J. TCHICAYA (Congo): Monsieur le Président, le Congo,qui a activement pris part aux travaux de la 8ème session du Comité de l'agriculture, se félicite de l'excellent rapport actuellement soumis à notre attention sous la cote CL 87/9 et CL 87/9-Sup . 1. La délégation congolaise réaffirme son appui pour la façon dont le Sécretariat exécute le programme de travail 1984-85 et dont les objectifs majeurs de ce grand programme demeurent l'amélioration des revenus ruraux ainsi que la nutrition, tant en assurant une sécurité des approvisionnements alimentaires qu'un équilibre des échanges.
L'accent mis sur la participation des petits exploitants, des femmes et des jeunes au processus de développement doit être spécialement appuyé par le Conseil et, à cet égard, notre délégation est d'accord pour que le Conseil demande au Directeur général de poursuivre ses Consultations avec le PNUD en vue d'obtenir de celui-ci des ressources accrues pour l'agriculture et d'arriver à limiter au minimum les interventions de son bureau d'exécution, dont la mise en oeuvre des projets ne semble pas combler tous nos voeux, en raison de la composante "Formation" qui doit demeurer une constante des projets agricoles de la FAO. Nous encourageons à cet égard vivement l'intensification des activités de formation pratique entreprises par les bureaux régionaux qui s'adressent à de petits groupes.
Nous demandons également le renforcement des ressources pour encourager les activités liées au développement de la CTPD, qui nous paraît être une forme souvent mieux appropriée de transfert de technologies. L'examen des huit programmes relevant du grand programme montrent que le Secrétariat s'est acquitté d'une excellente manière de leur exécution et nous voudrions l'encourager à poursuivre ses efforts.
Quant aux perspectives à moyen et long terme en matière de développement alimentaire et agricole et son support immédiat, c'est-à-dire le sommaire du Programme de travail et budget sur lequel nous nous sommes déjà prononcés lors de l'examen du point 14 de notre ordre du jour, disons que nous approuvons le choix des stratégies et priorités et souscrivons aux modifications de programmes et de moyens d'action proposés pour ce grand programme, car elles reflètent les préoccupations qui ont déjà été exprimées ici par le Conseil. Au cours de cette session et de la précédente, nous avons déjà eu à nous prononcer sur cette question. Le Secrétariat peut donc compter sur l'appui ferme de notre délégation à ce sujet et surtout l'attention spéciale que le Directeur général continue à accorder à la résolution des problèmes alimentaires et agricoles de l'Afrique.
La volonté qui transparaît pour mieux utiliser les ressources de l'Organisation est un point d'honneur à mettre à l'actif du Secrétariat, sans que nous lui permettions de sacrifier l'efficacité par des réductions trop fortes des dépenses admnistratives qui restent, selon nous, un support important du grand programme.
Il est clair que les cultures appelées improprement "cultures secondaires" constituent la base alimentaire d'une importante proportion de la population de notre planète. Il n'est donc pas normal qu'elles n'aient pas jusqu'à présent été l'objet de grandes préoccupations. Aussi les efforts actuellement faits par notre Organisation pour revaloriser ces cultures afin de combler le vide longtemps entretenu à leur sujet ne peuvent que recevoir notre appui le plus ferme. Le développement de ces cultures et leur connaissance approfondie contribueront, j'en suis sûr, à renforcer les systèmes nutritionnels socio-économiques de nombre de pays. A cet égard, nous attendons avec intérêt les enquêtes de consommation recommandées par le COAG, car elles permettront d'en tirer des enseignements utiles pour orienter l'action de la FAO.
Nous appuyons donc toutes les mesures préconisées en vue de développer ces cultures par un accroissement des échanges d'information, de données, d'expériences sur leur production, leur transformation et leur conservation, qui à beaucoup d'égards gênent encore considérablement leur développement.
A. ACUNA HUMPHRIES (Panamá): En primer lugar, esta delegación destaca la importancia que realmente tuvo el recién pasado período de sesiones del Comité de Agricultura de la FAO, cuyo informe discutimos en esta oportunidad. En segundo lugar, queremos destacar lo relativo al mayor uso posible de los resultados y de las recomendaciones que surgen de los proyectos de campo, así como que estas recomendaciones sean consultadas sistemáticamente.
Por otra parte creemos muy conveniente, en relación con los llamados cultivos secundarios y la relación que éstos tienen con la nutrición y la seguridad alimentaria, que además de atenderse a los aspectos agronómicos, se logren llenar las lagunas informativas que sobre los mismos existen, muy especialmente en aquellos aspectos que tienen que ver con estadísticas de producción y comercio.
Sobre el importante tema de las agroindustrias, que fue tratado en el aspecto de la elaboración de productos agrícolas, alimentarios y no alimentarios, creemos en la necesidad de consolidar siempre más la colaboración entre la FAO y otras organizaciones internacionales como la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo Industrial (ONUDI) y que esta colaboración tienda a la búsqueda de soluciones entre la desproporción que existe debido a la apropiación de valor en la fase de comercialización, en desmedro de las fases anteriores, o sea las de agricultura y procesamiento, que objetivamente contribuyen a desincentivar en muchos casos el resultado del desarrollo agroindustrial en nuestros países.
En el pasado período de sesiones del Comité de Agricultura se efectuó la segunda ronda de discusión sobre política de precios agrícolas, esperando la delegación de Panamá que la tercera ronda que se efectuará en la próxima Conferencia de la FAO dé por resultado la adopción de una guía básica y útil para nuestros países.
Y finalmente la delegación de Panamá se pronuncia muy de acuerdo en que en el próximo período de sesiones del COAG se examinen los efectos de la tenencia y la fragmentación de las explotaciones agrícolas en el desarrollo rural, así como la determinación de la necesidad y del establecimiento de estrategias para el aumento de la producción de cultivos de raíces y tubérculos, así como de plátanos.
R. MARTINEZ MUÑOZ (Colombia): Sobre el tema en estudio la delegación de Colombia quiere formular las siguientes precisiones:
En cuanto a los objetivos del programa principal, diseñados en el párrafo 9, la delegación de Colombia los aprueba, dando especial énfasis al mejoramiento de la nutrición, a la participación de los pequeños agricultores, las mujeres y los jóvenes, en el proceso de desarrollo.
La delegación de Colombia reitera al Director General la continuación de sus consultas con el PNUD para lograr que éste aumente los recursos con destino a la agricultura. Comparte con inquietud la observación que durante 1983-84 el programa principal 2.1 Agricultura había apoyado un programa de campo extrapresupuestario por valor de 375 millones de dólares EE.UU. Igualmente anota que estos recursos habían descendido en un 13 por ciento con respecto al nivel de 1980-81, como resultado de la reducción de fondos del programa.
Asimismo, la delegación de mi país destaca la importancia de la cooperación técnica entre países en desarrollo, el aumento constante de las actividades de capacitación, en las cuales debe participar mayor número de mujeres, y la mayor atención a los pequeños grupos.
La delegación de Colombia apoya al Comité en las prioridades de los programas que se orientan en dos directrices esenciales: promoción de la producción de alimentos, y aumento de la seguridad alimentaria, y el programa de acción se centraría particularmente en el logro de los resultados a nivel de campo. Coadyuva plenamente al reconocimiento especial de los problemas de Africa que se expresan en todas las propuestas. Apoya los párrafos 221, 222 y 223 del documento en estudio, y en cuanto al último hace especial énfasis en los "efectos de la tenencia y fragmentación de las explotaciones en el desarrollo agrícola" y comparte también otros temas sugeridos en el Comité, como los servicios de extensión agrícola, o la inclusión de la función de la mujer.
Y, por último, la delegación de Colombia quiere enfatizar que los precios agrícolas deben incentivar la producción y deben ser recibidos por el agricultor, y que el diseño de políticas agrícolas racionales tiene innegable importancia en el campo de la agricultura.
H. ZANNETIS (Cyprus): My delegation is in broad agreement with the. Committee's conclusions and recommendations. I would like only to highlight certain aspects which, in our view, need particular attention.
We more than welcome the continued increase in training during the period 1984-85, the emphasis on smaller groups and the inclusion of more women in these training activities. We support the reques
' of the Committee for further increases in training activities in the Africa and Near East regions, as put forward in paragraph 14.
We note with concern the decline of 13 percent in the extra-budgetary resources for agriculture as compared to the 1980-81 level, mainly due to the fall in UNDP funding. We support the recommendations of the Committee to the effect that the Director-General be urged to continue his consultations with UNDP in his efforts to increase the resources for agriculture.
In relation to the medium and long-term outlook for food and agricultural development in the Summary Programme of Work and Budget 1986-87, we agree with the level of long-term goals and strategies for agricultural development, and we, endorse the priorities of the eight programmes of major Programme 2.1. We welcome the special recognition of the problems of Africa and the emphasis given in concentrating FAO's resources on the poorer countries and on the smaller farmers in particular. We would expect that this considerable thrust on the part of FAO would be greatly strengthened if developing countries themselves offered the necessary incentives to the small farmers, including credit and marketing facilities to enable them to adopt improved packages of technology. In this connection we agree with the priority to be given to the development of small-scale water irrigation management systems for Africa and other developing countries.
In considering the role of minor crops in nutrition and food security the Committee noted that the nutritional, social and economic and even therapeutic significance of these crops had been underestimated in the past for a number of reasons. The result is that a large number of these crops are becoming less common and facing disappearance. Some species have already disappeared. Therefore, we believe that action is urgently needed and we support the recommendation in paragraph 169 providing accommodation to member governments, and paragraph 170 urging action at national level with the support of FAO and of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
We welcome the conclusions of the Committee related to the importance and role of agro-industries. We believe that for the development of agro-industries government policies are important in providing incentives and links between agricultural production, agro-processing, credit facilities and distribution. We support the recommendation that FAO continues to strengthen its activities in agro-industrial development.
In relation to the study on Agricultural Price Policies we note the conclusions of the Committee and we look forward to the revised study to be presented to the next session of the FAO Conference.
Finally, my delegation wishes to support the Committee's recommendation on the choice of selected development items which could be included in the provisional agenda of the next session of the COAG, as indicated in paragraph 223. They are important items and will enable the Committee to continue its tradition of serious professional as well as political commitment to the problems which affect the food and agricultural sectors of all member countries, but especially of developing countries.
H. REDL (Austria): The Austrian delegation actively participated in the deliberations in the Eighth session of COAG and commented during that meeting in detail on the activities of the Committee. The discussions confirm that the permanent solution to the problem of hunger can only be found in the organization of the future of the poor rural population. Agriculture mainly lies in the hands of small farmers and it is only they who can produce the required food. Adequate food supply and thus political stability can only be achieved if the poorest producers are assisted in finding efficient access to the means of production and gain an equitable share of their yields.
The programme of work submitted to COAG on Agriculture was thoroughly discussed, and we noted with satisfaction that the suggestions will be taken into account in the Programme of Work of FAO for the next biennium. Furthermore, the agricultural industry with its overall economic importance as the link between producer and consumer deserves our special attention. A particular type of problem is undoubtedly that of adequate producer prices as an incentive for increased production and the endeavour to keep food prices low. We are therefore looking forward with interest to the respective consultations during the Twenty-third Conference.
D.R. GREGORY (Australia): We commented at length at the meeting of the COAG on the implementation of the current Programme of Work and Budget. Perhaps there is one point which we consider that the Council should particularly endorse that came out of that meeting, and that is the suggestion in paragraph 19 of the body of the report that a quantitative more in-depth assessment of selected areas on the implementation and success of the Programme in making their objectives was needed in future reviews of the COAG. In our view this would assist any future assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of those items reviewed, and ultimately of the Programme as a whole.
