LE PRESIDENT: Je déclare la séance ouverte. Je donne immédiatement la parole au très honorable Représentant du Cap-Vert.
Aguinaldo LISBOA RAMOS (Cap-Vert) : Tout d'abord, je voudrais vous dire la satisfaction de la délégation du Cap-Vert de vous voir à nouveau présider aux travaux de notre Conseil. S'il est vrai qu'en 1992 la situation mondiale de l'alimentation s'est légèrement améliorée, il est toujours préoccupant de constater que l'augmentation de la production par habitant dans les pays en développement a été très faible. On a en effet enregistré une baisse significative - 2, 5 pour cent - en Afrique, particulièrement en Afrique australe où, dans quelques pays, elle a été supérieure à 50 pour cent. Dans la corne de l'Afrique et quelques pays du Sahel, la situation devient encore plus difficile en raison de la diminution prévue de l'aide alimentaire.
Nous espérons que de meilleures perspectives pour la campagne 1993/94 se confirmeront, surtout en Afrique australe, et que dans un très court délai prendront fin les conflits armés qui perturbent de façon indiscutable la vie normale des populations, les empêchant de se consacrer aux activités productives et les obligeant à vivre dans la dépendance complète de l'aide de la communauté internationale pour leur propre survie. Elles éprouvent assez souvent d'énormes difficultés à bénéficier de cette aide en raison des contraintes les plus diverses. Mais le document détaillé et très bien élaboré que nous a présenté le Secrétariat attire notre attention. Les chiffres sont notamment très éclairants.
En effet, si la moyenne mondiale de la production d'aliments de base par habitant était en 1992, de 393 kg, à savoir inférieure à celles constatées en 1991 - soit 386 kg - et en 1990 - soit 406 kg -, en Afrique ces donnés sont de 171 kg, 196 kg et 186 kg, inférieures toujours à la moyenne de toutes les autres régions.
On ne s'étonnera donc pas que dans les pays en développement les stocks aient connu une diminution au moment où l'augmentation dans les pays développés a été importante et où en Afrique subsaharienne les importations de céréales ont enregistré une augmentation de 55 pour cent, malgré le fait que 40 pour cent de l'aide alimentaire totale soient acheminés vers cette subrégion africaine.
La situation est encore plus délicate si l'on tient compte du fait que les besoins alimentaires de l’ex-URSS et des pays de l'Europe de l'Est sont encore significatifs et que la situation dans les pays en développement s'est détériorée, et que malgré cela, le total de l'aide alimentaire pour 1991-92 a été inférieur au biennium antérieur et les contributions annoncées en 1993 sont inférieures à celles déclarées en 1992.
Au Cap-Vert l'année agricole a été faible en raison d'une pluviométrie irrégulière et d'un arrêt prématuré des précipitations. Notre production nette de céréales (nous produisons seulement le maïs) a été de 4 740 tonnes et non pas de 8 469 tonnes comme on le prévoyait en octobre. Le déficit déjà structurel a été comblé par des importations - aide alimentaire et importations commerciales - qui ont atteint le volume de 84 000 tonnes.
La situation décrite recommande que l'aide alimentaire aux pays à faible revenu et à déficit vivrier soit augmentée de façon à atténuer les graves carences constatées et diminuer le recours aux importations commerciales qui absorbent le peu de devises qu'ils possèdent et qui pourraient être utilisées à d'autres objectifs d'importance économique et sociale, sans parler de l'alourdissement du poids de la dette publique qu'entraînent des importations. Un des objectifs fondamentaux de l'aide alimentaire doit être de favoriser le développement et le progrès, l'élimination de la pauvreté, de la faim et de la malnutrition. Tant que dans le monde quelqu'un peut encore mourir de faim personne ne vivra en paix.
Mais avant de terminer, je voudrais remercier M. le Directeur général pour la déclaration riche, claire et exhaustive qu'il a faite au Conseil. Avec sa sagesse habituelle il nous a fait part de ses soucis et de ses espoirs et a surtout réitéré sa profonde confiance dans l'avenir de la FAO malgré les défis auxquels elle devra faire face, et à la possibilité de bâtir un monde meilleur et solidaire. Je suis convaincu que sa déclaration sera un guide précieux dans nos travaux.
Huang YONG NING (China) (Original language Chinese): First of all, I would like to congratulate you and the three Vice-Chairmen for your election. The Chinese delegation is confident that under your guidance this session of the Council will be a success. Also, we wish to thank the secretariat of FAO for having prepared document CL 103/2. This morning in his statement, the Director-General, Dr Edouard Saouma, gave us an overview of the current global situation of food and agriculture. This morning, we listened carefully to the presentation made by Mr Hjort on the document which will be conducive to our deliberations.
We have noted that 1992 witnessed improvements in global food production and food security, with global cereal production reaching 1 952 billion tons, an increase of 4 percent over 1991 and close to the record level of 1990. At the end of 1993, the global cereal stocks are expected to reach 345 million tons, a growth of 5 percent over the corresponding period of last year, which will amount to 19 percent of the global total consumption and is slightly higher than the required minimum stock level to assure world food security established by FAO. At the same time, food production this year has appeared stable, and the total output of cereals is expected to reach 1 937 billion tons, slightly lower than last year. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that some long-standing important problems perplexing world food and agriculture remain to be a source of serious concern. There is still widespread hunger and poverty. First is that world food and agriculture production is not stable. The food security situation is extremely fragile. Resources- are dwindling to a point of exhaustion, and environmental degradation is directly jeopardizing sustainable development of agriculture. Second is that development has been unbalanced. The paradoxical phenomenon has shown no sign of abatement in which developed countries have surplus food and agricultural production whilst developing countries suffer from shortages of food and other agricultural products. In particular, the common concern about the food and agricultural situation in Africa has not improved to full expectations. As a result, millions of people there are suffering from hunger and poverty. Third is that the external conditions for agricultural development are unfavourable as developing countries are ridden with heavy debt burdens and a reverse flow of resources. Protectionism in agricultural trade remains strong. External assistance to developing countries for their agricultural development and food aid continues be at a low level. Therefore, arduous tasks lie ahead for us in the field of world food and agriculture. In this connection we have the following observations to make.
Firstly, we believe that the unbalanced pattern of the world food and agricultural production and the irrational distribution system in international trade for agricultural commodities are the fundamental causes which are hindering the global food and agriculture situation from achieving substantive progress.
We hope that the international community, especially the developed countries, will make greater efforts in strengthening cooperation, lessening the debt burden of developing countries, increasing agricultural assistance to them, speeding up financial and technical transfer, and removing protectionism in agricultural trade, so as to create a macro-economic environment conducive to common development and enabling all countries to benefit from development, as well as to establish a just and fair new international economic order. Therefore we urge the Uruguay Round negotiations to successfully conclude at an early date.
