): I would first like to begin by thanking the Director-General for his comprehensive statement and the document under discussion which gave us new hopes and in the meantime focused the light on a number of obstacles. While we have seen that the world agricultural production had increased, the production of the developing countries did not increase at the desired rate.
Constraints on agricultural commodities trade still deprive small farmers from the benefits of their work.
I would like to mention some aspects of the agricultural development in Egypt. I am pleased to announce that the 1978 season was a very successful one. Production of wheat, maize, millet, rice and vegetables increased considerably. The cotton yield was a record this year which resulted in an increase of production despite the decrease in its area. I wish to clarify one point here; we do not look at cotton as an industrial or exportable crop only, but also as a food crop. Cottonseed is the main source of vegetable oil in consumption and cottonseed cake is an important component of the animal feed.
This increase in production came about as a result of the government's interest in food security which has the first priority in the Economic Policy, which aims at self-sufficiency in all food crops except wheat, which we shall depend for sometime on the imports and aids to complement consumption requirements.
That is why we are deeply concerned about the delay in concluding the International Grain Agreement. Egypt is trying to develop further its production of pesticides and fertilizers as a part of its food security policy. This will go for both nitrogenous as well as phosphorous fertilizers for the benefit of the national economy as a whole.
I. OROZCO GUZMAN (México): Mi delegación desea asociarse a los comentarios positivos y felicitaciones a usted, Sr. Presidente, por su excelente guía, y al Director General y a la Secretaría de la FAO por la calidad e importancia del informe acerca de la situación mundial de la agricultura y la alimentación en 1978.
Aun cuando se observan algunos aspectos positivos en lo que se refiere al aumento de la producción, el panorama que muestra el citado informe es más bien negativo; los datos son impresionantes e indican claramente que los objetivos del Segundo Decenio de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo no se alcanzarán.
En un mundo que debería caracterizarse por relaciones equitativas de interdependencia, observamos con preocupación la continua y creciente dependencia de los países en desarrollo respecto de los desarrollados. Un ejemplo que habla por sí solo son las expectativas de las necesidades de importación de cereales de los países en desarrollo, estimadas en 90 millones de toneladas para 1985.
Lamentamos el estancamiento de las negociaciones multilaterales que permitan purificar el ambiente para el comercio internacional. Se requiere una acción renovada de acuerdo con los compromisos internacionales contraídos por parte de quienes tienen la responsabilidad de contribuir a la solución de los problemas agrícolas y alimenticios mundiales, a saber, las instituciones financieras internacionales y los países donantes individuales.
En efecto, vemos con preocupación que los recursos externos destinados a la solución de dichos problemas están muy por debajo de las necesidades reales de los países en desarrollo; sin embargo, como lo dijera recientemente el Presidente de México, el finaneiamiento no es un fin en sí mismo, sino que tiene que ser combinado con políticas comerciales justas.
Frente a este panorama, es digna de encomio la actividad práctica y con decisión que lleva a cabo la FAO bajo su actual dirección, y reconocemos que el logotipo, la FAO en acción, no es un mero recurso retórico, sino que refleja la presente característica de la Organización.
Apreciamos su sentido de responsabilidad y la competencia que ha mostrado para acudir en auxilio de los países, no sólo a nivel individual, sino respecto de necesidades regionales, incluso interregionales, como es el caso del reciente brote de fiebre porcina africana en América Latina y la existencia de la langosta del desierto que está afectando a Africa, el Cercano Oriente y Asia.
Reconocemos asimismo la respuesta positiva de los países donantes al Director General para lograr el éxito de estos esfuerzos.
En cuanto se refiere a la política nacional, cabe resaltar la prioridad a la producción de alimentos que atribuye la actual Administración del Presidente López Portillo. Se ha aprobado el Plan Quinquenal Agrícola 1978/82 con el objetivo de lograr la autosuficiencia de los principales alimentos básicos de la población. Como resultado inmediato de estos esfuerzos la producción agrícola se ha recuperado del desplome que sufrió en la primera parte del actual decenio, logrando un incremento del 4 por ciento en el ciclo agrícola 1977/78, lo cual refleja la respuesta positiva de los mexicanos al llamado de la Alianza para la Producción.
S. PADMANAGARA (Indonesia): First of all, allow me to convey to the Director-General the gratitude of the Government and the people of Indonesia for the sincere interest he has shown during his recent visit to Indonesia and the help FAO has extended so far to overcome problems of food and agriculture in Indonesia. I would also like to congratulate the Director-General for his valuable and most inspiring statement.
Secondly, I would like to extend our appreciation to the Secretariat for preparing the excellent papers.
Allow me to confine myself to making some general observations on the world food and agricultural situation and on some problems which have arisen from the most recent developments.
It is encouraging to note that food production prospects for 1978 in the world as a whole are generally favourable, thus showing a considerable degree of recovery from the difficulties that began in 1972. In spite of this, many problems remain unsolved in the poorer developing countries where progress has been slow, owing to many unfortunate circumstances and to unpredictable natural disasters. And these countries happen to have larger populations and many among them have never known adequate diets in their whole lives.