Concerning the Summary Programme of Work and Budget, perhaps it would be helpful to remember that in addition to endorsing the selection of strategies, priorities and programmes the Committee on Agriculture provided the endorsements summarized at the beginning of the document with a qualification which appears in paragraph 81, namely, that the Committee's decisions were "without prejudice to the respective priorities of the Member Nations regarding budgetary considerations which were not the object of discussion in COAG".
Concerning The Role of Minor Crops in Nutrition and Food Security, in subsequent considerations of the document and from the nutritional perspective we consider there was much to commend the original COAG document, but also in the Committee's recommendations there is the implicit suggestion that minor crops are a good thing of themselves. The report also includes a proposal that provision be made for powerful incentives for their use. We consider that some care needs to be exercised in what we might call the popularization of minor crops so that scarce research resources are not wasted and precious production resources are not misallocated. This is not a criticism of the potential role of minor crops, but simply a call for a balanced approach to their exploitation.
Concerning the Processing of Food and Non-Food Agricultural Products, I would simply like to draw attention to the links between export subsidies of some food exporters and depressed world food prices which may serve to inhibit the development of processing in other countries.
Concerning Agricultural Price Policies, we think the background paper and the report of COAG present a reasonable treatment of price policies per se. I understand that additional documentation is being prepared for the Conference on that subject. Australia has also been asked to provide information concerning our own experience in this area. I refer in particular to our experience with price underwriting on some commodities. Like the United States of America, we are always more than happy to assist the Secretariat in the supply of information for undertaking analysis of country experience. Clearly, the price policies of developed countries also have a significant bearing in any decisions in this area by developing countries.
Broadly, may I repeat that Australia expressly supports the introduction of the price policies which link domestic prices to world prices, and we consider that the work of FAO will assist in this direction. However, in view of previous comments my delegation has received on this matter, may I quickly note that the world prices I am referring to are true world prices, not prices that result from the current distortion of international agricultural markets, that is, not prices resulting from the market-corrupting prices of some agricultural exporters.
Concerning the proposals for future work we commend the proposed work on Dryland Farming Systems and ask the Secretariat to bear in mind the experience already available in countries such as Australia. In this regard may I say that Australia is very pleased with the recent visit to our country by a senior official of the Agricultural Services Division, although I was somewhat surprised to hear that he was virtually the only officer of that Division to have had that experience. We will be happy to share our expertise in cost efficient dryland farming practices and we think our experience could make a valuable contribution to many developing countries, especially to many parts of Africa.
J.D. AITKEN (United Kingdom): Mr Chairman, I hope you will excuse me if I touch on a topic outside of your suggested limit at the beginning of the meeting.
The United Kingdom fully participated in the last meeting of COAG. My Government attaches considerable importance to the work of the Committee on Agriculture. We consider that it provides a very useful opportunity for professional experts from all Member Nations to exchange views with each other and to comment on the programmes of the Organization.
Here I should like to add my support to the statements of other delegations that have drawn particular attention to the need to provide adequate information for the Committee on Agriculture to function effectively. In this respect we would also like to draw attention to the suggestions made in paragraph 19 of the report. In our view the particular role of the Committee in relation to the programmes of FAO can only be adequately fulfilled if the Committee retains its professional nature and delegations of Member States continue to include senior professional staff with experience of both operational activities and policy formulation, a point touched on I believe in earlier references to the provision of tickets.
The Committee can provide an important service to the governing bodies and the Secretariat by focusing our attention on the major issues for the programme and suggesting priorities for action. The reflection of the technical conclusions of the Committee in the programme is an important element in maintaining the quality of FAO's operations.
We consider the debate at the Eighth session of the Committee on the pesticide code, minor crops and pricing'policy to have been of particular significance. The delegate of China has already drawn our attention to the importance of pricing policy. In our view the paper on pricing policy and its subsequent consideration in the Committee provided a number of excellent guides to policy formulation in this complicated area, which we hope will be reflected in the work of the Secretariat, particularly in connection with the current study on the problems in Africa.
It is well known that in the view of my Government the current problems in Africa cannot be solved simply by increasing physical inputs, seeds, fertilizers and so on. Pricing policy has a central role to play in increasing production, and the study provides welcome support for the principles concerned in the Harare Declaration for those governments which are introducing appropriate pricing policy.
Again, in the context of the current concern with the situation in Africa, we would draw attention to the comments in paragraph 191(v) of document CL 87/9 on the problems which can be associated with injudicious use of input subsidies. We look forward to considering the revised version of the paper at the Conference.
Finally, we would also like to commend the exchange of views on the role of the so-called minor crops in nutrition and food security. During this debate we have listened with interest to the comments of many delegates on this subject, and we particularly agree with the remarks of the distinguished delegates for Congo and Panama. It is important that we recognize the value of traditional crops, both in terms of nutrition and of their ability to survive under marginal climatic conditions. We consider that in future greater reliance will have to be placed on these crops and it is thus important that we ensure that there are well supported research programmes to develop their potential. With these comments I confirm our support for the adoption of this report.
H.M. MBALE (Malawi): Allow me to first make a few general remarks on document CL 87/9. We have read this document with great interest and fully support the objectives of the major programme which were designed to improve rural incomes, levels of nutrition, security of food supplies and the balance of trade.
We consider that the Committee was right to place so much emphasis on the importance of nutrition, food conservation and processing and for urging that small farmers, women and youth should be fully involved in the development process. If the energies of small farmers are properly channelled and if they are supported by providing them with the necessary timely inputs at prices they can afford, and are given extension support, they are capable of not only feeding themselves but their nations as well and can provide the necessary raw materials for agro-industries. To support this statement, in Malawi where over 90 percent of our people live and find employment in agriculture, over 80 percent of our food requirements is produced by the smallholder farmer. In addition, the smallholders contribute significantly to the production of cash crops.
The importance of involving women in nutrition and food conservation must be obvious to all members of the Council for it is said that if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate the whole family. And, as we all know, the youth are full of energy and if their energies are properly channelled by involving them in agriculture, nutrition and food conservation practices, the youth can be a great asset to any nation. If I had time I would have wished to comment at length on the role of our Organization for youth, which is called the Malawi Young Pioneers; but due to lack of time I shall not touch on this matter.
In view of what I have just said my delegation wishes to join the Committee which reviewed FAO's Programme of Work in the food and agricultural sector in urging the Director-General to continue his consultation with UNDP to increase UNDP resources for agriculture.
Allow me now to make specific comments on some of the paragraphs in the document being discussed. On paragraphs 157 to 160 and 164 to 174: In my country, the staple food item for most of our people is maize, although in some parts of the country, mainly the lakeshore areas, i.e. people living along Lake Malawi and other lakes, cassava, alternated by rice, is the staple food for them. However, with the increased production of maize in the country, even the people in the lakeshore areas are depending more and more on maize which they are now growing in larger quantities than before.
In general, therefore, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and other tubers, e.g. Irish potatoes, may be termed "minor crops" in that they do not ordinarily constitute the main diet of our people. However, since some of these food items have a shorter growing period and because if maize, the main staple, failed, for example, due to insufficient precipitation, these so-called minor crops would in that event constitute the people's main diet. For this reason, we call these crops "insurance crops". The Council may wish to consider this as an appropriate name to designate
such food crops. It may be of interest incidentally to the members of the Council to know that in Malawi for most people sweet potatoes, cassava and bananas are usually eaten mainly as snacks but also they constitute a significant part of breakfast. These crops therefore have a significant role to play in both nutrition and food security for our people. Consequently my Government's policy encourages the growing of these crops in large quantities. In point of fact, my Ministry through extension has gone even to the extent of issuing free cuttings and/or seedlings to those who do not have them readily available. My delegation therefore fully endorses the suggested "prescription" contained in paragraphs 164 to 170.
On paragraphs 161 and 162, I wish to say that, in addition, the importance of products from trees, shrubs, wild foliage, mushrooms, pulses and oilseeds as presented in paragraphs 161 and 162 cannot be over-emphasized. In Malawi, some of these crops feature prominently in the Government's agricultural price policy.
May I now turn to agricultural price policies. My delegation considers this topic most important in that the Malawian farmer, particularly the small farmer, is extremely responsive to price incentives. Our experience in this area supports what is eloquently stated in paragraph 191, namely, that: it is essential that agricultural price policy is formulated and applied with close attention to the links which prices have with other aspects of economic policy; secondly, that price measures have to be operated in conjunction with other measures in order to be effective; thirdly, subsidies to reduce the cost to farmers of inputs to production, such as fertilizer, machinery or irrigation water should be used both as an alternative to higher producer prices and to encourage faster adoption of specific inputs. However, I must mention here that the World Bank and IMF appear to be in a hurry to remove them; sometines they give the impression that price subsidies should be removed even before the small farmer is ready to absorb them. It is important to realise that hurried removal of subsidies on inputs can reduce crop production of a nation and render a nation to become an importer of a commodity of which it once was an exporter. In addition, rushed removal of subsidies can cause political unheavals: recent history in some countries is replete with examples.
My delegation fully supports the last sentence in paragraph 191(iii) which reads: "In order for the pricing policies of developing countries to be effective and for their export products to have freer access to markets it was necessary that all forms of protectionism be reduced and ultimately eliminated."
Regarding paragraph 191(v), my delegation is of the view that when considering producer prices of food crops it is necessary to safeguard in a deliberate way the interests of the domestic consumers in urban areas. It must be conceded that in most developing countries the income of the urban consumer does not often match with price changes particularly since IMF is pressing hard to have the price liberalization policy fully implemented for most commodities.
My delegation considers that what is stated under paragraph 191(vii) - Regional pricing - is correct. However, in our region through SADCC and other bilateral arrangements initiated by our Governments within the SADCC region, these problems are being effectively resolved.
My delegation fully supports the contents of paragraph 191(viii). In view of the importance we attach to this statement, it is the policy of my Government to announce crop prices every September, well before the next growing season, and the farmer has found this practice a useful basis for his decision making on what he will grow and how much.
In view of what I have said before, my delegation is in general agreement with the work programme of FAO on price policies and therefore fully supports the training role of FAO in price policy analysis including its macro-economic aspects. Finally, on processing of food and non-food agricultural products, my delegation would like to endorse the Committee's observations. Agro-industries are of strategic importance in agriculturally based economies. The role it plays in reducing post-harvest losses, especially among perishable products, in substituting imports and ensuring food security cannot be over emphasized. It is with this conviction in mind that I endorse the views expressed in paragraphs 171-186 of this report. May I add here that my country is at the moment engaged in agro-industrial studies. Its findings will definitely sound areas requiring development and it is my hope that donors will support our efforts financially, and I hope that when this report is ready FAO will certainly have a copy of it.
C.A. FERREIRA GUIMARAES (Brazil): The Brazilian delegation wishes to endorse the objectives of the 1984-85 Programme as well as the priorities selected to the proposed Programme of Work and Budget. We support the strengthening given in the Summary Programme to research training activities and to TCPC and ECDC. It is our view that cooperation within the developing world can be greatly stimulated in such areas as agro-industrial development, agricultural mechanization and manufactured farm production inputs.
With respect, to agro-industry I want to recall that paragraph 184 of the Report presented by document CL 87/9 duly reflects the concern of the Committee with the scarce attention given to Latin America and the Caribbean in this field. At this point the Brazilian delegation would appreciate if the Secretariat could also indicate which measures are envisaged to remedy this situation.