Secondly, the international community has formulated numerous sound programmes for world agricultural development, such as for agrarian reform and rural development and for international agricultural adjustment. UNCED and ICN held last year adopted constructive programmes of action for sustainable agricultural development and for eradication of hunger and malnutrition. Presently, what we need to do is to locate resources and be action-oriented so as to implement these programmes and to achieve practical results.
Thirdly, whether a country can solve its food and agricultural problems depends in the final analysis on its capacity for self-reliance. Thus, the developing countries should strive to remove the obstacles in the social, economic and political fields for agricultural development, to readjust agricultural structure and formulate appropriate strategies to agricultural development, with a view to ensuring sustainable, steady and coordinated development of agricultural production and improving their self-reliant capability.
Please allow me, Mr Chairman, to give a brief account of Chinese agriculture.
China's agricultural production continued to maintain its momentum for development in 1992. Crop production was relatively stable, with the output of grains reaching 453 million tons, while livestock and aquatic production continue to increase, with meat production reaching 34 307 million tons - a rise of 9.1 percent over 1991, total dairy production reaching 5 939 million tons - an increase of 7.6 percent,.and aquatic production reaching 16.58 million tons - up by 15 percent as against the previous year.
This year, while we are speeding up the construction of socialist market economy, we have spared no efforts in giving high priority to agriculture,
and our government continues to put providing food and clothing for our 1.1 billion people as the first important item on our agenda. Efforts have been made to deepen the rural economy required to readjust the economic structure of agriculture, to vigorously develop high yield, high quality and highly efficient agriculture.
As a whole, agricultural production and rural economy are fairly stable Although substantial advances have been made in our agricultural development, there are still some urgent problems for us to tackle. From the long-term point of view our population continues to grow, whereas our land resources are limited. Agricultural input is insufficient. Infrastructure is weak. Resistance against natural disasters is not strong enough, and the gap between supply and demand for major agricultural commodities will still exist. Facts at present show that due to rising prices of agricultural inputs the comparative benefit for farming has become low. Consequently, farmers' enthusiasm for production has been dampened to a certain extent. In this context we shall, under the guidance of the general policy of reform and opening to the outside world, develop a socialist market economy, continuing to give first priority to agriculture in the national economic construction, to stabilize the household contracting responsibility system with remuneration linked to output, to actively develop socialized service networks, deepening the reforms in the circulation system for agricultural commodities, and to implement the development strategy of integrating agriculture through promoting science, technology and education. At the same time, efforts will be focused on implementing various strategies and measures for agricultural development so as to protect the farmers' enthusiasm for production and to promote sustainable, steady and coordinated development of agriculture.
LE PRESIDENT: Je voudrais demander aux membres du Conseil si, en dehors de ceux qui se sont inscrits sur la liste, d'autres souhaitent intervenir car j'ai l'intention de clôturer cette liste. Sont inscrits pour le moment: le Congo, l'Indonésie, l'Allemagne, les Etats-Unis, Madagascar, l'Argentine, la Hongrie, l'Inde, la Suède, la République de Corée, la Colombie, l'Arabie Saoudite, l'Australie, la France, la République islamique d'Iran, le Japon, la Tanzanie, le Soudan, le Brésil, lea Philippines et peut-être le Chili. J'ai en outre un observateur inscrit: le Burundi.
Y-a-t-il d'autres demandes de la part de membres du Conseil ou d'observateurs? Il n'y en a pas, la liste est close. Je passe maintenant la parole à l'honorable Représentant du Congo.
Michel MOMBOULI (Congo): Une fois de plus, pour la délégation congolaise ici présente, c'est un réel plaisir que de vous voir présider les travaux de cette cent troisième session du Conseil de la FAO.
Notre délégation saisit cette première occasion qui lui est ainsi offerte pour adresser aux trois Vice-Présidents élus ses vives félicitations et elle se déclare prête à collaborer avec tout le Bureau pour contribuer un tant soit peu au succès de cette session du Conseil.
Monsieur le Président, par votre entremise, nous aimerions remercier et féliciter le Directeur général de la FAO, le Dr Saouma, pour l'importante allocution inaugurale qu'il a bien voulu faire devant le Conseil, allocution
dont la teneur ne manquera pas de nous servir utilement dans nos délibérations.
Nous adressons des félicitations sincères au Secrétariat pour la haute qualité des documents à nous soumis au cours de cette session du Conseil dont ceux relatifs au point 4 de notre ordre du jour et qui viennent de nous être présentés avec son brio habituel par M. Hjort, Directeur général adjoint de la FAO au nom du Secrétariat.
D'une manière générale, nous partageons la teneur du tableau d'ensemble qui ressort des documents consacrés au titre de ce point 4 de notre ordre du jour quant au panorama économique mondial très contrasté pour l’année écoulée à travers les différentes régions du monde.
Nous avons noté en particulier que la situation mondiale de l'alimentation pour l'année 1992 s'est légèrement améliorée et qu'en rapport avec la croissance démographique, la production mondiale des denrées alimentaires a également augmenté, sauf en Afrique où la production d'aliments de base par habitant est restée inférieure à celles des autres régions en développement et où la production vivrière a baissé. Au regard de ce constat, fort mitigé à notre humble avis, le chemin à faire pour enrayer la faim de la surface de la terre, comme la Communauté internationale s'était engagée à le faire à l'historique Conférence, mondiale de l'alimentation en 1974, est encore long.
Nous avons aussi noté que pour 1993 l'on prévoit une amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire compte tenu de l'augmentation des stocks céréaliers mondiaux concentrés surtout dans les pays développés. Nous souhaitons que pareille perspective se confirme concrètement au cours de cette année. D'ores et déjà, l'insuffisance des livraisons d'aide alimentaire annoncées pour la période 1992/93 au regard des besoins d'importation des pays à faible revenu et à déficit vivrier est en soi un sujet de grave préoccupation face à laquelle le concours des donateurs est plus que jamais sollicité pour éviter de nouvelles pénuries alimentaires. Nous nous réjouissons à l'idée de voir se confirmer les estimations préliminaires mondiales de la production des racines et tubercules pour 1992 et indiquant pour ce second groupe d'aliments de base après les céréales, une augmentation globale de l'ordre de 2, 6 pour cent et déplorons que tel ne sera pas le cas pour les légumineuses dont la production sera, annonce-t-on, en baisse.