The slow rate of increase in food production in the developing countries in recent years has created a situation in which these countries are at an accelerated pace dependent on the import of food from abroad, mainly from developed countries. Moreover, this difficult situation is aggravated by the fact that many of these importing developing countries do not have at their disposal adequate earnings to pay for the imported food, the reason being that their foreign exchange earnings are indispensable for financing further developing. The picture is not new but it should receive the attention it deserves, since the problem calls for a speedy and effective solution.
At the same time, it is significant to note that in other parts of the world food stocks have developed, thanks to favourable climatic conditions and the successful application of modern technology. I associate myself with the view expressed by the Secretariat that the present high level of global stocks would be an ideal opportunity to establish the internationally coordinated system of national reserve stocks envisaged in FAO's International Undertaking on World Food Security. If the opportunity is allowed to pass, a renewed period of instability and uncertainty is very likely to ensue,
Unfortunately, no progess has been made in this respect, owing to the failure on the part of major wheat-producing countries to reach an agreement on trade and other issues in the negotiations for a new International Grains Agreement. This failure appears to have far-reaching consequences. The realization of the International Undertaking on World Food Security and the establishment of the International Emergency Food Reserve have undergone a considerable delay. This certainly is not in line with the decisions taken by the highest bodies in the UN system, including the General Assembly and the World Food Council, on the matter of World Food Security and the International Emergency Food Reserve,
With regard to food aid, my delegation notes with concern that due to lack of adequate resources, the activities of the World Food Programme continue to be limited. At the same time, there are high level stocks of dairy products and of cereals in certain parts of the world. This striking contrast can be eliminated only if the competent authorities of the countries concerned could decide on taking effective measures to ease the situation. Should they decide to channel substantial parts of the surpluses through the World Food Programme, their generous gesture would be greatly appreciated.
Taking into account the present conditions and circumstances, it is not surprising to note that the role of food aid, either for development projects or for emergency relief, has declined substantially because the quantity of food aid has fallen, while the demand for food in the recipient countries has greatly increased.
I associate myself with the view that the only effective and lasting solution of the world food security problems must be found in the adequate growth of food production for the world as a whole and in developing countries in particular. But as is known, the developing countries still need help to accelerate such development. It is hoped that contributions channeled through the existing multilateral bodies would arrive at the realization of the International Undertaking on World Food security, and where necessary, needy countries could also count on speedy relief from the International Emergency Food Reserve.
MAPELA NGA-MA (Zaïre): Monsieur le President, en même temps que nous félicitons le Directeur général pour son brillant exposé fait hier matin, et le Secrétariat pour la qualité du document que nous examinons, ma délégation aimerait faire un bref commentaire d'ordre général sur ces documents.
En parcourant ces documents, on serait porté de prime abord à espérer des lendemains meilleurs en ce qui concerne la situation de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture mondiales, alors qu'en fait la réalité prouve le contraire.
De l'avis de ma délégation, c'est ce qu'il faut retenir de cette vision des choses à long terme. Il est dit dans le document qu'à long terme le problème de la croissance de la production alimentaire dans les pays en développement demeurera préoccupant et que la malnutrition demeurera généralisée.
La réalité, c'est aussi cette constatation de fait, à la longue, à savoir le manque d'attention agissante que manifeste l'humanité devant ce fléau qu'est la faim et la malnutrition.
Par exemple, le fait que l'objectif minimal de quelque 10 millions de tonnes de céréales fixé depuis 1974 par la Conférence mondiale de l'alimentation en ce qui concerne l'aide alimentaire, le fait que cet objectif ne soit pas toujours atteint à ce jour constitue une preuve de ce manque d'attention.
Cela dit, ma délégation voudrait appuyer l'idée maintes fois avancée au sein de cette organisation tendant à constituer et à renforcer le plus tôt possible, avec l'aide des organismes financiers internationaux, des stocks de produits alimentaires, non seulement au niveau de chaque pays, mais aussi en des points stratégiques au niveau des régions.
Pour terminer, ma délégation saisit cette occasion pour remercier de vive voix tous les pays donateurs et les organismes internationaux dont la FAO, par le biais du PAM, d'avoir bien voulu accepter d'aider mon pays à la suite de la sécheresse qui a frappé deux de ses régions depuis le mois de septembre 1977.
S. MADEMBA SY (Observateur pour le Sénégal): Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie de me permettre de prendre la parole en tant qu'observateur, en attendant que nous occupions notre siège au Conseil à partir du mois de janvier 1979.
L'heure est tardive. Je vais m'efforcer d'être bref mais, Monsieur le Président, vous voudrez bien me permettre, avant d'aborder l'exposé, de présenter très brièvement les félicitations de ma délégation au nouveau Secrétaire général de la Conférence, M. Almamy Sylla.
Nous connaissons bien M. Sylla. Pendant de longues années, il a servi dans les organisations internationales, et personnellement je suis très heureux, en tant qu'ancien camarade d'enfance et d'école, de le voir aujourd'hui mettre sa vaste expérience et son sens de la diplomatie au service de la FAO. Nous lui exprimons nos voeux très sincères de plein succès dans ses nouvelles et hautes fonctions.
Monsieur le Président, Mesdames, Messieurs, le document CL 74/2 a retenu toute notre attention. Il contient une analyse fouillée, minutieuse, avec des faits et des chiffres permettant d'avoir une vue exhaustive de la situation alimentaire et agricole mondiale.