As regards the Livestock Programme, the Brazilian delegation expresses its satisfaction with the activities already developed by FAO and those planned for the next biennium on small farmer support. In this context we mention paragraph 44 of the report by which the Committee endorsed the activities carried out on improved animal production, the work on small animal development, and on the regional networks for the exchange of experience on animal power.
We emphasize the importance we attach to paragraphs 114 and 119 of the report which welcome the emphasis given to small farmers for active support for rural development and to small animals as better suited to small farms. To complement the activities in this field it would be useful and of great interest if the Secretariat were to undertake a study on small and medium animal breeding by small farmers, not only as a source of food to their families but also a commensurate activity.
With respect to minor crops the Brazilian delegation strongly supports the four recommendations in paragraph 169 of the report. On the assessment of the locally produced additional crops, the evaluation of the nutritional value of minor crops as well as the development of appropriate agricultural policies and the processing technology to minor crops, Brazil at present is giving special attention and support to small farmers in order to increase traditional and minor crops for local consumption. The aim of this programme is to recover traditional food habits that have been lost in the last decade due to the relatively assured availability of the imported and sometimes of less nutritional value commodities.
As regards agricultural prices policy, we think that in order to ensure its usefulness the study on the subject should avoid known or have known generalities about price policies, giving the facts, recognizing that in the document COAG/85/8 that agricultural price policy is country specific. It cannot be uniform even for a few countries. This aspect should be taken into due consideration as well as the fact that any formation of individual country policies should be carefully up-dated for this study. On the other hand paragraph 194 of the COAF report deserves our deep support and draws attention to the strongly adverse facts of certain policies of developed countries, and to the small role played by developing countries in determining international marketing prices. The lowering of the world prices of some export commodities and protectionist measures imposed by the developed world are important deterrents to development.
R. SEVCOVIC (Czechoslovakia): We appreciate the activities of the Committee on Agriculture on whose plan of work and choice of topics for the next meeting we have no fundamental comments. We agree to its report as a whole. The results of the Eighth session rightly referred to a paradoxical situation where we can see growth of food reserves on the one hand, and a further increase of food prices and decrease in the amount of agricultural products exported by developing countries on the other hand. This has been unfavourably reflected in the increasing dependence of developing countries on further food aid and in the growing vulnerability of their national economies.
When formulating national price policies, developed countries should take account of their impact on the level and stability of world food prices and on the trade and production in the developing countries. Further, it is necessary to abolish discriminative and protectionist measures in foreign trade and to cooperate with the developing countries in order to improve both national and international price policies.
We also think it necessary to pay attention to methods influencing food production and consumption by means of price policy systems. We have only one little reservation: the part concerning Socialist countries could be a little wider. We hope that the document for the next session of the Conference will be prepared giving them a due proportion with the other political economic systems.
At the Eighth session attention was paid to the situation of small farmers in developing countries. According to our view, countries with insufficient food production need primarily public support for development of productive agricultural sectors. FAO should continue its successful coordination and cooperation with other United Nations organs and organizations with the aim to reach the construction of national food and agriculture assistance plans in developing countries according to FAO's programmes. In that connection we highly appreciate, for example, the Programme for Rehabilitation of Agriculture in the affected African countries which was discussed during the March meeting in FAO.
It is necessary gradually to decrease the indebtedness and the dependence by more effective production and by broadening the access to international markets. And we must continually ensure improvements in the qualifications of specialists, the organization of work and the preparation and implementation of technical and technological projects in agriculture and food production. At the last meeting of the Committee the role of the so-called minor crops in nutrition and food security, particularly in the developing countries, was discussed. We support this proposal regarding the minor crops, because an increase in production and consumption of these biologically valuable crops for which there are good cultivation conditions in some countries, can help to improve the situation of food supplies. The surplus of certain crops could be used for export because some advanced countries are not able to meet fully the demand for these crops by themselves.
In conclusion of my talk let me say that the Seventy-first session of the Executive Committee of the FAO European Commission on Agriculture, which is a regional body, was held in Czechoslovakia at the end of May this year. It discussed some programmes directly related to the work of the
Committee; programmes of cooperation in European agricultural research, issues concerning economic development of less advanced regions, the position of women in the development of rural regions and the like. The organization of the session of the Executive Committee in Czechoslovakia, the special excursions to our farms etc. are factors documenting our active approach to the work of the Committee as a whole and our interest in cooperation. We believe that in all countries, with no exception, great potential for agro-food industries are possible through large-scale agricultural production with purposeful and due respect to the existing conditions, and if developed in a stabilized manner in accordance with the need to cater for technical and other prerequisites. In our view the same applies to the development of the processing sector in developing countries.
Sra. M. RUIZ ZAPATA (México): Permítaseme referirme a algunos puntos específicos del informe COAG. En relación a la política de precios no coincidimos plenamente con que el estudio correspondiente cumplió con los objetivos deseados, en virtud de que debía estudiar tal política de precios tanto en los países en desarrollo como en los desarrollados, ya que es esta última la que tiene un impacto determinante en el comercio internacional tanto en el corto y largo plazo, y por tanto afecta directa e indirectamente la política de precios en los países en desarrollo. La carencia de tal estudio sobre los países industrializados es una limitante de fondo del documento correspondiente.
Asimismo, el hecho de que la mayor parte de la producción y comercio internacional de alimentos de los países en desarrollo es controlada por unas cuantas empresas transnacionales establece un factor oligopólico sobre la determinación de precios internacionales y nacionales que tiene que estudiarse a fin de sacar conclusiones útiles. Destaco en este sentido el párrafo 173.
Llamamos la atención sobre el hecho de que el orden económico internacional prevaleciente afecta de manera determinante las opciones de políticas internas de nuestros aíses e impone condiciones negativas a nuestro desarrollo agrícola tales como la orientación indeseable de la estructura de cultivo, la adopción de tecnología y la importación de insumos caros y poco apropiados a nuestras condiciones y a un desarrollo equilibrado y menos dependiente. También se inducen cambios en la producción, la comercialización, distribución, disponibilidad y patrones de consumo en nuestros países que, en buena parte, explican que de ser exportadores de alimentos muchos hayamos pasado a ser importadores netos.
Así, factores y agentes externos que influyen en los precios internacionales y actúan en nuestro desarrollo agrícola y alimentario ejercen una influencia determinante en las condiciones en las que las políticas de precios de países en desarrollo se deben desenvolver. Reiteramos nuestro interés en que se estudie la influencia de la ayuda internacional alimentaria y agrícola de todo tipo sobre los precios internos efectivos de nuestros países.
Subrayamos los esfuerzos que nuestra región de América Latina realiza a través del SELA y el CASAR en la estabilización de los precios internacionales y destacamos la importancia de sistemas de compensación o de trueque que superen los inconvenientes de falta de divisas.
Volvemos a alertar a la comunidad internacional sobre los negativos efectos que las medidas proteccionistas de los países desarrollados tienen en contra de los precios de nuestros productos agrícolas y la reducción del valor de nuestras exportaciones. Subrayamos la trascendencia de acuerdos internacionales de productos básicos y del nuevo Acuerdo Internacional del Trigo con cláusulas económicas.
Desearíamos también que el estudio abundara en la conveniencia de reservas estabilizadoras y de criterios de regulación y abasto y en buscar un equilibrio más adecuado entre el incremento de los precios de garantía y la subvención a los insumos así como prevenir el contexto de crisis económica de. largo plazo.
price policy can and should play a role but that it is not an end-all and be-all. Given the magnitude of the observed Aggregate Supply Responses to Prices, a middle-of-the-road conclusion of this sort was reached, that price policies should be used but with other measures, such as infrastructure development, technology development, research development for stimulating production, and crop insurance, development of future markets etc. for achieving security for farmers.
Similarly, a middle-of-the-road position is adopted with respect to the criteria of factors on which the prices ought to be based. Among the three criteria are cost of production, agricultural terms of trade and international prices. The report comes to the cautious conclusion that no single use of any of these factors is called for but there should be multiple criteria incorporating all these various factors.
It is our view that, in the given circumstances, both in respect of the objective conditions, social and economic, prevailing both internally and internationally in the countries of the world, and given the state of the art as far as the theory and practice of price policies are concerned, there seems to be no option but to adopt a middle and cautious position like the one adopted in the report. Any other position, either on this side or that side of the middle, runs the greater risk of being in error. There are too many unknowns and also too many opposing considerations.
We also see from the report that price policies have a multiplicity of objectives, often conflicting objectives, as stated in paragraph 191 (i) and also has to take account of a multiplicity of criteria in fixing the levels of support prices. Given this multiplicity of objectives and criteria which, however, cannot be balanced against each other in any objective, quantitative manner, the exercise of pricing policy becomes an exercise in the art. of the possible, and exercise in judgement. This situation is reflected in the exercise of our own pricing policies in Pakistan. The objectives of our agricultural pricing policies are: (a) to provide incentives to the producers to raise productivity and production by adopting improved technology; (b) to avoid waste in the use of inputs and ensure rational use of land, water and other production resources; and (c) to develop production and cropping patterns in line with national requirements.
As regards the determination of these support price levels, our Agricultural Price Commission in Pakistan reviews the cost of production of the various crops and changes therein as a result of changes in factor input prices, the stock position of the commodity, the purchasing power of the farmers, parity between input and output prices, the world supply and demand situations, the possibilities of exports, and the prices prevailing in neighbouring countries. The Commission also takes into consideration the impact of support prices on the cost of living and other sectors of the economy. The final decision on the level of support prices reflects the judgment of the Commission, depending on the analysis of available relevant factors, as it is not possible to assign any specific weight to the abovementioned parameters.
Next, I would like to mention one of the disturbing aspects of pricing policies which is referred to in the interim document but which perhaps needs to be brought out more elaborately in the final report. This concerns the question of equity and the possible regressive distributional effect of a pricing policy. Landless labourers, a large and growing category at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder, can suffer a drop in real income when the level of support is raised on producer prices.
As is stated in paragraph 120 of the report, it is generally difficult to assess and measure the ultimate distributional effects. Paragraph 129 of the interim report listed three apparently necessary conditions for a price policy aiming at higher production not to clash with equity. More often than not, these conditions are not likely to be met in practice in most developing countries. Therefore, the document would do a great service in boldly bringing out these distributional effects of pricing policy.
We agree with the suggestion in paragraph 197 of the document for the inclusion of eight specific considerations for inclusion in the final report. We would especially like to emphasize the first of these, regarding deeper analysis of the effect that the pricing policies of the developed countries have on the developing countries. We would also like to emphasize the sixth of these which calls for further analysis of income distribution effects on pricing policies including their impact on small farmers. With these views, we recommend that the final report be completed and submitted to the FAO Conference. Regarding the processing of food and non-food agricultural products, we would like to endorse the strategies and policies presented in document CL 87/9. We would like FAO to strengthen its activities in agro-industrial development. The aim of these activities is to help in reducing the dependence of the developing countries, and the rural areas within those developing countries. This they can do by substituting for imports and for ensuring food security, as pointed out in the document, by means, for example, of the composite flour programme curtailing heavy dependence on wheat imports; by the development and marketing and processing of food and non-food products to reduce the dominant role of transnational governments
It is necessary gradually to decrease the indebtedness and the dependence by more effective production and by broadening the access to international markets. And we must continually ensure improvements in the qualifications of specialists, the organization of work and the preparation and implementation of technical and technological projects in agriculture and food production. At the last meeting of the Committee the role of the so-called minor crops in nutrition and food security, particularly in the developing countries, was discussed. We support this proposal regarding the minor crops, because an increase in production and consumption of these biologically valuable crops for which there are good cultivation conditions in some countries, can help to improve the situation of food supplies. The surplus of certain crops could be used for export because some advanced countries are not able to meet fully the demand for these crops by themselves.