A l'attention du Secrétariat, nous aimerions demander quelques éclaircissements et poser quelques petites questions ci-après:
- Alors que les sections qui précèdent sont relativement équilibrées, pourquoi la section traitant des prix internationaux (par. 32 à 34) se limite-t-elle seulement aux prix des céréales? Pour les éditions à venir nous demandons que des efforts soient faits pour étendre l'exposé y afférent aussi bien aux prix internationaux des:
- produits halieutiques et carnés qu'à ceux des tubercules et racines, légumineuses et oléagineux.
Concernant l'aide alimentaire, le paragraphe 42 traite de la situation qui prévaut en Europe de l'Est et dans l’ex-URSS, peut-on nous dire concrètement comment l’aide alimentaire liée au programme de soutien à la balance de paiement est-elle assurée? est-ce sous forme de monétisation des denrées alimentaires ou de vivres-contre-travail dans des projets de développement?
Nous jugeons préoccupantes les statistiques contenues dans le paragraphe 44, sur lequel s'active le document CL 103/2 et qui révèle que l'objectif de contribution 1992 du PAM fixé à 1, 5 milliards de dollars E.-U. n'a été réalisé qu'à 77 pour cent.
Par ailleurs, tout en remerciant le PAM et les donateurs qui consacrent une part importante de l'aide alimentaire à l'Afrique, nous déplorons que la proposition de l'aide d'urgence prenne le dessus sur celle destinée aux projets de développement. A ce sujet, nous en appelons à toutes les nations pour qu'elles fassent tout ce qui leur est possible pour mettre fin aux conflits qui sont à l'origine des déplacements massifs de population en quête de lieux de refuge et donc de la demande, de plus en plus élevée, de l'aide alimentaire pour les situations d'urgence.
C'est sur cet appel indirect à la paix civile à travers le monde que devrait s'arrêter notre intervention. Cependant, après avoir entendu l'évocation très émouvante que vous avez bien voulu faire avant de passer à l'examen du point concerné, évocation dédiée à la mémoire de votre eminent prédécesseur, l'homme aux multiples faces, l'honorable Président Josué De Castro, mort en 1973, nous ne saurions demeurer insensibles.
Cet illustre disparu, dont vous avez souligné la profondeur de l'oeuvre, nous ne l'avons pas connu et par conséquent nous ne pouvons épiloguer ni sur son oeuvre ni sur sa personnalité.
Toutefois, dans la continuité de la mémoire collective, nous pouvons nous permettre de dire très humblement qu'à notre avis, si l'oeuvre date de plusieurs années, le message, lui, n'a pas pris une seule ride.
Nous avons précieusement pris note de la déclaration de l'illustre disparu, note selon laquelle c'est la faim qui est à l'origine de la surpopulation pour les raisons évoquées par ce grand humaniste, et non le contraire.
Nous tenons à préciser que cette déclaration ne manquera pas d'alimenter notre propre réflexion sur le lien existant entre la surpopulation et la faim, au cours des mois à venir.
LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie très vivement M. Mombouli, le Représentant du Congo, pour son intervention et pour les questions très précises qu'il a posées, notamment en ce qui concerne la politique des prix et la question d'aide alimentaire. Ce sont là des questions pertinentes.
SOETATWO HADIWIGENO (Indonesia): As this is the first time for my delegation to take the floor, allow me at the outset to join many other delegations and speakers in expressing our delight in seeing you again presiding over our deliberations. Let me also use this opportunity to congratulate the heads of the delegations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and the Republic of Korea on their election as Vice-Chairmen. Furthermore, my delegation wishes to express its appreciation to the Director-General for his important, concise and very informative opening statement conveyed to the Council this morning.
The Director-General of FAO, in his address to this Council Session, highlighted the concerns of the Organization with regard to the critical current world food situation, FAO's response to this situation and challenges,
as well as the proposal for future plans of action. My delegation takes note fully of the Director-General's statement.
My delegation has read document CL 103/2 and we thank the Secretariat for their excellent work in preparing such an important document and for the substantive introductory remarks in the document as conveyed by the Director-General. While my delegation welcomes the slight improvements in the world food situation during 1992, nevertheless we also wish to express our concern because this progress continued to be very uneven among developing countries and regions. We underline the information that the increased global cereal stocks in 1992 occurred mainly in stocks held by developed countries. In Africa, the total food production declined by 2.5 percent in 1992 and per caput staple production was still below that of the other developing regions as well.
At the global level, per caput food production in 1992 was 393 kg, an increase on 1991, but it was still below the average of the 1980s. While there is some improvement in the food security situation at a global level, following the generally good harvest of staple food in 1990 and 1991, however this progress has not been without a number of highly disquieting features. We note with concern that the recovery has not only been uneven, but that the long-term tendency towards increasing disparity among developing countries has also continued. Only in the Far East has there been a clear upward tendency in per caput food production, whereas in other developing regions, the long-term slide has continued throughout the last five-year period.
Today, we are again assembled for our 103rd Council Session amidst the uncertainties of the world situation, both in relation to war and peace problems in some parts of our world, and to the still-scattered pieces of the Uruguay Round jigsaw. These situations are inevitably causing the uncertain world economic situation to become even more unpredictable. The acute food shortage, especially in Africa, no doubt requires international actions, including the improvements of world trade.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the long-standing problems of trade and development including agriculture and food must be addressed. Thus, it is imperative for the world community, including FAO, to explore innovative policy approaches and to initiate concrete measures to strengthen national and international cooperation for a healthy, more secure and equitable multilateral trading system. It is necessary for the multilateral open-trading system, as embodied by GATT, to be strengthened through the removal of tariff and non-tariff measures, if the world economy is to come out of the present recession. A successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round, with contributions by both developed and developing countries, in lowering protectionism, will have a major impact on the world economy. My delegation, therefore, once again reiterates our call urging an early, successful and equitable outcome to the Uruguay Round of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations.
The production and export of agriculture and food commodities are of vital importance to the economies of most developing countries. With regard to fish production, we noted that world fish production has diminished since its peak in 1989. The world fish harvest declined to 97.4 million tons in 1990 and further to 96.9 million tons in 1991. Estimates of trade in 1992 indicated an increase in the value of fishery products traded, due to overall higher prices.We hope that this rather positive situation could be maintained in
such a way as to give a better trade climate for those fishery exporters of the developing countries.
In noting the local food shortages in some regions, especially in Africa, my delegation wishes to call all parties concerned to find the best solution in creating equal food distribution and establishing better food security, particularly in the low-income food-deficit group. As we are all aware, the international food and agriculture outlook is influenced not only by natural conditions, but also by human-made factors such as internal conflicts or political instability and international trade arrangements for agricultural commodities. Therefore, my delegation wishes to urge all parties concerned actively to pursue efforts to minimize these human-made factors.