Cependant, nous pensons qu'il faut se garder de se laisser gagner par un sentiment sécurisant devant l'augmentation de la production alimentaire et agricole mondiale.
Certes, il faut se féliciter que cette production ait augmenté et qu'en 1978 on s'attende à des quantités de récolte atteignant des niveaux records.
Si en moyenne générale cette augmentation a été estimée à 2 pour cent, par contre en Afrique la production a baissé, pour tomber à 1 ,3 pour cent en moyenne, et franchement à 0 pour cent dans les pays gravement touchés menacés par une désertification qui avance à raison de 80 km par an, comme .'a déclaré le ministre mauritanien de l'agriculture à la dernière conférence africaine d'Arusha.
Les importations de denrées alimentaires ne font qu'augmenter, tant en valeur qu'en tonnage.
En 1970, les pays en voie de développement ont dépensé sept milliards de dollars; en 1976, 22 milliards. Ils ont importé en 1972-74 52 millions de tonnes; en 1977/78, 66 millions, et on prévoit qu'en 1985 ce sera plus de 90 millions de tonnes, si la tendance actuelle n'est pas renversée.
Ces données et ces chiffres illustrent de façon éloquente une situation qui ne laisse pas l'être préoccupante, j'ajouterai même alarmante, si on la rapproche maintenant des engagements de l'aide extérieure des pays en voie de développement.
En considérant le facteur agricole stricto sensu, c'est-à-dire le secteur relatif à la production alimentaire, qui est actuellement le problème prioritaire en Afrique, on constate que ces engagements sont inférieurs de moitié à ce qui est nécessaire pour assurer le minimum.
En 1977, les engagements on été de 4 861 millions de dollars alors qu'il faudrait 8 300 millions pour atteindre l'objectif fixé par le Conseil mondial de l'alimentation et également dans la stratégie internationale du développement. En fait, il s'agit pour les pays développés d'accepter de consacrer 0,70 pour cent de leur PNB à l'aide au développement.
A cet égard, nous tenons à exprimer notre reconnaissance et nos félicitations à Monsieur le distingué délégué de la France. Son pays va consacrer 0,63 pour cent de son PNB à l'aide au développement, atteignant ainsi le seuil fixé par la Communauté internationale.
L'exemple est unique pour le moment. Nous espérons vivement qu'il sera suivi-et, à cet effet, nous joignons notre voix à celle de Monsieur le distingué délégué de Colombie qui, hier après-midi, a demandé au Conseil de lancer un appel solennel aux pays développés pour qu'ils accroissent leur aide.
Nous devons également féliciter et remercier les institutions multilatérales de financement qui s'intéressent de plus en plus au secteur agricole et prennent une part si importante dans les engagements d'aide à l'agriculture dans les pays en voie de développement: Banque mondiale, CEE, Banques régionales de développement, Banques et fonds arabes.
Monsieur le Président, je vais maintenant conclure en rappelant qu'il existe encore plus de 450 millions d'affamés dans le monde. Dans un contexte si alarmant, on ne peut que louer les efforts entrepris par la FAO, sous la vigoureuse impulsion de son Directeur général, pour aider les pays en voie de développement en général et les pays le plus gravement touchés en particulier, à surmonter leur misère et leur pauvreté.
La "FAO en action", selon la belle formule de son Directeur général, a déjà fait quelque chose d'appréciable, mais il reste encore beaucoup à faire. Son action mérite d'être soutenue, poursuivie, renforcée et accrue, et tous les moyens nécessaires à cet effet devraient lui être accordés.
K. ARROWSMITH (Observer for the European Economie Community) : With reference to what was said by the representative of France, I should like to make a few brief comments about access into the EEC of exports from developing countries, particularly agricultural food exports.
Between 1960 and 1977, the share of developing countries in the total of exports to the Community rose from 21.4 percent to 28.1 percent - the rise in value being from some 27 billion dollars to 280 billion dollars. A great proportion of this increase in value was due to the rise in oil prices.
As far as agricultural food products are concerned, these represented 11.8 percent of all importations from developing countries into the EEC in 1977. On some agricultural products, the European Economic Community imposes no tariffs; for some others such as coffee, cocoa, tea, customs duties levied by the Community have been progressively reduced. Certain other products from ACP member countries of the Lomé Convention are allowed into the Community free. Furthermore, under the Stabex Scheme in the case of more than 50 countries concerned the Community has undertaken to guarantee their export receipts in respect of a number of agricultural products.
The situation has been further improved by the Système de Preferences Généralisées". Since its introduction in 1971 this system has led to the elimination of community tariff barriers in respect of a large number of processed agricultural products.
As a result of the foregoing in terms of value of the agricultural food products imported by the Community in 1977 from developing countries, about two-thirds entered unhindered by tariffs or other restrictive barriers.
In conclusion, I would say the Community has done and is doing much to meet the wishes of developing countries for free access of their agricultural products to its markets.
CHAIRMAN: I would now like to call upon Professor Islam to respond to some of the points made by
Members in this interesting debate.