In conclusion of my talk let me say that the Seventy-first session of the Executive Committee of the FAO European Commission on Agriculture, which is a regional body, was held in Czechoslovakia at the end of May this year. It discussed some programmes directly related to the work of the
Committee; programmes of cooperation in European agricultural research, issues concerning economic development of less advanced regions, the position of women in the development of rural regions and the like. The organization of the session of the Executive Committee in Czechoslovakia, the special excursions to our farms etc. are factors documenting our active approach to the work of the Committee as a whole and our interest in cooperation. We believe that in all countries, with no exception, great potential for agro-food industries are possible through large-scale agricultural production with purposeful and due respect to the existing conditions, and if developed in a stabilized manner in accordance with the need to cater for technical and other prerequisites. In our view the same applies to the development of the processing sector in developing countries.
Sra. M. RUIZ ZAPATA (Mexico): Permítaseme referirme a algunos puntos específicos del informe COAG. En relación a la política de precios no coincidimos plenamente con que el estudio correspondiente cumplió con los objetivos deseados, en virtud de que debía estudiar tal política de precios tanto en los países en desarrollo como en los desarrollados, ya que es esta ultima la que tiene un impacto determinante en el comercio internacional tanto en el corto y largo plazo, y por tanto afecta directa e indirectamente la política de precios en los países en desarrollo. La carencia de tal estudio sobre los países industrializados es una limitante de fondo del documento correspondiente.
Asimismo, el hecho de que la mayor parte de la producción y comercio internacional de alimentos de los países en desarrollo es controlada por unas cuantas empresas transnacionales establece un factor oligopólico sobre la determinación de precios internacionales y nacionales que tiene que estudiarse a fin de sacar conclusiones útiles. Destaco en este sentido el párrafo 173.
Llamamos la atención sobre el hecho de que el orden económico internacional prevaleciente afecta de manera determinante las opciones de políticas internas de nuestros aíses e impone condiciones negativas a nuestro desarrollo agrícola tales como la orientación indeseable de la estructura de cultivo, la adopción de tecnología y la importación de ínsumos caros y poco apropiados a nuestras condiciones y a un desarrollo equilibrado y menos dependiente. También se inducen cambios en la producción, la comercialización, distribución, disponibilidad y patrones de consumo en nuestros países que, en buena parte, explican que de ser exportadores de alimentos muchos hayamos pasado a ser importadores netos.
Así, factores y agentes externos que influyen en los precios internacionales y actúan en nuestro desarrollo agrícola y alimentario ejercen una influencia determinante en las condiciones en las que las políticas de precios de países en desarrollo se deben desenvolver. Reiteramos nuestro interés en que se estudie la influencia de la ayuda internacional alimentaria y agrícola de todo tipo sobre los precios internos efectivos de nuestros países.
Subrayamos los esfuerzos que nuestra región de América Latina realiza a través del SELA y el CASAR en la estabilización de los precios internacionales y destacamos la importancia de sistemas de compensación o de trueque que superen los inconvenientes de falta de divisas.
Volvemos a alertar a la comunidad internacional sobre los negativos efectos que las medidas proteccionistas de los países desarrollados tienen en contra de los precios de nuestros productos agrícolas y la reducción del valor de nuestras exportaciones. Subrayamos la trascendencia de acuerdos internacionales de productos básicos y del nuevo Acuerdo Internacional del Trigo con cláusulas económicas.
Desearíamos también que el estudio abundara en la conveniencia de reservas estabilizadoras y de criterios de regulación y abasto y en buscar un equilibrio más adecuado entre el incremento de los precios de garantía y la subvención a los insumos así como prevenir el contexto de crisis económica de. largo plazo.
Sobre los mal llamados cereales secundarios, párrafo 30, queremos coincidir plenamente con lo dicho por otras delegaciones en el tema relativo a la situación alimentaria mundial sobre la importancia y función histórica, geográfica, social y económica de estos cereales que son alimentos básicos, y advertir cómo su papel se ha visto gravemente afectado por un tipo de desarrollo y condicionante internacionales que efectivamente han convertido a estos cereales primarios y fundamentales para nuestra producción y alimentación, en cereales secundarios Coincidimos con programas de difusión que rescaten su importancia y con que se recomiende a los gobiernos de países en desarrollo a estudiar e instrumentar su impulso así como el de legumbres, hortalizas, frutas y productos pesqueros.
Finalmente quisiera destacar el apoyo de mi delegación al párrafo 98 que recuerda los resultados de la primera reunión de la Comisión de Recursos Fitogenéticos y sugerir tener en cuenta sus recomendaciones, y a los párrafos 72 y 148 que se refieren a la cooperación económica entre países en desarrollo.
J. MUSHARRAF (Pakistan): We are entirely in agreement with the discovery that the so-called minor crops, defined to include the coarse grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, oilseeds, wild foliage and so on, are of very great value from many points of view, such as: their outstanding nutritional value; the agronomic value in many of them being hardy and drought-resistant; their enriching the soil through nitrogen fixation, as in the case of the legumes; their conveniently fitting into gaps in the annual crop cycle; their role in filling serious seasonal gaps in small farmers' nutritional levels; their particular importance for women and children; their income-generating potential through their own marketability and the marketability of their by-products, and for all these reasons, their significant contribution to food security and human nutrition in all parts of the world.
In the recent session of the Committee on Agriculture when this item was discussed, our delegation had expressed the view that the document on the subject, COAG/85/6, while apparently overstating the case for minor crops, had in fact really understated the case. For example, in respect of the nutritional value of the minor crops, in our view there was an understatement in at least two respects. First, the document does not bring out with full enough force the vast range of nutrients of all types, major, minor and micro, which are present in the minor crops. The minor crops are in fact nature's great storehouse of not only the nutrients specifically mentioned in the document, but a host of others: all the minerals from phosphorus and potassium, to zinc, iodine and molybdenum, a range of vitamins from A to virtually Z; the sugars, the proteins, the fats, and all these in forms that are the most natural and acceptable to the human body - without, or with very little, of the toxic and waste-disposal . problems associated with other food substances such as animal food.
Secondly, the document had understated the therapeutic, curative and medicinal value of these crops in maintaining health and preventing disease, as well as actually curing aliments once they have taken hold. To mention a few examples, the garlic has been called the common man's ginseng; its prevention and cure of high blood pressure is only one of its many effects. The humble cabbage is a known cure for gastric ulcers. The raw juice of alfalfa can help promote hair growth in some forms of baldness of the head, while raw potato juice works miracles with ladies' complexions.
In short, the full importance of minor crops may be even more than what is admirably brought out in the document now being recommended to the Council. No wonder therefore that the wisest people on earth, the great philosophers of both East and West, had a diet of mostly what are now called minor crops. Not only that, the strongest people on earth, physically the strongest, have similarly thrived on such a diet. Tarzan himself, the first Tarzan of the movies of the 1940s, the German actor Johnny Weissmuller, before joining the movies won his six swimming gold medals in the 1936 Olympics while he was a vegetarian. Similarly, other great athletes - the world champion Japanese wrestler, Inoki; the Australian Olympic track stars, Johr Landy and Herb Elliot - all won their medals and broke world records on a diet of only fruits, vegetables, nuts and so on.
It is perhaps true that man, through evolutionary design, is basically a fruit and vegetable eating animal, having been a gatherer of fruits and foliage for much longer than being a cultivator and hunter. Let us look at our nearest cousins, the gorillas and the apes - they eat only fruit. The basic design of the human body (for example, the length of the alimentary canal, the structure of the teeth, the waste disposal system) is that of a fruit and vegetable eating animal. The minor crops fit admirably into this design.
It is therefore unfortunate that as a result of past neglect and bias against them, these have come to be regarded as minor crops, both in name and in substance. It is not that the neglect is because they are in any way really minor or negligible. Rather, the causation is the other way round, namely that they have come to be regarded as minor and negligible because they have been neglected. The neglect and bias may in turn be the result of a combination of factors, important among which may be distorted eating habits, plain ignorance, and a sham sort of modernity induced by commercial interests.
Therefore we would agree that there is a need to rehabilitate the image of the minor crops through a sort of promotional campaign, but what may be needed is not only a campaign directed towards consumers, as is suggested in paragraph 168 of the document, but even towards people such as doctors and agricultural planners and managers, whose often surprising lack of awareness can have a specially pernicious effect on the policies of government and the habits and tests of society. The power of the mass media, especially of television in the Third World, has not been fully exploited in such promotional campaigns. In the field of nutrition this medium, television, continues to play a negative role through commercial advertisements with their unbridled freedom to mislead.
In the promotional campaigns FAO could also play a role through, for example, the variety of film-strips that it produces, which could effectively be shown in educational institutions etc. around the world. One may ask whether FAO considers it a good idea to produce appropriate filmstrips for this purpose. The existing published list of FAO filmstrips contains some, but not many, such filmstrips. For example, there is a useful-looking strip on "Promoting Consumption of Nutritious Foods" which explains the role of promotion campaigns and demonstrates the problems and processes of conducting promotional campaigns. Then there are three or four other filmstrips on particularly vegetables. The potato, the tomato and the artichoke have been given pride of place. But precious little or nothing else seems to be available on other minor crops. FAO may therefore perhaps like to look into the possibilities in this respect. However, viewing the overall problem as a whole, given the power of ingrained habits and of vested interest, something more than an educational type of promotional campaign may be needed. A more strongly interventionist approach on the part of governments may be called for: (1) in coming down heavily against misleading advertising; (2) in discouraging, even perhaps prohibiting, certain items of production and consumption; and (3) in the proper processing and milling of food items so as not to rob them of their nutritive value, and so on.
For promoting the minor crops we would like to agree that the Council should support the suggestion of the Committee on Agriculture that member governments should, with the support of FAO and other international agencies, actively pursue a number of measures, such as: identification of minor crops with potential for development; improvement of the statistical measurement of the crops with a view to filling up the information gaps surrounding them; reorientation of national and international research so as to focus more on the minor crops; development of processing technologies, especially with the aim of developing convenient foods based on the minor crops for the urban market; provision of incentives such as price support, credit facilities and inputs like quality seeds etc. for the minor crops; and the development of transport, storage and marketing facilities for such crops.
Finally, we also consider it particularly of great social importance as a basis for the formulation of truly people-oriented policies, that governments acquire the knowledge, as referred to at page 5 of the COAG document, about what the very poorest of people in their countries eat and what methods they have to employ in order to provide themselves with something to eat. One may venture to assume that not many governments have perhaps succeeded in acquiring such knowledge so far. One suspects that if such knowledge were acquired it may be discovered that, among other things, browsing, begging, and outright theft, of minor crops are the not so uncommon means whereby the poor in many countries actually endeavour to stay alive.
Coming to the next topic, price policies, we would welcome FAO's study on Agricultural Price Policies, a summarized interim report of which was submitted to COAG at its last session as document COAG/85/8, and the final draft of which is proposed to be submitted to the next FAO Conference. We consider this study timely and appropriate. We find the report comprehensive in scope, sophisticated in its analysis and techniques, and balanced in its approach to the various issues.
However, we note that at the interim stage the report has been unable to cover all aspects that were originally intended to be covered. Excluded were the gathering of facts on existing price policies in respect of the extent of price bias against agriculture; and also excluded is the gaining of more understanding of different kinds of price policy instruments and interventions used. It is hoped that when the full report is submitted to the Conference these aspects will also have been covered.