On the other hand, a structural adjustment policy in the agricultural sector is essential, and it should be carefully implemented in identifying production inputs, production, consumption and food distribution factors. Therefore, we congratulate FAO in taking the initiative to develop an early warning system with regard to world food security matters.
With regard to food imports, we noted that the overall import volume by developing countries in 1991 increased. In paragraph 29 of document CL 103/2, we noticed that in the Far East volume of food imports had increased by 4.5 percent, reflecting purchasing by some large importing countries. In this context, my delegation wishes to inform you that Indonesia, since the success of its self-sufficiency in rice production in 1984, has so far successfully maintained this status trend. However, the production of rice fluctuates due to climatic problems which are difficult to predict. There were occasions in the past when there was a surplus in production. It was then exported to several countries, mostly on a solidarity and humanitarian basis. On the other hand, there were also occasions when the production decreased, when of course imports were needed to cover the normal domestic requirement. That happened in 1991.
As one of the biggest food producing and consuming countries with a total population of more than 180 million, hopefully the successful food-crop production in Indonesia can be seen as a meaningful contribution towards achieving the stability and security of the world food situation.
Indonesia will continue to implement its policies and strategies for agricultural development through institutionalized technological change reflected in higher yields and greater production of high-value commodities. The main emphasis of our agricultural policy is on the acceleration of the pace of modernization, in order to achieve production increases substantially higher than population growth, consolidation of self-sufficiency in grains, diversification of agricultural production and rural employment opportunities, strengthening of institutional support and the provision of appropriate technology packages to farmers, as well as economic incentive and support price measures. We are aware that in maintaining the momentum of growth in the agricultural sector in the coming years we cannot rely totally on increased rice production alone.
Therefore, we explore and develop new possibilities in the agricultural sector. We will continue to take necessary action for the improvement of agri-business activities in order to ensure that the small farmers will gain their maximum economic earnings. Therefore, continued efforts must be made in ordertoraisetheproductivityofotheragriculturaloutputs, such as
secondary crops, horticulture, estates, fishery and stock-raising. To assist the small-holding stock farmers, a large-scale artificial insemination programme for cattle is currently being launched. A campaign for the better utilization of backyards is also being continued by the Government through the provision of appropriate backyard technology packages.
My delegation follows with attention the progress report regarding food aid. We note that FAO estimation that food availabilities for 1992/93 amounted to 12.8 million tons of cereal and 1.2 million tons of non-cereal commodities, consisting mainly of vegetable oil, pulses, dairy products, meat and fish. We note that sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the major recipient of food aid. Moreover, food aid for emergency purposes in 1992/93 would represent about one-third of the total, while aid for supporting development would only be 17 percent. My delegation wishes to underline once again the agreed provision of food aid, that it be primarily allocated to low-income food-deficit countries. Furthermore, it is also important to make the necessary effort to increase aid for supporting project activities, considering that this would be very helpful in strengthening the economies of the developing countries.
Current world order and international relations are moving toward greater interdependence and integration of global economic activities. It will alter the patterns of production, consumption and trade and eventually contribute to human welfare. My delegation wish to note that priority should always be given towards improving agricultural trade. We therefore support the initiatives of FAO to strengthen the position of developing countries in gaining access to world markets and access to sufficient food.
Before concluding, I would like to refer to some recent global developments that have a significant impact on our work. In spite of the impasse in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, UNCTAD-VIII has breathed new life and hope into the prospects for a revitalized partnership for development. In June last year in Rio, UNCED made major strides in charting a new path for achieving a global partnership for launching sustainable development. My delegation is convinced that FAO, which covers works for the benefit of small farmers, should increasingly promote world growth and development as well as the eradication of poverty through sustainable development. Only then can the prospects for a bright and balanced new future be assured based on mutual benefits for the entire region and the common prosperity and responsibility for all.
Jurgen OESTREICH (Germany): Since the distinguished delegate of Belgium has spoken this morning on behalf of the European Community and its Member States in detail, and my delegation fully agree with what he has said on our behalf, I want to be relatively brief.
Both document CL 103/2 and the introduction given by the Deputy Director-General, Mr Hjort, have given us a good survey of the current food situation. As the document already provides ample data for 1992 it bears remarkable topicality and clearly reflects the fact that FAO can fully meet its analytical and statistical role in the agricultural and food sectors. We are grateful for this.
My delegation largely agrees with the statements in document CL 103/10 and would therefore like to reflect on some more general issues which also refer to the Report of the 18th Session of the Committee on Food Security - document
CL 103/10. Both Reports show that the global supply situation has somewhat improved in 1992. However, a differentiated approach clearly points to the continued extremely tight supply situation, particularly in Africa and in other regions.
Unfortunately, we have not yet found a remedy for granting each individual the basic right to adequate food. Eight hundred million people are chronically undernourished and thus exposed to hunger and misery. It is of no great help to state in this connection that global food production would be sufficient in statistical terms to feed today's world population. The problem is that food surpluses and food deficits are unevenly distributed. Food aid tries to redress these imbalances. It can provide effective aid especially in emergency situations.
However, the priority aim of any development policy should continue to be to help developing countriestosecuretheir own food wherever possible, by I their own efforts. Development cooperation can and must support these efforts, but it cannot replace them. In this context we welcome FAO's leadership in the Administrative Committee Coordination (ACC) Task Force on rural development and poverty alleviation.
The expansion of food production in countries affected by poverty and hunger plays a key role in this respect. The Federal Republic of Germany made a total amount of DM 10.9 billion available within the framework of its official development cooperation. This amount I want to stress does not include financial assistance to build up market economy democracies in central and Eastern Europe; in other words, this aid is not granted at the expense of development aid in the South.
World food security is closely linked to the preservation and conservation of natural resources: soil, water, air. Thus development in food policies increasingly turns into a policy for securing the future of our globe as a whole. This aim can only be achieved through the joint efforts of industrialized and developing countries.
The UN Conference on Environment and Development and the International Conference on Nutrition have shown the path to follow. We support the activities carried out by FAO on both issues. Parallel to this Session the first substantial meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development is convened in New York. We are looking forward to the results of that Meeting, which should also be considered at the preparation of the forthcoming 27th FAO Conference in November of this year.
Many undernourished people live in countries with a substantial potential and resources for food production which are not yet fully exploited, but many also live in countries where resources are already overexploited, especially in regions afflicted by poverty, hunger and excess population.
We therefore appreciate FAO's active participation in the preparation for the International Conference on Population and Development, which will be held in Cairo in September 1994.