N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): I have only a very few comments to make in conclusion. We are very grateful for the appreciation expressed by the delegates about the analyses contained in the two documents presented to the Council. We are happy to note the Council is in broad agreement with our assessment of facts and policies in the food and agricultural sector, and we are very grateful for the various comments and suggestions which we hope will be taken into account in the fuller version of the statement on food and agriculture.
A few delegates referred to the size of cereal stocks, and a further clarification has been sought on the composition of these stocks. As we have pointed out in our updating document, the increase in stocks in the last three years has been mostly in coarse grains. In fact, the increase in these, for example, 1978-79, as in 1978 is as shown in our updating document and the final figure is a little above the original figure shown.
We are thankful to the Council for the recommendation of FAO's continuing work in the flow of resources to agriculture - domestic, external, public and private.
Reference has been made to per hectare capital investment in Denmark as compared to that in the Netherlands, as given in Table 19 of our document. These data are primarily taken from the material contained in the United Nations Yearbook of National Accounts. The estimate of gross fixed capital formation in agriculture as given in column 2 of this table is taken from the United Nations Yearbook. The figure for the Netherlands is indeed higher than that for Denmark by about 70 percent, and it is this difference which is reflected in the estimate per hectare and per agricultural worker for these two countries. As you will have noted, the capital per worker is about the same in these two countries, whereas it is very different when you consider the capital per hectare. It may be worth mentioning in this connexion that Denmark has more than three times in hectares in arable land and crops than the Netherlands. We are aware that the data contained in the United Nations Yearbook of National Accounts are far from perfect, and in fact this is the reason why, as I said in the introduction, we had issued a questionnaire to the Member Governments requesting them to supply us with information in detail on capital formation in agriculture.
It is difficult to improve our present data analyses until we get information back from the Member Countries on these items, and this is our preliminary effort and we hope to revise it as we get responses from the various countries on the questions we have sought from them.
Reference has also been made to the role of sugar exports from the EEC as a factor contributing to the low international price of sugar in 1978. As you have kindly noticed, the number of factors has been mentioned as contributing to the lower price of sugar in recent months. They are, first, the large carry-over of stocks; second, the prospect of further accumulation of stocks and the speculative element involved in this; thirdly, the difficult position in developing a sugar policy in the United States; and fourthly, higher exports in 1978 from the EEC compared to earlier years. So this particular factor which has been referred to by a delegate as not quite relevant to the explanation of low priced sugar is one of the four factors which have been analysed in the paper as being relevant to the low price of sugar. I may mention here that since 1975 exports of sugar from the EEC have expanded so that net exports of sugar more than doubled in 1978 compared with 1977. Insofar as imports from the EEC, from ACP countries, are concerned, the Community reserve the right to re-export that quantity.
Reference has been made to the need for further work on analysis of pulses. May I remind the Council that FAO has done some work in this area and in the last Committee on World Food Security in April 1978 did consider the paper on non-cereals which included an analysis of the situation and outlook policies. We also organized an expert consultation on grains legumes processing in India in 1977. We are now engaged in updating the situation and outlook paper prepared a year ago, gradually extending the work to cover more countries.
CHAIRMAN: We have devoted a lot of time to this particular subject because of its great importance. In fact in our method of work it is specifically mentioned that the Council should pay special attention to the state of food and agriculture in the world and I am glad that the Secretariat has produced papers analysing the situation more or less correctly without very much dispute from Member Countries. As Members have debated, the global situation looks not too bad but Members have expressed great concern over the deficiencies, especially in Asia and Africa, where natural calamities such as drought, floods and locusts have added to the problems of low production which already existed, low investments, and so on, and I am sure that the international community has taken note of these. We have also heard of the efforts made by the Secretariat and the Director-General and his team to assist countries in overcoming difficulties in food and agriculture.
All this will be reflected in our reports. There is no need to give a long summary of this because this is a matter which concerns all of us and on which we are all agreed on the way in which the matter has been handled by the Secretariat. Therefore, if there are no further comments I would like to close this very important subject. This item is concluded.
DIRECTEUR GENERAL (interprétation de l'arabe): J'ai demandé la parole pour communiquer de bonnes nouvelles au Conseil. Hier, j'avais consacré une grande partie de mon exposé au thème de "la FAO en action" et j'avais fourni des informations et des chiffres relatifs à l'assistance que j'avais réussi à mobiliser en faveur des pays victimes de calamités. J'avais également révélé les noms des pays qui avaient répondu à mes appels, ainsi que les montants des assistances qu'ils avaient fournies.
Aujourd'hui, je suis heureux de communiquer au Conseil les informations au sujet de donations supplémentaires dont je viens d'être informé:
Premièrement, S.E. l'Ambassadeur de Belgique m'a fait savoir que son Gouvernement avait décidé de . contribuer pour un montant de 3 millions de francs belges, soit l'équivalent de 100 000 dollars des Etats-Unis, au compte d'urgence pour la lutte contre le criquet pèlerin.
Deuxièmement, S.E. l'Ambassadeur de la Jamarahiya libyenne m'a informé ce matin que son Gouvernement avait décidé de faire un don d'un montant de 700 000 dollars, destiné à quatre pays qui avaient été récemment victimes de calamités naturelles. Ce montant est réparti comme suit:
| - |
Inde |
250 000 dollars |
| - |
Viet Nam |
150 000 dollars |
| - |
Pakistan |
150 000 dollars |
| - |
Bangladesh |
150 000 dollars |
S.E. l'Ambassadeur de la Jamarahiya libyenne m'a dit également que son Gouvernement avait décidé, en sus de sa donation en espèces, d'envoyer à l'Inde trois grands avions de transport chargés de médicaments et de couvertures.