Regarding the report as it stands, we are happy to note that the report comes to the sensible conclusion that issues have to be considered in a country-specific context and all implications have to be examined in country-specific situations. The paper also comes to the moderate position that
price policy can and should play a role but that it is not an end-all and be-all. Given the magnitude of the observed Aggregate Supply Responses to Prices, a middle-of-the-road conclusion of this sort was reached, that price policies should be used but with other measures, such as infrastructure development, technology development, research development for stimulating production, and crop insurance, development of future markets etc. for achieving security for farmers.
Similarly, a middle-of-the-road position is adopted with respect to the criteria of factors on which the prices ought to be based. Among the three criteria are cost of production, agricultural terms of trade and international prices. The report comes to the cautious conclusion that no single use of any of these factors is called for but there should be multiple criteria incorporating all these various factors.
It is our view that, in the given circumstances, both in respect of the objective conditions, social and economic, prevailing both internally and internationally in the countries of the world, and given the state of the art as far as the theory and practice of price policies are concerned, there seems to be no option but to adopt a middle and cautious position like the one adopted in the report. Any other position, either on this side or that side of the middle, runs the greater risk of being in error. There are too many unknowns and also too many opposing considerations.
We also see from the report that price policies have a multiplicity of objectives, often conflicting objectives, as stated in paragraph 191 (i) and also has to take account of a multiplicity of criteria in fixing the levels of support prices. Given this multiplicity of objectives and criteria which, however, cannot be balanced against each other in any objective, quantitative manner, the exercise of pricing policy becomes an exercise in the art of the possible, and exercise in judgement. This situation is reflected in the exercise of our own pricing policies in Pakistan. The objectives of our agricultural pricing policies are: (a) to provide incentives to the producers to raise productivity and production by adopting improved technology; (b) to avoid waste in the use of inputs and ensure rational use of land, water and other production resources; and (c) to develop production and cropping patterns in line with national requirements.
As regards the determination of these support price levels, our Agricultural Price Commission in Pakistan reviews the cost of production of the various crops and changes therein as a result of changes in factor input prices, the stock position of the commodity, the purchasing power of the farmers, parity between input and output prices, the world supply and demand situations, the possibilities of exports, and the prices prevailing in neighbouring countries. The Commission also takes into consideration the impact of support prices on the cost of living and other sectors of the economy. The final decision on the level of support prices reflects the judgment of the Commission, depending on the analysis of available relevant factors, as it is not possible to assign any specific weight to the abovementioned parameters.
Next, I would like to mention one of the disturbing aspects of pricing policies which is referred to in the interim document but which perhaps needs to be brought out more elaborately in the final report. This concerns the question of equity and the possible regressive distributional effect of a pricing policy. Landless labourers, a large and growing category at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder, can suffer a drop in real income when the level of support is raised on producer prices.
As is stated in paragraph 120" of the report, it is generally difficult to assess and measure the ultimate distributional effects. Paragraph 129 of the interim report listed three apparently necessary conditions for a price policy aiming at higher production not to clash with equity. More often than not, these conditions are not likely to be met in practice in most developing countries. Therefore, the document would do a great service in boldly bringing out these distributional effects of pricing policy.
We agree with the suggestion in paragraph 197 of the document for the inclusion of eight specific considerations for inclusion in the final report. We would especially like to emphasize the first of these, regarding deeper analysis of the effect that the pricing policies of the developed countries have on the developing countries. We would also like to emphasize the sixth of these which calls for further analysis of income distribution effects on pricing policies including their impact on small farmers. With these views, we recommend that the final report be completed and submitted to the FAO Conference. Regarding the processing of food and non-food agricultural products, we would like to endorse the strategies and policies presented in document CL 87/9. We would like FAO to strengthen its activities in agro-industrial development. The aim of these activities is to help in reducing the dependence of the developing countries, and the rural areas within those developing countries. This they can do by substituting for imports and for ensuring food security, as pointed out in the document, by means, for example, of the composite flour programme curtailing heavy dependence on wheat imports; by the development and marketing and processing of food and non-food products to reduce the dominant role of transnational governments
in the field at present through the development of packaging materials as referred to in paragraph 179, and so on. In this context we would like to stress the role of ECDC and TCDC at regional level. With these words we support the efforts of FAO on agro-industrial development, and endorse the strategies and policies presented in the document.
LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie le délégué du Pakistan qui a lancé d'une façon très efficace cette campagne de promotion pour les produits qu'on appelle "secondaires". Je le remercie aussi de ses conseils. Je pense que la FAO pourra développer cette campagne. Pour ma part, je suis absolument convaincu des qualités des produits que l'on appelle "secondaires".
R.C. GUPTA (India): At the outset, I would like to point out that the document under consideration, CL 87/9, is not a Secretariat paper. It is a report of an FAO Committee with a universal membership, so while making comments on this report we must keep in mind that this is the result of our own efforts. Incidentally, my delegation participated in this meeting and we were also members of the Drafting Committee. We fully endorse and support this particular report, and would strongly recommend its adoption by the Council. In accordance with your instructions, Mr Chairman, we will confine our comments to only three aspects of this report namely, minor crops, processing of food and non-food items of agricultural origin, and pricing policies.
With regard to the role of minor crops, after our distinguished colleague from Pakistan has recounted at length the beneficial effects of minor crops in alleviating nutritional distress, in contributing to income generation in rural areas, and particularly assisting small farmers, I would like only to underscore a few points. In our experience, these crops, particularly pulses and legumes which are an important food item in our situation - these crops are highly susceptible to hosts of diseases and pests, perhaps more so than the normal cereal crops like wheat and rice.
Secondly, where there have been breakthroughs in finding high-yielding varieties of rice and other major cereals, a lot of research effort has to go into finding suitable varieties of these crops which can withstand moisture stress, are resistant to disease and pests and yet have high yielding properties. We would particularly like to highlight this aspect. This is mentioned in the report among the recommendations made by the Committee on Agriculture, particularly in paragraph 164, which more or less outlines future work in this area. Sub-item (iii) speaks of "review of agricultural research priorities at national level within the context of food and nutrition strategies".
Paragraph 165 goes on to say that while certain international institutions and centres such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), UTA, and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) have done useful work in this area "but on the whole the re-orientation of agricultural research centres towards minor crops had been too recent and too limited". We would strongly add that in any future consideration of the role of minor crops, these aspects have to be stressed. We have to find appropriate varieties and suitable agricultural practices to ensure that production of these important crops increases.
With regard to the processing of food and non-food items we would underline two aspects. Firstly the institutional framework for encouraging food and non-food processing industries. In this respect need of credit and of the institutional structure, both for manufacturing and marketing, are very important. In our experience, we have found cooperatives to be an effective medium both in terms of having the benefit of value-added prices passing to the producers themselves and also as an efficient means of promoting the processing of agricultural produce.
In the COAG, we invited attention to another important area, the packaging of processed foods. We find that either the packaging material is derived from imported raw materials, or indigenously it is mostly based on forest products. While we are taking great care of one aspect of agricultural development, that is, to stop food waste and to give income to the farmers, in processing food and non-food items we would be at the same time causing incalculable harm to another aspect, which would erode the very base of agriculture - the forest. So if the packaging is not to come from forest resources, if this resource is to be conserved and saved, we will have to pay greater attention to the packaging aspects of processed foods.
On the third item, Agricultural Price Policies, as we also stated in the COAG, this is an extremely valuable document and would be of great assistance to developing countries in formulating proper pricing policies. It clearly brings out the factors which have to be taken consideration and the informed political judgment which has to be applied when various parameters are known. In paragraph 197 the Committee emphasizes certain aspects of this study which the Committee would have liked to have been studied in greater detail. We are sanguine that when the complete report on this aspect is presented, the various points will be kept in mind. Particularly in paragraph 197, some
of these aspects have been specified. The first is "deeper analysis of the bearing of developed country policies on developing country prices and price policy options,...". This is a very important subject.
Another subject we would emphasize is "additional analysis of experience with input subsidies, including their use for disadvantaged areas", and lastly, it is necessary to have more empirical evidence of responses to price changes, including analysis of the effect of removal of price incentives. On this subject, the document mentioned that a 10 percent increase in a certain area has the effect of increasing production by 5 percent, but there is the reverse argument that if prices do come down there is a harmful effect on production. More evidence should be gathered on this subject.
Lastly, while discussing other matters, the Committee emphasized certain areas for further analysis and study. We would like to underscore the importance of dry-land farming systems both for agricultural production in general, and particularly in the context of minor crops which, in our situation, are mainly produced on marginal land. With these brief comments, we strongly support this report and urge its adoption by Council.
H. CARANDANG (Philippines): I shall touch only one of the many items taken up by the Eighth session of the Committee on Agriculture, which 1 had the honour to Chair. My delegation gives this report its full support.
The item I should like to refer to is the specific aspect of agricultural price policies, the pricing policy for agricultural inputs required by food production, particularly fertilizers. It is universally recognized that fertilizers play an important role in increasing agriculture and food production in the developing countries, especially when used with the high-yield varieties. FAO estimates that over 50 percent of the increase in cereal crop production yields in developing countries since 1965 can be ascribed to fertilizers. There is still a great potential for increasing fertilizer use and accelerating production growth in developing countries.
However, if fertilizers are to play a role in realizing crop production increase, certain conditions have to be taken into account. One is the so-called price/crop ratio. As many delegations have already noted, farmers are indeed responsive to pricing policies. They are ready to apply fertilizers if the value cost ratio is favourable. We should not underestimate the farmer. He estimates the value of the crop increase resulting from the fertilizer applied. He estimates the value of that crop increase due to the application of fertilizers and compares it to the value of the fertilizer applied. This relationship is the so-called value/crop ratio. If the value/crop ratio is favourable, the farmer can be induced to use fertilizer. A value/crop ratio of less than 2 is not recommended by technicians; that is, if the value of the increase due to fertilizer applied is less than double the cost of fertilizer, then the farmer is in danger of losing money if something goes wrong such as the weather.
With the introduction of high-yielding varieties in the 1970s the Philippines increased its rice production and was able to induce the farmers to use increasing amount of fertilizer. From being a rice importer it has become a marginal exporter of rice. Recently an exogenous factor has come onto the scene. The Philippine peso was devalued in relation to the U.S. dollar by 240 percent. Since about 90 percent of the fertilizer is imported, the cost of fertilizer should go up by 240 percent. Since internal wages have not gone up by that amount, the price of rice cannot be adjusted by 240 percent. Therefore, the farmer is caught between the low price of his produce and the high price of inputs and, therefore, he has no longer any incentive to use the fertilizer. Unless a favourable value/crop ratio is restored the farmer will be using less and less fertilizer. Since the devaluation we have become again an importer of rice.
Since we know the problem, it would have been possible for us to make adjustments in our price policies either by adjusting the price of the input or by adjusting the price of the output. However, we are not entirely free to do so; we are prevented from doing so by some multilateral lending agency. As part of the loan scheduling package the removal of subsidies for fertilizer has been placed as a condition, and the result is the continuation of the present anomalous situation.
I believe that many other countries are in the same situation as the Philippines. The Philippine delegation in an earlier intervention requested a study of an alternative production system requiring less high-cost fertilizer input, as voiced by our Ambassador. We know that many such alternatives are still in the experimental stage such as Azolla, and the supply of organic fertilizer is not always readily available.