Long-term food security for all sections of the population of a country can best be achieved through a sound development of the overall economy, including agriculture. To achieve this aim, it is imperative to break up the self-destructive cycle whose disastrous dynamism is caused by poverty, population
growth, increasing pressure on natural resources, environmental destruction and increased poverty.
The documents before us for this 103rd Council Session clearly reflect that FAO as a food and agriculture organization of the United Nations plays a crucial role in this respect within the framework of its mandate and resources. The Organization deserves the full support of its Member States.
John A. MIRANDA (United States of America) : It is a pleasure for me to be here to give the statement of the United States on the current world food situation. We thank the Secretariat for providing a reasonably balanced and comprehensive assessment of the current world food situation as the 1993 cereal harvest in the northern hemisphere grows nearer. Our own assessment of the global cereals situation basically parallels that of the Secretariat, including its expectations of growth in overall cereal stocks to levels in excess of 18 percent of projected global consumption. Despite the generally favourable global food supply situation described as we enter the 1993/94 season, we share the Secretariat's concern expressed about the plight of those countries still facing serious food shortages, whether because of unfavourable weather, civil strife, or chronic hunger induced by poverty.
Let me provide a quick rundown on the current cereals situation and prospects for 1993 in the United States. The 1992 US wheat harvest, at 67 million metric tons was 24 percent larger than the 1991 crop. By the end of the 1992/93 trading year we expect US wheat stocks to reach nearly 14 million tons, an 8 percent increase over the previous year. Preliminary estimates suggest that the 1993 US wheat crop will be about 3 percent larger.
An increase in US production of maize to about 241 million tons in 1992 was responsible for the 27 percent increase in US coarse grain output to 278 million tons. For 1993, however, we expect US coarse grain production to decline to about 245 million tons.
United States grain supplies are expected to be more than adequate to meet expected commercial export and food aid requirements. Those supplies include the 4 million tons of wheat carried in the United States Food Security Wheat Reserve - the maximum amount authorized. The reserve is available for programming through our PL 480 programme when domestic supplies of wheat are limited or when emergency situations require urgent humanitarian assistance.
Our PL 480 food assistance is estimated to be nearly US$1.7 billion in fiscal year 1993, compared with US$1.6 billion in 1992. For fiscal year 1994, our Administration has proposed a program level of US$1.6 billion for PL 480 food assistance.This request is still being considered by the Congress.
The United States also continues to make food and commodity assistance available through two other authorities - overseas donations of government-owned commodities (the Section 416 program) and the Food for Progress Program. For fiscal year 1993, the Secretary of Agriculture has determined that over 2.8 million tons of grains (corn, feed wheat, and sorghum) and 100 000 tons of dairy products are available for overseas donations from government-owned inventories. A substantial portion of the commodities to be donated through this Section 416 Authority this year are being distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP). To date, the United States has pledged 730 000 tons of
corn, 70 000 tons of sorghum and 14 000 tons of butter oil to be made available under this Authority.
The third authority for distribution of food aid and commodity assistance is the Food for Progress Program. This Program provides US agricultural commodities to developing countries and emerging democracies which have made commitments to introduce and expand free enterprise in their agricultural economies. During fiscal year 1993, the United States is using the Food for Progress Program to assist countries of Eastern Europe and republics of the former Soviet Union to help meet their food import requirements and to assist them in implementing economic reforms.
The reforms taking place in Eastern Europe, and particularly in Russia and the newly independent states, remain of utmost importance to the United States. We continue to use the resources at our disposal to assist them during this time of change.
Laurent R. RADAODY (Madagascar): Monsieur le Président, à l'instar des autres délégations qui se sont déjà exprimées, la délégation de Madagascar est heureuse de vous voir de nouveau à la présidence des travaux de cette importante session du Conseil. Permettez-nous d'adresser également nos vives félicitations aux trois Vice-Présidents pour leur brillante élection.
Nous avons écouté très attentivement la déclaration liminaire du Directeur général de la FAO, très riche d'inspiration et d'informations utiles pour la suite de nos travaux. Nous en tiendrons grand compte dans nos interventions futures.
Monsieur le Président, le Directeur général adjoint, M. Hjort, a fait une présentation très claire du sujet soumis à notre examen dans le document CL 103/2.
Ayant participé aux travaux du Comité de l'agriculture et du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale durant lesquels le même sujet a été traité, la délégation de Madagascar se contentera de relever les points sur lesquels ces deux comités ont concentré leur attention.
Ces points sensibles sont d'ailleurs repris dans le document CL/103/2.
Au paragraphe 1, la situation alimentaire en Afrique est évoquée de manière particulièrement inquiétante; le paragraphe 3 précise que la production alimentaire y a diminué de 2, 5 pour cent et le paragraphe 12 nous apprend que la production africaine d'aliments de base, par habitant, a enregistré un recul de 13 pour cent, s'établissant à 171 kg, chiffre nettement inférieur à la moyenne de toutes les autres régions en développement.
Cette situation ne saurait étonner quand on sait que la déstabilisation politique, l’aggravation meurtrière de l'instabilité politique et les conflits armés sont venus s'ajouter aux aléas économiques et aux calamités naturelles qui frappent cruellement le continent.
En 1992, les pays de l'Afrique australe et parmi eux Madagascar, ont connu la pire sécheresse ayant sévi depuis des décennies.
Au paragraphe 31, le document prévoit une considérable augmentation, d'environ 55 pour cent, des importations de céréales en Afrique subsaharienne, en annonçant auparavant que l'aide alimentaire en céréales ne couvrira pas la totalité des besoins d'importation des pays a faible revenu et à déficit vivrier.
Il semble pourtant évident que ces pays qui affrontent une érosion constante de leurs revenus ne pourront pas faire face à ces importations et devront encore compter sur des aides alimentaires, en espérant que ces dernières puissent respecter leurs habitudes alimentaires et les agricultures locales, et qu'une partie de cette aide assure la promotion de projets profitables à leur production alimentaire nationale.
Il a été démontré au Comité des politiques et programmes d'aide alimentaire, que pour plus d'efficacité, l'aide alimentaire pour le développement doit être conjuguée à d'autres fonds d'investissement et sources de financement; en fait, le cofinancement des projets est la meilleure solution.
C'est la raison pour laquelle notre délégation au Comité de l'agriculture a regretté le déclin de l'appui que la communauté internationale accorde à l'investissement rural.
L'insuffisance d'investissement est la cause principale de la dégradation et du délabrement des infrastructures d'irrigation et de communication, pour la même raison, les services de soutien à l'agriculture, en particulier la recherche et la vulgarisation agricole fournissent de très faibles performances.