En remerciant sincèrement la Belgique et la Jamarahiya libyenne pour leurs généreuses donations, je réitère mes remerciements à tous les pays qui ont répondu à mes appels et qui ont ainsi donné une preuve éclatante de l'estime et de l'appui qu'ils apportent à l'action opérationnelle de notre Organisation, destinés à alléger les souffrances et à panser les blessures.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, Mr. Director-General, for the very useful information, which I am sure we are very glad to hear.
SECRETAIRE GENERAL: Avant d'aborder le point suivant, j'aurais voulu faire demander par le Président • aux pays observateurs que je vais indiquer de remettre au Secrétariat, pour publication,leur, déclaration concernant ce point. Il s'agit de la Roumanie et de la Mauritanie.
D. CONSTANTIN (Roumanie): L'actuelle session est une réunion particulièrement importante dans la direction des préoccupations de tous les peuples qui aspirent à l'indépendance, au développement économique et social, pour la réalisation des objectifs de l'Organisation des Nations Unies à l'actuelle décennie.
L'analyse de la situation de l'économie mondiale et des relations économiques entre les Etats met en évidence l'existence au monde de certains problèmes graves et complexes qui attendent une'solution.. efficiente dans l'intérêt de tous les Etats, de la paix et de la sécurité.
De la déclaration faite le 23 octobre 1978 auprès du Comité des politiques et des programmes par le Directeur général de la FAO, Monsieur E. Saouma, de même que des autres sources d'informations, il résulte que la situation de la production de céréales et d'autres produits alimentaires s'est améliorée les deux dernières années et que cette année on prévoit une bonne récolte, de 4 pour cent plus grande aux céréales par rapport à 1977 (et que la contribution au fonds d'aide alimentaire en céréales pour 1978/79, est évaluée à 9,8 millions de tonnes, l'objectif étant de 10 millions de tonnes).
Il est quand même inquiétant que malgré toute amélioration de la production les dernières années, le déficit alimentaire des pays en voie de développement se maintiendra aussiles prochaines années à un niveau très élevé.
Pour la liquidation graduelle de cet état de choses, nous nous rallions à ce que Monsieur le Directeur général de même que d'autres délégations ont déclaré, c'est-à-dire qu'il faut qu'on trouve des formes de coopération entre les pays, à travers lesquelles on adopte des mesures concrètes qui fassent part des programmes FAO pour le soutien des pays en voie de développement dans leurs efforts visant à la mise plus judicieuse en valeur des terrains, à l'extension des surfaces irriguées, è l'amélioration et à la création de nouvelles variétés de semences et de races d'animaux, qui puissent s'adapter aux conditions des respectives zones et d'autres.
Tous ces problèmes pourront être réalisés à condition qu'ils soient conçus comme faisant partie intégrante visant à l'instauration du nouvel ordre économique international, qui permette d'assurer à tous les pays des conditions pour un développement réel, conformément à la volonté et aux propres intérêts.
En ce sens, nous sommes de l'avis que les actions prévues dans le cadre du nouveau programme de coopération technique, de même que les ressources prévues à y être affectées pour le développement de l'agriculture dans les pays en voie de développement, soient augmentées, si cela est. nécessaire, dans une mesure plus grande, même au fur et à mesure du déroulement de l'activité de l'Organisation.
Comme nous l'avons fait noter aussi à l'occasion d'autres sessions, dans le but d'assurer l'exaucement de la demande de consommation dans une série de pays en voie de développement, l'agriculture et l'inr dustrie alimentaire doivent participer et s'intégrer intensément aux actions internationales entreprises dans le cadre du nouvel ordre économique international, dont la tâche est de mettre les pays en voie de développement dans la situation de mettre mieux en valeur les propres ressources et de leur créer des possibilités pour qu'ils participent à l'échange mondial de produits et de valeurs matérielles.
Nous retenons qu'il est nécessaire de concentrer les efforts pour créer dans ces pays de grandes entreprises économiques ayant un caractère complexe, de production et de recherche, bien dotées et munies d'équipements, lesquelles puissent leur permettre un autofinancement, et d'attirer en même temps des moyens financiers internes et externes pour le développement de la production agro-alimentaire.
Nous retenons que la FAO, la plus importante institution spécialisée du réseau de l'ONU, peut et doit apporter dans ce sens une contribution notable et qu'elle augmente sa contribution à la solution des problèmes de l'alimentation, du développement de la coopération internationale entre tous les pays du monde.
La délégation roumaine exprime sa satisfaction pour le fait que ces problèmes ont été examinés à la Xlème Conférence régionale FAO pour l'Europe, à l'occasion de laquelle ont été adoptées d'importantes recommandations parmi lesquelles aussi celle proposée par la Roumanie, relativement à l'établissement des priorités dans les prochaines activités de la FAO, pour qu'elle prête une particulière attention aux pays en voie de développement existant soit en Europe, soit sur d'autres continents.