I understand that it is the intention that the Agricultural Price Policy Study is going to be submitted to the Conference. I was wondering whether in the submission of this study of agricultural price policies this aspect of the agricultural pricing policy, that is, the price of agricultural inputs, would be further studied and expanded before it is submitted to the Conference. I believe
that a country has either to choose to subsidize the inputs or to import food. I believe that many will agree with me that the first alternative will be the less costly one and probably the most inducive to greater security to food supplies. I believe that many other delegations would support this view as the more rational policy. This is probably not very clear to some multilateral lending agencies or perhaps their priorities may not necessarily coincide with those of developing countries.
Sra.M. FERMIN GOMEZ (Venezuela): Simplemente pido la palabra porque quiero manifestar expresamente mi apoyo a este documento y poner de manifiesto mi complacencia porque en él se hayan dedicado algunas páginas especialmente a los asuntos de los cultivos secundarios, aunque si bien desearía dedicar especial interés en dos puntos que contempla el informe. Uno es el relativo al desarrollo rural y a la atención que debe merecer en ese proceso de desarrollo de la mujer. La educación de la mujer, no es necesario decirlo aquí, es un elemento fundamental para el proceso de desarrollo de las áreas rurales puesto que es ella la que realmente lleva la responsabilidad de todas las tareas importantes como son el mantenimiento del hogar, la educación de los niños y en buena parte más del 50 por ciento de la carga de trabajo como factor de producción; pero esto lo viene haciendo la mujer en las áreas que llamamos atrasadas, muy justamente, y que otros llaman países subdesa-rrollados. Este trabajo, repito, la hace de una manera empírica, siguiendo simplemente la tradición de sus abuelas, de sus generaciones anteriores, mientras ellas van enfrentándose a situaciones cada vez más nuevas en donde no pueden prepararse por sí mismas para hacer frente a las necesidades que tienen que ver en la educación de los niños, con los problemas de la formación y con los problemas de la condición del hogar y, al mismo tiempo, trabajar.
Por estas razones pienso que un programa de capacitación para la mujer, entre otros programas de la FAO que caen dentro de su campo específicamente, pudiera ocupar un poco más la atención de la FAO, cuando se trata de la ayuda en el caso de la seguridad alimentaria o en el caso del mejoramiento agrícola, porque en esos casos la mujer es factor decisivo, factor importante y en mejores condiciones ella estaría también en posibilidad de prestar su apoyo y de ayudar a ese desarrollo. Quisiera decir que el desarrollo rural puede ser equivalente al desarrollo de la mujer, sin ella que es factor importante en esas áreas, el desarrollo rural estaría un poco fallido si no la tomamos en cuenta.
El segundo punto, y que ya parece una cantinela en mis intervenciones, se refiere a los cultivos secundarios. Los mal llamados cultivos secundarios, pero que son cultivos muy importantes aunque sigamos llamándolos secundarios y que, igualmente, les damos una categoría de cultivos menores. Yo desearía que de alguna manera en algunos proyectos de la FAO, que ya no serían trabajos de campo, se buscara la forma que expresara mejor el concepto de los llamados cultivos secundarios. Ojalá que este rapport que ha tomado este asunto dándole una importancia bastante relevante, en comparación con el anterior, pudiera dejar planteada para ustedes una petición o una propuesta para que la FAO pase de inmediato de las palabras a los hechos en relación con estos cultivos secundarios. Ya el delegado de Pakistán • apuntó, y nos complació escucharlo, en todas las bondades de estos cultivos. Nosotros somos testigos, ya que venimos de una región de las mal llamadas regiones tro picales, que son intertropicales o ecuatoriales, de que muchos productos que hoy están descubriendo el hombre de las zonas templadas, lo consideran ahora muy importantes.
Permítaseme, que yo traiga ahora una anécdota interesante. Cuando yo estudiaba en Boston, hace unos cuantos años, una amiga me decía que cuando fuera a Jamaica tendría miedo de comer papaya, ya que se creía que era una fruta que hacía daño y no era conveniente para la salud de las personas. No hace apenas una semana tuve el placer de escuchar de nuestro Director General Adjunto, el Sr. West, que la papaya era una de sus frutas preferidas. Esta fruta ha recorrido un largo camino, del menosprecio en que lo tenía esta señora bostoniana desde hace unos treinta años atrás, al presente en que se aprecia, como lo apreciamos nosotros, quienes somos nativos de los países de la papaya.
Por esa razón, digo, es un poco la ignorancia, el desconocimiento de las bondades de los productos, de las bondades de estos frutos el que hace que el prejuicio de los hombres de las zonas templadas que en fin de fin, han sido los que van imponiendo los productos en los mercados, pues van reconociendo las virtudes de estos productos o de estos cultivos y los van poniendo de moda e inmediatamente sube el precio, la estimación, el consumo y se mejora la economía de aquellos países atrasados, perdónenme esta parte anecdótica de mi intervención, pero soy maestra antes que nada y me parece que es útil decir estas cosas para que ustedes lo asocien con otros ejemplos.
Quiero manifestar mi apoyo total a este rapport que considero no solamente extraordinario, sino muy ajustado a la realidad y con ello doy las gracias al señor Presidente por haberme dado esta oportunidad.
LE PRESIDENT: C'est moi qui vous remercie Madame l'Ambassadeur, vous avez fait une déclaration très interessante.
R.D. KAUZLABICH (United States of America): I want to join with many of the other speakers who have expressed their support for the important global price policy study that FAO is undertaking. Obviously, we look forward, as they do, to reviewing the revised version before the Conference so that we can thoroughly comprehend and discuss this at the Conference itself. I would like to make a couple of observations on that because we have heard a number of delegates who have emphasized certain aspects of that price study, and I think there are others that need to be emphasized as well.
Obviously, the policies of developing countries are important in that, but we would like to stress in the context of this study that issues that are of concern to us include the importance of minimizing government intervention and allowing market forces to operate and the need for developing countries to implement price policies that are producer-oriented rather than consumer-oriented. The price study ought to address the adverse effects of over-valued exchange rates, and there ought to be some sort of general preference for output prices rather than input subsidies. And, finally, that price policy is only one of a number of complementary agricultural policies that it should take into account.
J. GAZZO F. D. (Observador de Perú): Yo me quiero felicitar por el excelente documento que tenemos a la vista y que fue elaborado en el COAG, en la última reunión que fue dignamente presidida por el representante de Filipinas. Hay tres puntos que me interesan en forma primordial: el primero, el concordante con todas las delegaciones y especialmente con la de Venezuela en la palabra de "cultivos secundarios". Se me ha dicho que es una tradición de FAO llamarles "cultivos secundarios", pues es una mala tradición, así que habría que cambiarla porque en América antes de que llegaran los españoles ni se conocía el trigo, o sea que había otros cultivos primarios para ese continente que después fue occidentalizado con un cultivo de clima templado no obstante de que la mayoría de los países en vías de desarrollo están entre el Trópico de Cáncer y el de Capricornio, o sea son apropiados para los cultivos de clima tropical o subtropical. De manera que eso de "cultivos secundarios" implica una especie de nombre paliativo porque yo, país donante, primero apoyo los cultivos primarios y después los secundarios, así que también nos ponen en una situación desventajosa con el nombre de secundarios.
Además se debe tener en cuenta que en una época estos cultivos fueron los primarios en algunos continentes; por consiguiente, yo podría poner la identificación de "cultivos autóctonos"; además no basta con identificarlos, sino que hay que redomesticarlos porque muchos de estos cultivos fueron abandonados y apenas se encuentran pocas plantas; habría que colectar semillas y propagarlas, estudiar sus hábitos agrícolas, o sea, redomesticarlos.
Yo pensaría que el nombre de secundarios aunque sea tradición es una mala tradición, porque para los países en desarrollo nos interesan los cultivos cuya ecología, como bien lo dijo la Embajadora de Venezuela, es apropiada para su producción. No tenemos áreas de trigo, no tenemos áreas canadienses donde se pueden sembrar extensivamente cultivos de trigo, no queremos producir trigo a un precio mayor porque entonces, sencillamente, nos hacemos el harakiri; producimos trigo a mayor precio del mercado internacional y esos terrenos son apropiados para otros cultivos, y con el trigo casi se hace economía de escala. Son grandes países con grandes áreas los que pueden producir a un costo unitario menor, de manera que yo recomendaría que comencemos a pensar por cambiar el nombre "secundario" porque no es un nombre que nos conviene a los usuarios, digamos a los países en vías de desarrollo.
Sobre el segundo punto, la política de precios, nos interesaría conocer más a fondo la política de precios de los países desarrollados porque nosotros no pensamos que la política de precios sea un fair play; hay muchas empresas transnacionales que imponen a través de ofertas y demandas la política de precios y digamos que nosotros no podemos proyectarnos al futuro, y es el caso de la caña de azúcar. Hace apenas 15 ó 20 años que en Perú se renovó toda la maquinaria para explotar la caña de azúcar; gran parte de nuestra deuda externa es debida a la renovación del equipo y ¿qué pasó?, los países desarrollados nos están desalojando de las áreas de la caña de azúcar. ¿Por qué? porque están obteniendo fructosa y dulcificantes a base de cultivos de clima templado; ahora se obtiene azúcar del maíz, se obtiene azúcar del sorgo y sencillamente los costos de producción han bajado a tal punto que todo el gasto que hicimos en implantar y modernizar nuestras fábricas a cinco centavos de dólar la libra no tiene razón de ser. Por eso es que hay una gran concatenación entre la política de precios y de producción de los países desarrollados con la nuestra, y si. no tenemos ese dato no podemos proyectarnos en forma apropiada.
Finalmente, respecto a los fertilizantes yo diría que en mi país hemos tenido una gran experiencia; hemos tratado de hacer subvenciones al consumidor, al productor, al intermediario, pero hemos encontrado que la subvención que mejor ha trabajado es cubrir el flete interno, o sea que la unidad de nitrógeno, de fósforo y de potasio cueste lo mismo en cualquier punto de la República. Muchas veces en Perú el costo del transporte era el 30 y el 40 por ciento del valor del fertilizante; entonces el agricultor que estaba a 500 kilómetros del centro del consumo no podía competir con el agricultor que estaba cerca y que usaba el mismo fertilizante, y se ha hecho un balance y se ha hecho que los costos de producción sean más o menos uniformes en relación al fertilizante.
Como es un insumo de gran valor multiplicativo, puesto que en menos de un año de un período vegetativo se obtiene la respuesta, hay que darle mayor importancia que al trabajo genético, sobre todo para puntos de emergencia, cuando necesitamos dar un salto.
Pero también hay que tener cuidado, hay que zonificar; la mayoría de nuestros países en desarrollo tenemos zonas de muy poco riesgo, o sea, zonas donde se pueden usar altas fórmulas de fertilizantes porque no hay sequías, no hay heladas, no hay enfermedades, tenemos zonas de riesgos intermedios y zonas muy riesgosas, de manera que habría que tener fórmulas apropiadas para cada una de esas zonas, que hemos tenido experiencia cuando se ha recomendado una fórmula tipo high energy. Para la Zona Andina han venido heladas y el agricultor no sólo ha perdido el cultivo sino el dinero que le costó el fertilizante. De manera que tenemos que ser sabios en este consejo.
Por lo demás, aprobamos y apoyamos plenamente este magnífico documento y recomiendo solamente que comencemos a pensar en esa palabra de "cultivos secundarios."
LE PRESIDENT : Je constate que j'ai déjà deux suggestions pour changer la définition de ce produit produit autochtone ; produit d'assurance, ainsi qu'a suggéré le représentant du Malawi.