Il en résulte que la mise en oeuvre des résolutions de la CNUED sur l'agriculture durable et la protection de l'environnement devient hypothétique dans de nombreuses régions qui occupent pourtant une place décisive à la surface de notre planète, conditionnant l'avenir de notre biotope commun.
Aussi, Monsieur le Président, nous appelons les gouvernements des pays industrialisés à concrétiser la volonté politique qui a semblé les animer à la Conférence de Rio de Janeiro, en mobilisant des ressources financières plus importantes au profit du secteur rural dans les pays en voie de développement.
Pour terminer, Monsieur le Président, ma délégation voudrait, au nom du Gouvernement malgache, remercier vivement tous les pays qui nous ont aidés à surmonter les épreuves occasionnées par la grande sécheresse qui a frappé la partie sud de Madagascar, nos remerciements vont également à la FAO, au PAM et à toutes les institutions et ONG qui ont déployé leurs efforts pour secourir les populations sinistrées.
Ms Katalin BAKK (Hungary): My delegation would, first of all, like to express its satisfaction at seeing you in the Chair.
Hungary shares the concern of other Council members about the nature and extent of food supply situation and world food security described in the documents before us. We are glad to note that the Secretariat sees some slight improvement in the 1992 world food situation not overlooking however the somewhat dimmer picture that the Committee on World Food Security is going to offer us in a paper to be discussed later.
The reports submitted by the Secretariat constitute a realistic and clear assessment of the situation and problems and I would like to commend it.
This delegation must, regretfully, concur with the statement made in para 3 of the report on Current World Food Situation, namely that production declined further in eastern Europe.
I should like to mention the agricultural situation we are just facing in Hungary.
In 1992 the agricultural GDP fell by 23 percent compared to the previous year whereas that of food processing by 13 percent. That is to say that the rather adverse trend started two years ago does not seem to come yet to an end.
The 1992 sharp decline in both cattle and pig population was even steeper that it was in the past year. Negative tendencies in the agricultural sector as well as in the macro-economic processes in Hungary resulted in a shrinking domestic market. Actually in the first eleven months of 1992 agricultural sales were lower by 32 percent than in the respective period of 1991.
The foreign trade, on the other hand, showed in 1992 a far more promising achievement and with an export worth US$2.7 billion in 1992 came very near to the all-time record level of the 1991 year. In the first months of this year this positive process has not been continued, though it would be too early to pass any judgement on this year.
Hungarian agriculture is just trying to weather a period full with adverse tendencies. To start with this year, i.e. 1993 is likely to be the eighth year within the last decade when only a fraction of the moisture needed in the soil was received. Productivity reserves have absolutely been exploited and the regretful year-in-year-out decrease in the use of fertilizers has only contributed to the poor status of productive land. Today when I have the privilege to address the Council we cannot tell you with certainty whether rainfall at the last moment will help Hungarian agriculture to a slight recovery.
It would only be unfair to blame adverse climatic conditions and nothing else for the unsatisfactory production and marketing results of our food economy. It must be stated that a number of conditions to the success of the transformation of our agriculture are still missing on the one hand or are rather inadequate, on the other.
In spite of some negative trends changes in more market-adjusting structures have recently been experienced, e.g. the gradual withdrawal of loss-making agricultural production branches and the welcome increase in the number of private enterprises in both farming, processing and marketing.
It has, however, frankly been admitted that the new enterprises, and for this matter the established ones as well, have a rather rough time in the economy. The loss of a significant part of internal markets coupled with depressed farm-produce prices lagging behind the rise in input prices are a constant constraint in development. Agricultural enterprises cannot do without preferential bank-loans on the one hand, banks are unwilling to lend their capital to agricultural enterprises because of their poor profitability, on the other. That seems to be a vicious circle and we shall do our best to break up this circle.
The measures needed to provide Hungarian agriculture with viable economic conditions both for production and ownership transformation are still incomplete, i.e.:
- new legislation where the pivotal point is still missing and the new Land Act will not be passed by Parliament before autumn of this year;
- institutional conditions of market-economy, where extension system, product councils and a number of other market-oriented institutions are still to be established; and
- state supporting actions to assist the newly emerging small- and medium-scale farmers.
The Hungarian Government gratefully acknowledges FAO a-ss is tance it has received through TCP projects in the past couple years such as:
- strengthening of food control;
- restructuring services in the Ministry of Agriculture;
- fruit and vegetable post-harvest systems development;
- training of trainers in formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agricultural technical cooperation projects.
M.S. GILL (India): I thank you for giving me the floor. As in earlier sessions, I am sure, under your able leadership, the Council during this session, will also be able to deliberate, on various developmental issues and take appropriate decisions. May I also congratulate the three Vice-Chairmen on their election. I have no doubt, that they will extend, their valuable support, to you, in conducting the business of this session.
I must compliment the FAO Secretariat, for the excellent document, brought out, for facilitating discussions under Item 4. It gives a comprehensive, global review, of the food supply situation, agricultural trade and food aid.
It is heartening to note, that the global food availability, improved during the year 1993, due to increases in food production, in line with the world. While there is an increase in production in the developing countries as a group, as also an increase in global cereal stocks, progress in food production was uneven among developing countries and the food situation in certain regions, particularly Africa, continues to remain serious. The improvement in global food supply in 1992/93 has not been shared by all countries; overall aggregate food supplies in the low-income deficit countries have not improved, in fact if China and India are left out, per caput staple food production and consumption is estimated to have fallen in one half or more of these countries. Taking the developing countries as a whole per caput production of staple food remains stable at 287 kg against an increase at global level from 386 kg in 1991 to 393 in 1992. The situation in the African region causes serious concern as it experienced a 13 percent drop in cereal production which at 171 kg remains the lowest even amongst the developing countries. Widespread food shortages are also affecting vast areas of eastern and southern Africa where most countries are experiencing critical man-made and natural food emergencies.
The emergencies faced by these countries are more than enough to shake the conscience of all of mankind and are totally unacceptable. In India we are making concerted efforts to achieve sustained agricultural production to meet the rising food requirements of our growing population. This year we have harvested a record crop of 181 million tons of grain, including 57 million tons of wheat and 37 million tons of coarse grain. This is 4 million better than the best ever. This includes also a record harvest in pulses and a record harvest in oil seeds (as it happens, also a record harvest in cotton, but that is not the subject at the moment). We have been able to substantially replenish our stocks, and as of 10 June 1993 our public agencies have a stock of something between 24 and 25 million tons of food grain. We have procured in the last season 11.5 million tons of rice, and we have already procured something close to 13 million tons of wheat, and the procurement continues still in June and a little beyond.