Etant tout à fait d'accord avec ce qui a été déclaré par Monsieur le Directeur général, notamment que dans la période 1979-1980 et en perspective les formes de coopération technique entre les pays doivent être diversifiées et intensifiées, nous rappelons que la Roumanie est prête à accorder l'hospitalité pour une réunion des pays en voie de développement en vue d'établir des programmes concrets de développement de l'agriculture dans ces pays.
Quant à la particulière importance du commerce international avec des produits agricoles, la délégation roumaine retient qu'il est nécessaire de prendre par la suite des mesures pour sa large libéralisation, pour la diminution substantielle des obstacles tarifaires et non tarifaires qui empêchent le déroulement normal du commerce entre les pays du monde et qui causent de manière particulière des préjudices aux exportations des pays en voie de développement.
En ce qui nous concerne, nous sommes décidés à agir en collaboration avec d'autres pays, pour renforcer le rôle de la FAO dans la solution des problèmes d'intérêt majeur 1/.
OUMAR BA (Mauritanie): Ma délégation, au nom de son Gouvernement, comme en mon nom personnel, vous adresse toutes ses félicitations à l'occasion de votre brillante élection à la tête de notre Conférence. Soyez assuré, Monsieur le Président, de notre volonté de contribuer, sous votre haute autorité, à la réussite de nos travaux que tout le monde reconnaît être très importants dans la recherche solidaire d'une grande production agricole et d'une meilleure sécurité alimentaire mondiales.
Comme beaucoup d'autres délégations, ma délégation voudrait également adresser au Secrétariat toutes ses félicitations pour la bonne organisation matérielle de cette rencontre, qui permettra, j'en suis sûr, d'obtenir des résultats concluants auxquels nous aspirons.
Le mérite en revient tout naturellement au Directeur général, Monsieur Edouard Saouma, défenseur infatigable de la cause humanitaire dans le monde et artisan convaincu d'un ordre économique mondial plus équitable.
L'exposé pertinent qu'il a fait de la situation nous en apporte la preuve.
A cet égard, ma délégation voudrait une fois de plus lui renouveler son soutien résolu et ferme.
L'ordre du jour qui nous est soumis lors de la présente session comporte, comme on le voit, des problèmes à la fois importants et complexes.
Je dis bien, importants, parce qu'ils soulèvent des questions relatives à la survie des pays sous-développés en général et, aux pays du Sahel en particulier; et complexes parce que la maîtrise de leur solution dépend de l'ensemble de la Communauté internationale dont la solidarité s'est manifestée déjà, du reste, en maintes occasions.
Cependant, Monsieur le Président, le Gouvernement de la République islamique de Mauritanie, conscient de ses responsabilités vis-à-vis de son peuple et de l'ensemble des Nations, s'est toujours montré et reste préoccupé de la précarité de la situation qui règne encore dans le monde au double plan de son alimentation et de son agriculture.
Les actions entreprises pour améliorer les conditions de vie de nos populations rurales, aussi appréciables soient-elles, demeurent nettement insuffisantes, parce que le plus souvent, mal soutenues et mal réparties.
La dégradation constante et progressive des conditions dans lesquelles vivent nos populations, principalement dans les pays climatiquement et technologiquement défavorisés, constitue une réalité que l'on se plaît à dénoncer sans pour autant dégager les vrais moyens qui seraient à même sinon de l'enrayer, du moins de la freiner.
A cet égard, les résultats de toutes les rencontres et conférences internationales en témoignent élo-quemment.
Il n'est pas dans mon intention, à ce stade de mon intervention, d'aborder en détail cette situation si préoccupante pour nous, ni d'émettre de jugement de fond.
Ce qui nous préoccupe, c'est cette précarité de vie que mènent nos populations à majorité rurales qui se trouvent justement être la conséquence des calamités d'une exceptionnelle rigueur (sécheresse, épizooties, ennemis des cultures), aggravées depuis lors par la dégradation permanente des termes d'échanges et l'inflation galopante qui ne laissent à nos pays que de maigres possibilités de dégager des ressources en vue d'actions de développement.
La Mauritanie, pays sahélien par excellence, est fortement préoccupée par le problème important et inquiétant d'assurer à ses populations une vie meilleure, dans leurs propres milieux, selon leur propre, option et conformément à leurs capacités de contribution à la vie de leur nation.
En effet, Monsieur le Président, la longue sécheresse qui frappe mon pays a eu comme conséquences:
- La réduction considérable des surfaces exploitables, détruisant les structures socio-économiques,
du monde rural. Ce monde est si ébranlé qu'il perd même tout espoir de voir revenir un jour un minimum de conditions favorables.
Au cours de ces dernières années, le déficit pluviométrique a atteint dans les principales régions de production près de 80 pour cent.
Ceci n'a cessé de favoriser l'avance du désert, avance qui se réalise actuellement à une vitesse annuelle de 80 km.
Près de 265 000 personnes actives ont quitté la campagne pour les villes, et sans des efforts importants qui ne sont pas à portée de notre seul effort national, nous risquons, avec la plupart des pays sahéliens, de nous retrouver sur un sol sans culture, sans flore ni faune, en définitive sans vie.