E. BONEV (UNDP): I would refer to only one paragraph of the Report of the Eighth Session of the Committee on Agriculture - paragraph 11 which refers to UNDP. I would like to make some clarification as this paragraph has been referred to by several delegates in urging the Director-General to continue his consultations with UNDP to increase UNDP resources for agriculture. Many present here will know the policies and procedures of UNDP, but some of you perhaps do not know, and for the latter I should give some brief account of these. I apologize to those who do know, because they have to hear it repeatedly.
The only authorities which decide on priorities as to where UNDP financing should go are the governments of recipient countries. There is no other authority or institution - I say that repeatedly, because merely urging the Director-General to contact the Administrator and discuss this matter would not produce the results expected by this Council. If you want to have a greater share for development of agriculture in the UNDP-financed programme, it is necessary to urge your governments to give higher priority to agriculture. I would like to say, however, that FAO remains the major executing agency of UNDP-financed projects and programmes. It has somewhere around a 25 percent share of UNDP resources - this has been stabilized now for more than a decade, and, on the average, this rate of FAO's share in the resources continues.
Unfortunately, financial constraints have been experienced lately, not only by UNDP but by the whole of the UN system due to internal economic difficulties of the member countries. Also, following the appreciation of the dollar, increased contributions in terms of national currencies have not resulted in a 14 percent annual growth rate of UNDP's resources as envisaged earlier. We very much hope that this trend will not continue in the future, since there are some signs of revitalization of national economies.
I would, however, like to refer to another side of the dollar strength, because our resources are measured in this currency. According to the estimates made by UNDP, the strength of the dollar and the low inflation rate over the past few years will lead to a delivery value about 20 percent higher than that actually planned by UNDP. So, while I do not say that we are happy with the financial situation at present, I would like to point out that, when measuring UNDP resources in dollar terms, we have to consider also the other side of the strength of the dollar in terms of future delivery. The financing of services, equipment, fellowships, and especially experts, is effected not only in dollars but also in other national currencies.
If we really want an increase in technical assistance in the field of agriculture, there are two important conditions to be fulfilled: it would be necessary for governments to increase their contributions to UNDP and to give high priority to agriculture.
Once again, it is only the governments who establish their priorities and decide on their programmes, and neither the Administrator of UNDP nor the Director-General of FAO can interfere.
LE PRESIDENT : Je remercie le représentant du PNUD de ses informations et de ses suggestions très importantes.
Mrs R.A. SAMAD (Observer for Associated Country Women of the World): I thank you, Mr Chairman, for giving me the floor and I am really grateful to the representative of Venezuela for bringing into consideration the role of women in rural development. I have been listening to the very interesting and very highly prepared discussion on the policies for agricultural development. I would like to give my humble opinion about the problem of consumption of agriculture produce in a society.
We produce things then we know what to consume, not first we produce things and put into consumption, and here comes the role of women. Especially in underdeveloped countries, we know that women play a very important role. They spend most of the time in the kitchen. What for? For the consumption, for the nutrition of their children, for their family, so it is the women who know what things are good for the health of the child, for the husband, and therefore I would suggest that while making the policies on production, women should be given some importance or they should be taken into consideration with their views.
For example, here I have been listening to the experts from all over the world, but I do not see any women who are mainly responsible for the consumption - well not for the consumption but for the preparation of food, so I would suggest that in future there should be some women representatives from at least the underdeveloped countries who can give the real picture of the consumption pattern, and then the experts, they are there to produce. For production also the women work as labourers, hired labour or helping hands. They are never taken into consideration as policymakers or to decide what to produce. This is my humble opinion.
R. SALLERY (Canada): I apologize for coming in at this late hour. The Canadian delegation simply wanted to strongly endorse the remarks made by the distinguished Ambassador for Venezuela, specifically on the critical role of women in rural development, and also with Pakistan and others on the role of minor or indigenous or national crops, whatever we wish to call them.
In Nairobi next month there will be a UN Conference which in part will review and examine the last decade, the Decade of Women, and I think that all assessments will show that we have indeed a long way still to go in recognizing and supporting the key role of women in development. I read sometime ago that approximately - these are the World Bank estimates - 60 to 70 percent of all agricultural labourers in the world are women, and yet the percentage of women who attend international or national training courses is still about 15 percent. We still have much to do in this field.
Finally we also, like the United States and others, look forward to the results of the Global Price Policy Study.
J. TCHICAYA (Congo): Nous voulons intervenir parce que nous aussi avons lancé un appel au Directeur général pour qu'il puisse, en rapport avec le PNUD, faire en sorte que le projet exécuté par la FAO pour le compte du PNUD puisse s'en trouver augmenté.
Je crois que la réponse que nous a donnée le représentant du PNUD est juste en partie. Je crois moi aussi qu'il est vrai qu'il appartient aux gouvernements de pouvoir faire en sorte que les ressources affectées au niveau de l'agriculture, dans le cas du PNUD, puissent être élevées, mais je crois que la question qui a été soulevée, et je l'ai dit en particulier dans mon intervention, c'était le fait que le PNUD avait désormais un peu trop souvent tendance à faire en sorte que les projets agricoles soient exécutés par le Bureau d'exécution du PNUD. Je crois que le problème se pose à ce niveau, et nous aurions voulu que le représentant du PNUD puisse nous éclairer sur cette question.
Je suis membre du Comité du Programme, et au niveau du Comité du Programme nous sommes inquiets. Nous voudrions savoir pourquoi on a trop tendance à confier maintenant des projets au Bureau d'exécution parce qu'après analyse nous avons abouti au fait que le Bureau d'exécution, dans la mise en oeuvre de ses projets, néglige les aspects de formation auxquels nous tenons beaucoup. Cela est très important parce que ce bureau exécute les projets en sous-traitance avec d'autres sociétés peut-être privées qui négligent ces aspects de formation auxquels nous attachons beaucoup d'importance au niveau de la FAO.
La vraie question se situe à ce niveau-là. Nous savons tous qu'il appartient à chaque gouvernement de pouvoir affecter les ressources que le PNUD met à la disposition du gouvernement. Mais je crois que c'est au niveau de l'exécution de ces programmes qu'il y a un problème qui se pose, sur lequel nous aurions voulu avoir des éclaircissements beaucoup plus amples de la part du représentant du PNUD.
LE PRESIDENT: Est-ce que le représentant du PNUD désire prendre la parole après cette intervention de l'Ambassadeur du Congo?
E. BONEV (UNDP): In my intervention I did not refer specifically to the statement made by the representative of Congo, but I noted very carefully what the distinguished delegate said in this regard, and I will bring it to the attention of headquarters. However, I would be very pleased if he could give me a specific case of such an experience in his country. Certainly this need not be done during the meeting. We could meet outside this room and he could give me some further information as to where the UNDP Office for Projects Execution, for instance, interferes or acts without the consent of the government. I find it difficult to understand how there can be such practice, knowing from experience all the stages of the procedure for project formulation and approval, as well as for the determination of the Executing Agency, in all of which the government concerned is having its say.
LE PRESIDENT: Il ne reste qu'à organiser cette rencontre secrète du PNUD et le représentant du Congo.
R.C. GUPTA (India): I sincerely apologize for asking for the floor again. In the Programme Committee of the FAO we had the opportunity of looking at this aspect. What we felt was difficult to explain was that when UN has a specialized agency dealing with food and agriculture, why should this effort be duplicated by the UNDP, by trying to institute projects in this field by subcontracting to outside private agencies. Certainly FAO could not explain this because it is not FAO's field of work.
We would like to know from the UNDP representative here, if it is possible, and to have some explanation why, whereas the international organizations are feeling the constraint of funds, why should this effort be duplicated and why should not all the UNDP projects in food and agriculture be executed through FAO.
LE PRESIDENT : Je pense que le représentant de l'Inde pourrait se joindre à cette rencontre. Pour le moment, je ne vois pas d'autre solution.
D.F.R. BOMMER (Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department): First of all I would like to say that we note with appreciation the efforts of the Director-General, the full endorsement and acceptance of the Report on the Eighth session of the Committee on Agriculture, and when the Council has expressed its satisfaction with how this COAG session has been performed and the excellence of the report, I think a lot of the satisfaction in COAG should go certainly to the Chairman of the Eighth session of COAG who is with us, Mr Carandang from the Philippines, the two able Vice-Chairmen, Dr Grabisch and Mr Abdelhadi, who supported him.
From the comments made I can only say that we listened with great interest, particularly on singling out some of the items, in particular food statements, and I think that these statements made by a number of delegations, for instance doubts expressed by the Australian delegation to the priority of so-called minor crops, would have been overcome after this had been described by many other delegations. On the other side we certainly have not yet come to a conclusive terminology because we know how difficult it is to meet this wide variety which now I think comes under this terminology of minor crops.
At the same time I have to reply to some specific questions raised, and I think it was the distinguished delegate from Brazil who wanted to have more information on what we mean by "plan to do" and are doing in Latin America in regard to agro-industrial development. I would like first to refer that we have quite a tradition in our collaboration in Latin America in this Report on agro-industry, and there is almost no institution in Latin American countries dealing with food processing which has not, at one year or the other, been supported or even set up through the assistance of FAO.
Therefore, it is now very much opportune that our Regional Office is forming a regional network in agro-industry development, on which we place a high importance to mobilise the existing expertise in the countries for further collaboration in the TCDC and ECDC aspect. There are certainly a number of specific activities which are undertaken at the moment. I can only mention a few, particularly the Inter-island Programme on Fruits and Vegetables, again minor crops, in which a number of islands in the Caribbean participated, and the planning process is being completed and we are now seeking the financial implementation of this. There is the same collaboration in the field of hides and skins.
Various activities in the field of apiculture are underway, particularly related to the control of the Africanized bee, which is a dangerous bee in Latin America, and in apiculture in general we have successfully established various measures of collaboration between Latin America and African countries in recent times which we have implemented and we are trying to follow up.
Finally, I would like to underline that we have fully noted various valuable successes made and support given to the various items which should be considered in the next COAG session. In this context I would like to assure the delegate of Australia that there is more than one expert in FAO who has knowledge and experience of dry farming in Australia. Some even lecture on it at the Dry-Land Farming Congress in Australia. So I do not know who this single man is to whom he has referred. We are certainly aware of the expertise in his country and will make use of this expertise fully in preparing this next item on dry-land farming. Now it is for Dr Islam to comment further.
N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): I will just respond to a few questions relating to a pricing policy study and one or two questions on minor crops. As delegates have observed, the Secretariat is indeed engaged in advising, expanding and improving the document which was submitted to COAG on pricing policy for submission to the FAO Conference this year.
We are particularly paying attention in our Division to the suggestions made in the report of the Committee on Agriculture on pages 25 and 26 of the document before the Council. Particularly the issues to which delegates have repeatedly drawn attention - one, updating data and more reference to country exercises; two, analysis of the impact of developed countries' policies on stability of level of world prices, and on pricing policies and the implementation in developing countries; three, the impact of pricing policies on income distribution within the agricultural sector and on the economy as a whole. These are very complicated, complex and difficult issues, as delegates have recognized, but we will try our best to do whatever we can within the short compass of time that we have left before the Conference to consider as much as possible these issues.
Special reference has been made by a number of delegates to the question of input subsidies. This is also one of the areas mentioned in the report before the Council and this is very controversial, a topic of controversy right now among the international community, especially in the context of the adjustment policies which a large number of developing countries are now following. In agreement to it the international financial institutions are referred to. We have tried to cover this issue and we will expand the coverage of this issue in the final report.