With a forecast of a good southwest monsoon - it has started, and it is a good start and we are watching it closely - we are geared to sustain the production levels of food grain during the coming year also. Overall, we have a very, very optimistic situation for this year and for the coming year. The improved global food production in 1993/94 should have enabled the international community to deal with regional food problems accentuated by droughts, civil strife, wars and disruption of market activities. It is, however, a matter of concern that the food aid availability at 12.5 million tons during the current year is at a level lower than the quantities shipped during the preceding year and well below the level of previous years. While 80 percent of the food aid has been directed to low income, food-deficit countries and the bulk of it to sub-Saharan Africa, efforts need to be made to ensure that the emergency aid being directed towards countries in eastern Europe and the former USSR is not at the cost of the developing countries in other poor regions. The target of 10 million tons of food aid approved by the UN General Assembly in 1974 on the recommendation of the World Food Conference also needs to be increased to meet the increasing demand of malnourished people compounded by a worsening balance of payments situation. Several studies, including the one conducted by FAO, estimate this requirement to be about 20 million tons annually. Food is a fundamental human right. In order to provide food aid on an assured apolitical basis, it is necessary that increasingly larger volumes of aid are channelled through multilateral systems such as the World Food Programme. However, against the contribution to the World Food Programme's pledges targeted at US$1.5 billion during the last biennium, the actual contribution has been of an order of 77 percent only. The resources of the international food aid reserve need to be doubled from their present level of 500 thousand tons annually to ensure emergency food aid on a speedy and sustained basis. The food aid for developmental projects also needs to be insulated from the urgent needs of emergency food aid to find a lasting solution to the problem of food shortages in low income, food-deficit countries. FAO needs to intensify its support to the developing countries in upgrading their agricultural productivity and infrastructure in order to promote stable agricultural development.
Scientific and technical research, training and the capacity of building in these countries also needs the support of the relevant organizations of the UN system dealing with food and agriculture as well as the international institutions.
Our efforts to work towards a more equitable international economic environment, in particular a fairer, transparent and viableinternational
agricultural trading system, need to be strengthened. Some important breakthroughs have been achieved on a number of crucial agricultural issues in the Uruguay Round of negotiations, but a final balanced outcome is still eluding the international community. FAO has been extending policy assistance to developing countries in these trade negotiations, a greater thrust and focus in its efforts by providing market intelligence and infrastructural support to the developing world. This will go a long way in addressing the injustices and bringing about a new economic and trade order.
While concluding, I would like to urge this august body to recognize that a global challenge lies^ in acknowledging the fact that eliminating hunger, malnutrition, poverty, underdevelopment and economic injustice is a moral imperative and a prerequisite for sustainable development. Towards this objective, we must lend our full support to FAO in effectively responding to the needs of the Member States as a truly multilateral, democratic and independent intergovernmental organization.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you for your very important declaration. You made a lot of very important and interesting comments about the situation of agriculture in your country, in the world, in the perspective of human rights. It was a very important statement.
Rolf ÂKESSON (Sweden) : We have had opportunities to discuss the world food situation earlier this year, especially in the CFS, and we will have another opportunity in November, of course. My delegation also took note of the observation made by Mr Hjort when he said that there had been no major changes recently. In line with a very wide proposal by the United Kingdom this morning on the need to avoid repetition, we will not offer any extensive comments on this occasion. Perhaps this is one of the areas which could be kept in mind for improved timing over the biennium in the future. That does, of course, not mean any degradation of this topic or any lukewarm interest on our part. On the contrary, the monitoring of the global situation in agriculture, forestry and fisheries is one of the most basic and indispensable tasks for a centre of excellence like FAO, both in the short run, like here and now, and in the longer term, like the global perspective study referred to by the Director-General this morning, which we believe is eagerly and impatiently awaited by many interested parties. Also eagerly awaited are further improvements in the Secretariat analysis of the global situation. In some respects, it is both timely and comprehensive. In other respects, like the coverage of the demand side and concerning the global stock indicators, there seems to be room for further improvement. As to the substance of the note by the Secretariat, we agree that 1992 was an improvement in general terms, and particularly so in developing countries. Although the fact that per capita production of staples rose, that does not necessarily mean that access and consumption by poor people rose as well. We certainly agree that the situation in Africa still is very troublesome, both.in terms of general trends and in terms of acute local shortages.
Joong In CHUN (Korea, Republic of): On behalf of the Korean delegation, we would also like to thank the members of the Council who have entrusted me with the responsibility of being a Vice-Chairman of this important meeting. I sincerely hope that this session will be more fruitful than ever.
Now, moving to the topic of our deliberation, let me compliment Mr Hjort for his helpful introductory remarks which gave us an informative overview of the current world food situation.
My delegation notes with pleasure the fact that food production estimates for 1992 anticipate a renewed growth at the global level, following the slight shrinkage seen in 1991. Current forecasts show that the global cereal carryovers at the end of 1993 will represent about 19 percent of 1992-94 utilization trend, just one percent higher than the minimum range of 17-18 percent that the FAO Secretariat considers to be necessary to safeguard world food security.
We are especially appreciative of this progress, as the depression in the global socio-economic environment in which it was achieved could well have led instead to a disturbing reduction of public support for agricultural development in member countries.
However, Mr Chairman, I would like to draw the Council's attention to the disappointing fact that the performance of the food and agricultural sector has been uneven among countries, and acute food shortages that require international assistance continue to persist in many countries.
Whatever the value of the ongoing efforts to ensure world food security and to help developing countries to overcome their economic backwardness, no viable solution can be obtained in the absence of an international environment that provides adequate opportunities to accelerate the development of sustainable agricultural and rural development at the global, regional, and national levels.
Agriculture has been and continues to be a main source of overall economic growth in many food-deficient developing countries. The role agriculture plays in environmental degradation of many food-deficient developing countries has become a matter of great concern to the international community.
I believe that in order to attack these global problems, food-deficient developing countries should be allowed to regulate the imports of agricultural products from developed countries within a certain framework. Such regulation is necessary for the development of sustainable agriculture in these countries. At the same time, developed countries should take the initiative to reduce the level of protection of their agriculture, in order to provide better market access for developing countries and contribute to increasing their export earnings.
In the same spirit, I would like to request that the UN system continue its support to provide technical cooperation for agricultural development, as well as to emphasize the urgency of strengthening international cooperation in the transfer of environmentally sound agricultural technology.
Aware of the recent acute food shortages in many parts of the world, I welcome the major coordinated efforts by the international community to alleviate the complex emergency situation. In this connection I hope that emergency assistance will be provided, as far as possible, in consideration of the longer-term development goals.