- La recrudescence des maladies du bétail, à la faveur de la sous-alimentation et de grandes concentrations sur les espaces encore couverts, continue de causer d'importants dégâts parmi le cheptel et ce, malgré les efforts engagés en vue de sa reconstitution.
Ce sombre tableau serait incomplet si l'agressivité des ennemis des cultures n'était pas mise en exergue.
En effet, depuis le début de la sécheresse, année par année, nos maigres réalisations culturales sont soumises aux attaques de divers parasites invertébrés, sauteriots, criquets, oiseaux, rats,et j'en passe, qui, dans le cadre d'une lutte serrée pour la survie,se portent en concurrents des hommes et des animaux sur les mêmes espaces réduits et surexploités.
Monsieur le Président, comme décrit plus haut, le problème de la sécurité alimentaire et du développement agricole se pose avec acuité en Mauritanie.
Le Comité militaire de redressement national et son Gouvernement, fort conscients de l'importance des obstacles, mais également des potentialités agro-pastorales que recèle son monde rural, sont plus que déterminés à garantir à leur peuple,en majorité rural, une vie normale.
Pour ce faire, la politique "Priorité au développement rural'' vient d'être adoptée se fixant comme objectif l'autosuffisance alimentaire.
Le C.M.R.N. ainsi que son Gouvernement s'attachent depuis lors à mobiliser tous les moyens disponibles afin que cette politique devienne une réalité. Mais l'insuffisance des moyens techniques, financiers et humains et les conditions écologiques spécifiques limitent les actions entreprises.
Le Programme de développement du secteur rural, récemment défini par les autorités mauritaniennes, a connu un début de réalisation grâce à l'effort national, à la solidarité régionale et sous-régionale, mais surtout internationale car les obstacles à surmonter sont nombreux. Ils le sont d'autant que cette année encore, malgré le volume des précipitations enregistrées, le déficit céréalier de la Mauritanie est important, de l'ordre du tiers des besoins de consommation exprimés à 180 000 tonnes de céréales.
Il résultera donc de ce déficit une assez longue et difficile période de soudure tant pour les hommes que pour les animaux à laquelle il importe de faire face immédiatement par des mesures consistant en des secours d'urgence, la protection des pâturages existants, la réalisation de puits pastoraux permettant aux éleveurs d'exploiter les pâturages des zones arides.
Par ailleurs, le Gouvernement de la République islamique de Mauritanie saisit l'occasion pour réaffirmer devant votre illustre Assemblée que l'avance du désert se fait à grands pas et qu'elle constitue la plus grave menace de la décennie que nous vivons.
Il regrette le peu d'intérêt exprimé par la Communauté internationale vis-à-vis de ce fléau qui menace la région sahélienne en général et la Mauritanie en particulier.
Monsieur le Président, la sécheresse et ses effets néfastes constituent une donnée qu'il importe de prendre sérieusement en considération dans les actions de développement dans le Sahel. La sécurisation des revenus des paysans et l'autosuffisance alimentaire dans nos pays exigent une lutte déterminée contre la sécheresse, la désertification.
Mon Gouvernement a conscience que l'Organisation pour le déclenchement d'une telle lutte a pour base de départ chacun des pays concernés, mais il reste convaincu que cela ne dégage pas la responsabilité des autres pays, car, en définitive, il s'agit de lutter contre la faim, la malnutrition, les calamités naturelles dans le monde pour garantir et assurer la survie de l'être humain.
S'agissant de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement, notre Gouvernement est conscient que, sans cette réforme qui libère les producteurs des systèmes archaïques parce que basés sur des modes de tenure des terres toujours à la faveur d'une minorité, aucun développement agricole véritable et,partant, aucune autosuffisance alimentaire ne sont possibles.
C'est pourquoi, face à ce problème épineux, le Gouvernement de Mauritanie envisage, dans une première étape,la mise sur pied, d'une réforme foncière, prélude à une véritable réforme agraire.
Dans un pays sahélien comme le nôtre, le problème de la prévention des pertes alimentaires (près de 30 pour cent des récoltes pour ce qui nous concerne) ne peut passer inaperçu.
C'est pourquoi nous souscrivons au programme d'action approuvé à la Conférence de la FAO tenue du 12 novembre au 1er décembre 1977 à Rome.
Enfin, ma délégation ne saurait garder silence sur le problème combien important de la pêche quand on sait que les côtes mauritaniennes font partie des plus riches du monde.
A cet égard, notre nouvelle politique s'oriente vers une exploitation rationnelle de nos richesses ichtyologiques par une réglementation stricte des conditions d'octroi de licences, - la création de sociétés en vue de la transformation sur le sol national des produits de la mer.
Monsieur le Président, je ne saurais terminer sans souhaiter une nouvelle fois plein succès à nos travaux et dire combien ma délégation et moi-même avons été touchés par l'hospitalité du Gouvernement et du Peuple italien 1/.
CHAIRMAN: This subject is very much related to a previous subject. Therefore we should not take too long on this, because I am sure that a lot of the points of detail have been covered. But we would like to hear from Professor Islam again.