I suppose there are three issues which the delegates mentioned. The first is the speed and extent of adjustment of input subsidies under these various programmes and their implications for both production and equity in distribution. Some of you have referred to the other factors, other circumstances which accompany the policies regarding input subsidies and they are very relevant in determining the impact of input subsidies on their removal on both production and equity. Thirdly, it was mentioned in the course of the debate that there is no uniform model for agricultural price policies that can be recommended for particular countries. This is a point well taken both in our report and in the discussion in the COAG. The treatment of Socialist countries was rather inadequate in our interim report and we hope to expand this in the final report.
As far as minor crops are concerned, I would like to emphasize here that our Programme of Work for the next biennium does include as far as the Economic and Social Policy Department is concerned, further work on information and additional analysis of the role of minor traditional crops, let us say, or insurance crops covering production, marketing and research, and this information will be collected and analysed as far as possible on a regional and sub-regional basis. Secondly, attention has been paid to the promotion of efforts at both national and international levels in respect of the traditional crops.
LE PRESIDENT : Je pense qu'avec ces deux interventions de M. Bommer et du Prof. Islam nous avons terminé notre discussion. Je dois dire que nos travaux ont été fort intéressants et très utiles. Le rapport du Comité a été approuvé sans réserve, et même avec enthousiasme.
On a souligné certains problèmes comme la nécessité d'approfondir avec un supplément d'analyse la politique des prix agricoles. On a souligné le rôle des cultures secondaires ou traditionnelles locales autochtones. On a surtout parlé du renforcement du PCT en tant que véhicule des nouvelles technologies. On a souligné aussi la coopération, dans le même secteur des technologies, entre pays en développement, le rôle des petits exploitants et la formation pratique des femmes et des groupes de petits paysans. Ce qu'a dit le représentant du Canada donne vraiment la mesure du problème du rôle des femmes dans la production agricole et dans l'alimentation : il s'agit de 60 pour cent de la main-d'oeuvre agricole dans les pays en développement alors que les femmes participent seulement pour 13 pour cent aux programmes de formation. Il s'agit là certainement d'un problème à résoudre.
A.Y. Bukhari, Vice-Chairman of the Council, took the Chair
A.Y. Bukhari, Vice-Président du Conseil, assume la présidence
Ocupa la Presidencia A.Y. Bukhari, Vicepresidente del Consejo
D.F.R. BOMMER (Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department): In introducing the Report of the Ninth Session of the Commission on Fertilizers contained in document CL 87/8, I wish at the same time to bring the Council up-to-date on the world fertilizer situation.
Fertilizer report prices have declined since the Commission met in February this year. The lower price levels reflect supply considerably exceeding current demand. Exports have been strong but demand in the developed and centrally planned economies has been weaker than in 1983-84.
As happened in 1981/82, some producers are starting to close some plants and annual maintenance shut-downs ; are beginning earlier and could be more prolonged than usual to reduce inventories.
In 1982 about three million tons of nitrogen capacity was idled in North America. Potash production was reduced by around two million tons. A number of phosphate rock mines with annual capacity of 20 million tons were idled as was over one million tons of phosphatic fertilizer capacity.
There are no comparable data for Western or Eastern Europe. However, European producers made adjustments in production because of reduced sales and growing inventories particularly of potash and nitrogenous fertilizers.
This idle capacity was gradually brought back into production and by the latter part of 1984 was producing again.
The closure of plants had an adverse effect on the many people who were laid-off from their jobs. It also adversely affected the economic life of the communities in which they live.
Would it not be better to keep these plants operating and have governments channel the surplus production to needy countries?
In reviewing the fertilizer situation at its Ninth session the Commission noted that although world fertilizer production and consumption increased in 1983/84, the increases were mainly in North America and the Latin American countries. It expressed concern at the only slight increase in Africa and Asia, and the decline in consumption in Latin America. It noted that the growth rate in fertilizer consumption was far below what was required to achieve self-reliance in food and food security in the developing countries.
In his opening address to the Ninth session of the Commission on Fertilizers, the Director-General stressed that while food aid had to be considered as an important relief measure for the food crisis in Africa, the more lasting solution to the problem of hunger was to increase food production in the countries concerned. Even though technological progress may reduce some users to inorganic fertilizers, considerably better use can be made of organic sources of plant nutrients like animal manure and crop residues, but the total demand for mineral fertilizers will continue to grow. The only way the world can continue to feed itself is by the use of more intensive farming methods. Therefore, the Director-General emphasized that fertilizers, along with improved seeds and water, were an essential input in bringing about increased productivity in food production to enable the world to become more self-reliant.
The Director-General stressed the substantial advantages of fertilizer aid. A ton of fertilizer can often be translated into ten tons or more of grain. Furthermore, fertilizers impose less strain on over-burdened distribution systems, and provide a surge in the purchasing power from increased production.
In this connection, the Commission generally expressed concern about the negative reply to this Organization from the UNDP and the IMF to the Director-General's approach to assist the most needy countries in obtaining fertilizers. The Commission requested the Director-General, therefore, to approach these Organizations again. It also requested the Director-General to appeal to the fertilizer-producing countries for increased bilateral fertilizer aid and multilateral aid generated through the IFS. This, the Director-General has done.
Under the prevailing conditions of financial difficulties, cooperation in fertilizer aid, and particularly the International Fertilizer Supply Scheme, (IFS), are of special significance for developing countries. The Commission expressed its appreciation to the Governments of Austria, Ireland and Italy for their contributions to the IFS, and urged others to support the Scheme. I am pleased to be able to report that since then, FIAC has made a contribution to the IFS, and Ireland has pledged further support. However, much more is needed.
As Council will recall, assistance through the IFS reached a peak of 247 000 tons of fertilizers material in 1975-76, or 18 percent of total fertilizer aid in that year. In 1982-83, it was only 31 000 tons, one-eighth of the peak year and less than 3 percent of total aid.
The Commission expressed concern with regard to investment in new capacity due to low fertilizer export prices. Unless prices rise to the level of realization precisely required to encourage new investment, it is possible enough additional capacity, especially in nitrogen, would not be forthcoming to meet expected demands towards the end of the present decade.
The Commission noted that if the realization prices were applicable to developing countries, governments would have to subsidize the establishment of new plants or introduce major adjustments for relative prices of agricultural products and fertilizers.
The subject of fertilizer subsidy is a very important one, which we have just discussed. It has various implications for both developed and developing countries. FAO and FIAC are preparing a publication on fertilizer strategies which will be available later in the year. This is to be given general distribution, and will be used in regional seminars. Such seminars provide an opportunity for countries to exchange experience, as does the FAO/ESCAP/UNIDO Fertilizer Advisory, Development and Information Network for Asia and the Pacific (FADINAP). The Commission felt that such a network should be established in Africa, and possibly in Latin America as well. Latin America also has an organization, MULTIFERT, which assists member countries in purchasing and selling fertilizers. The Commission recommended the experience of this organization with regard to fertilizer marketing be explored for possible adoption in other regions. In the light of this recommendation, the Director-General invited the General Manager of MULTIFERT to visit Headquarters, and I am glad to see him sitting here in the Council.
The Commission expressed satisfaction with FAO's fertilizer activities, and fully endorsed their direction and future orientation. However, it stressed the need for increasing the efficiency of fertilizer use for extending use on rain-fed crops and the use of biological nitrogenous fixation and organic materials in integrated plant nutrition systems. The Commission also stressed the importance of training and extension, particularly the value of the fertilizer programme, in reaching small farmers and involving rural women in these activities.
The Commission expressed satisfaction with the work so far undertaken by the Secretariat, in being kept informed of World Bank and UNIDO activities in the field of fertilizers. The Commission requested a number of studies be undertaken for consideration at its Tenth session; these are indicated in paragraph 64 of the report. These proposals will be carefully considered in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.
CHAIRMAN (original language Arabic): On behalf of all of us, I thank Dr Bommer for that introduction.
A. ACUNA HUMPHRIES (Panama): Primero de todo la delegación de Panamá aprecia realmente la presentación exhaustiva que nos hiciera el Subdirector General de la FAO Dr. Bommer. La delegación de Panamá considera que la Novena reunión de la Comisión de Fertilizantes de la FAO se constituyó en una de las más importantes celebradas por esta Comisión en su casi once años de constituida.
Sobre el contenido mismo del documento que presenta el Informe de la Novena reunión de la Comisión de Fertilizantes, el documento CL 87/8, queremos subrayar no con preocupación el señalamiento que hace el párrafo 36, y lo hacemos porque en efecto un posible déficit en la fabricación de fertilizantes nitrogenados, crearía situaciones aún más difíciles para el mundo en desarrollo golpeado ya por la crisis económica, los altos porcentajes de los ingresos de éstos dedicados al servicio de la deuda externa, los siempre insatisfactorios precios de los productos de exportación, la carencia de divisas, problemas éstos a los que se viene a agregar en no pocos casos los desastres naturales, así como los artificiales causados por el hombre.
Nuestra delegación considera que la cooperación internacional en el campo de los fertilizantes es realmente necesaria para lograr un incremento significativo de la producción de alimentos.
Es por esto que nosotros nos hacemos eco del llamado que a este respecto ha efectuado el Director General de la FAO a las comunidades internacionales a fin de que aumenten sus esfuerzos para incrementar significativamente la ayuda en fertilizantes.
De las deliberaciones de esta última reunión de la Comisión de Fertilizantes, merece destacarse el tema relativo a las empresas conjuntas, así como las posibilidades reales que estas empresas puedan tener en forma creciente y en un futuro próximo, en el abastecimiento de fertilizantes.
Sobre este particular destacamos la importancia de las recomendaciones consistentes en que la Secretaría de la Comisión de Fertilizantes, en cooperación con el Comité Consultivo de la Industria de Fertilizantes y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo Industrial (ONUDI), con el pleno acuerdo de los países interesados, realicen estudios analíticos sobre las empresas conjuntas que estén teniendo buenos resultados.
Tal como se indicó en forma general en la intervención inicial de esta delegación el primer día de reunión de este Consejo, insistimos en esta oportunidad en señalar la experiencia latinoamericana de la primera empresa, creada por el sistema económico latinoamericano, SELA, y que es conocida por las siglas MULTIFERT, del cual habla el documento del Informe en el párrafo 30.
Igualmente es oportuno informar a este Consejo, tal como rápidamente lo señalara el Dr. Bommer, que por invitación del Director General de la FAO se encuentra en estos momentos en esta Sede el Dr. Rolando Armuelles Boutet, Gerente General de esta empresa de cooperación económico-latinoamericana en materia de fertilizantes, con el propósito exclusivo de informar sobre las actividades de MULTIFERT, lo mismo que precisar los términos de la asistencia efectiva que la FAO puede prestar a esta empresa, la cual puede, próximamente, atender también al abastecimiento de otros insumos agropecuarios, y lo que es más, igualmente se contemplan y estudian las posibilidades reales que de estas experiencias fundadas sobre realidades concretas que puedan servir en otras regiones del mundo como Africa y Asia.
De esta forma, hay que reconocer que la FAO ha dado pronta respuesta en cierta forma modesta pero significativa y con efectos multiplicadores a las necesidades sentidas de países de la región de América Latina y el Caribe, y es por esto que en esta oportunidad la delegación de Panamá felicita sinceramente al Director General y a sus colaboradores del Departamento de Agricultura, teniendo que agregar que es ésta una forma efectiva de materializar una de las prioridades de esta Organización, cual es la promoción y asistencia, la cooperación económica y técnica entre países en vías de desarrollo. Es por todo esto que la delegación de Panamá aprueba el Informe de la Novena reunión de la Comisión de Fertilizantes que recoge el documento CL 87/8.
The meeting closed at 12.30 hours
La séance est levée à 12 h 30
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.30 horas