N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): I will say a few words as an introduction to the Report of the Third Session of the Committee on World Food Security. Mr. Chairman, as you very rightly mentioned in the course of discussion on the world food and agriculture situation this morning, reference has already been made to the large number of issues which were taken up by the Committee on World Food Security. These issue specifically concern the size of the world's stocks of cereals and the risks involved by delay in the establishment of an international coordinated system of food reserves.
In this connexion the Council may also note the Committee's recommendation that in formulating production policies for 1979 the major grain producing countries should pay special attention to the need to maintain adequate world supplies and stocks of basic foodstuffs.
Since then the government of the United States of America has announced its decision to continue in 1979 the current policy of taking land from wheat and maize production and diverting it to soil conserving uses. In announcing this decision the United States government expresses the view that the United States' grain reserves programme offers adequate insurance against possible production setbacks due to adverse weather.
Another major item before the Committee is the first of its biennial, reviews of the FAO food security assistance scheme. This scheme, as the Council is aware, aims to strengthen food security in the developing countries by helping them to build up national food reserves. The Committee agreed that the activities of the scheme were varied and useful and called for larger commitments from donors, preferably on a multi-lateral and longer term basis. The governments also had a useful exchange of views at an informal meeting of donors during the session.
As a follow-up to the Committee's recommendations in August this year the Director-General addressed all interested donors in seeking their cooperation for promoting a more concerted approach among multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid programmes in this field. In his communication he set out the services which FAO provided under the scheme and proposed a cooperative arrangement which in his view would increase the effectiveness of food security assistance. As mentioned by the Director-General in his statement to the Council, further contributions to this scheme have since been made in response to his appeal. Technical experts from dollar governments have participated in project preparation missions to countries in Africa and Far East Asia, Generally there seems to be an increasing acceptance of the scheme as a framework for coordinating international aid including bilateral aid, for food security. However, some major donor countries have not yet responded and we hope they will respond soon.
This important question of special assistance to developing countries links up with the protected negotiations towards a new International Grains Agreement, The Committee stressed the urgency of an early conclusion of an International Grains Agreement. It made recommendations on a number of specific aspects concerning reserve stocks, prices and international assistance to developing countries. As requested, the Director-General transmitted these recommendations to the Secretary-General of UNCTAD who submitted them to the negotiating parties.
The Council may therefore wish to discuss the implications for world food security of the outcome of these crucial negotiations which were suspended for a second time this week. This Conference has authorized its chairman to undertake consultations with governments with a view to reconvening the interim committee of the major parties involved. The Conference has requested this interim committee, after considering all the relevant factors, to recommend to the Secretary-General of UNCTAD the resumption of the Conference. During the three weeks of negotiations the
Conference had made important progress on a number of outstanding issues, specially on coarse grains and on the food aid convention. It recorded some progress in negotiations on special assistance to developing countries. The food aid convention is of great importance also from the point of view of food security. It is therefore disappointing that its final adoption had to be postponed because of delay in reaching agreement on the wheat trade convention level of prices and the size of reserve Stocks. These two elements of the wheat trade convention are very vital for meeting food security objectives.
The Council may therefore wish to reaffirm the need for the interim committee and the negotiating conference to intensify efforts to resolve this question as a matter of urgency, in the light of the unanimous recommendations made by the Committee on World Food Security at its third session.
The Council may also wish to stress the need for the full participation of developing countries at all stages of negotiations for determining prices at stock levels so that their special interest and vital concerns can be adquately taken into account.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much Professor Islam. I hope you have the document ready and that Members have gone through the recommendations made. We will start the discussion on this item in the afternoon but, before we close, I should like to make an announcement concerning something we have to do later on. It has to do with elections of the five members of the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes. According to the timetable adopted yesterday, the election of five members of the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes of the United Nations/FAO World Food Programme will take place on Monday 4 December at the end of the morning. The document which referred to this election is document CL 74/25. It has already been distributed since last July, In this document, copies of which are available at the desk, there is a nomination form for candidates to membership of this Committee.
I should like to propose to the Council that the deadline for the submission of these nominations be set at Thursday 30 November 1978, 18.00 hrs. The nominations should be delivered to office A-140. If the Council agrees to this deadline, then the Secretariat will take steps to have all the candidates listed for Friday so that it is possible for you to know before the election what to do on the Monday.
I now wish to hear any comments on the deadline for the submission of a candidate for election of members of the Food Aid Policies Committee.
S. MADEMBA SY (Observateur pour le Sénégal): Je m'excuse, M. Le Président, je prends la parole au nom du groupe africain: en ce qui concerne la presentation du délai des candidatures, est-ce qu'il ne serait pas possible de le repousser d'au moins 24 heures pour permettre les consultations nécessaires en pareil cas?
CHAIRMAN: The effect of that will be that the list will be out on Monday and if Members agree to this, then, we will shift the deadline 24 hours to Friday. Is that agreed? Then the deadline for submission of nominations is Friday, not Thursday.
The meeting rose at 12.25 hours
La séance est levée à 12 h 25
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.25 horas
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1/ Statement inserted in the verbatim records on request.
1/ Texte reçu avec demande d'insertion au procès-verbal.
1/ Texto incluido en las actas a petición expresa.
1/ Statement inserted in the verbatim records on request.
1/ Texte reçu avec demande d'insertion au procès-verbal.
1/ Texto incluido en las actas a petición expresa.