I would also remark that my delegation is firmly committed to an early and successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round negotiations. However, the existing
agricultural text does not reflect the interests of importing and exporting by developed and developing countries in a balanced and equitable manner so as to restore the balance of interests between exporting and importing nations or developing nations. Some shortcomings should be addressed in the final text for the achievement of sustainable agricultural development and the improvement of security of developing countries.
Ivan MARULANDA GOMEZ (Colombia): Queremos felicitar, señor Presidente, a todos los miembros de la Mesa Directiva del Consejo encabezados por usted señor Presidente, agradecerle su trabajo y ofrecerle nuestra colaboración para el éxito de estas deliberaciones del Consejo.
El documento sobre la Situación actual de la alimentación en el mundo, preparado por la Secretaría hace un corto pero interesante análisis de este tema. Queremos hacer algunos comentarios puntuales al respecto. Nos hubiera gustado que en el párrafo 9 del documento se hubieran suministrado datos también sobre la producción de leche en América Latina durante los últimos años. Es un dato clave sobre el estado de la alimentación y la nutrición en esta importante región del planeta en donde, como se informó en la Conferencia Internacional de Nutrición, existen alrededor de 90 millones de personas que padecen hambre. Señor Presidente, los párrafos 26, 27 y 28 insinúan que en todos los casos existe una relación causa-efecto entre la baja de los precios y el aumento de las importaciones. Quisiéramos tener más precisión a éste respecto. De hecho no se presentó un aumento en el volumen de las importaciones en todos los casos. De otro lado, es posible pensar que las importaciones de alimentos aumentaron en algunos países en desarrollo como una respuesta a las bajas de precios, pero en otros países es probable que el incremento de las compras en los mercados internacionales se deba a bajas en las producciones internas, y se estén haciendo estas compras en detrimento de otro tipo de importaciones.
La forma genérica en que se trata el asunto en el documento, a nuestro entender no permite distinguir, por ejemplo, entre las tendencias de las importaciones de los diferentes países. Pareciera como si tuvieran idéntica naturaleza y obedecieran a las mismas razones. Entonces sería interesante que en el análisis se pudiera distinguir entre las causas que generaron la pronunciada baja de las importaciones entre distintos casos de países, por ejemplo entre México, que rebajó un 16 por ciento, y Cuba, que disminuyó un 12 por ciento. A propósito de Cuba, señor Presidente, quisiera decir que como latinoamericanos y como miembros de la comunidad de países que forman parte de la FAO, en la delegación de Colombia vemos con inmensa preocupación las noticias que llegan de ese país sobre la crítica situación alimentaria por la que atraviesa la población de la isla. El proceso de deterioro nutricional que allí se vive es un problema que nos incumbe a todos en la FAO y sobre el cual no podemos ser indiferentes. Allí tenemos, señor Presidente, un reto moral, una prueba de solidaridad humanitaria a la que debemos responder con oportunidad dando una prueba real y eficaz de responsabilidad frente a nuestro papel como Organización dentro del sistema de Naciones Unidas.
Sobre el documento, señor Presidente, quisiéramos agregar que consideramos de extraordinaria importancia que en su futura publicación se agregaran los informes que presentó la Secretaría al reciente Comité sobre Problemas de los Productos Básicos de Origen Agrícola y referentes al deterioro sostenido y protuberante de los precios de estos productos a lo largo del último decenio en detrimento de las posibilidades de progreso de los pueblos más pobres del
mundo, asimismo las sustanciosas consideraciones que se hicieron y las estadísticas que se suministraron en dicha reunión relativas a la forma en que se están manipulando las condiciones de los mercados por parte de muchos países desarrollados en detrimento de las posibilidades de competencia de las naciones en vías de desarrollo. De acuerdo con ese importante informe de la FAO se está aplastando, señor Presidente, el esfuerzo de los campesinos pobres del mundo con el poder contundente del dinero aplicado a crear condiciones artificiosas y artificiales de competencia y a sacar sus producciones de los mercados a cualquier precio, circunstancia sobre la cual debe haber una clara conciencia en todo el mundo.
Waleed A. ELKHEREIJI (Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of) (Original language Arabic):
I would like to begin by saying how very happy I am to see you chairing the work of this Council session. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the new members, and to thank all those who placed their trust in me by proposing and seconding my nomination to the post of Vice-Chairman.
The opening statement given by our Director-General is one full of fruitful matter from which we could well learn, and which will provide a sound basis for the rest of our discussions. Mr Hjort's introduction to the document under discussion is also much appreciated by us.
The slight improvement in the world food situation which took place in 1992 is mainly due to the increased interest which developing countries are paying to food security and consequently to development in general. Nevertheless, the trials, which are as hard as they are varied, that confront the African continent explain very frankly what the food security situation is, and also how agricultural development is proceeding in that continent. Food production per caput there is lower than elsewhere, which worries us enormously. The ups and downs in food production which were the mark of the production in the Near and Far East in 1992 show that the agricultural policy pursued by those countries has been effective, as their economies became self-sufficient. Nevertheless, Table 3 shows that food production per inhabitant in the Near East in 1992 fell to 283 kg per caput production.
This matter should be the subject of our interest right away because, after all, prevention is better than cure.
There is another factor which is worrying us and that is the drop in food aid given to developing countries. Of course, we would have been happy for food aid to have been reduced as a result of these countries having reached food self-sufficiency, but unfortunately this drop in food aid is due to other reasons.
Finally, so far as food production in my country is concerned, we are continuing with our agricultural development so that we can depend less and less on food imports, and especially earn the imports of barley which are the basis of our livestock production.
Sra. Ileana DI GIOVAN BATTISTA (Argentina): La delegación argentina desea agradecer la declaración formulada esta mañana por el Director General que realmente ha planteado desafíos que este Consejo debe tener en cuenta, sobre todo con vistas a la realización de la Conferencia. La agenda de este Consejo, señor Presidente, es efectivamente una agenda vasta, comprensiva de todos los
temas tradicionales y nuevos que concitan el interés de la Organización y frente a los cuales estamos convencidos que la FAO puede realizar una actividad eficaz. Sin embargo, más allá de los puntos del programa y en este año de conferencias, repito, señor Presidente, creo que tenemos que tener muy en claro que la FAO tiene que seguir siendo el principal foro político para discutir la situación alimentaria mundial, el comercio agrícola internacional, las políticas comerciales, la ayuda alimentaria y todos los demás temas técnicos que son el objeto de cada uno de los comités específicos.
Efectivamente éste es un año crucial que ha empezado con decepciones y con inquietudes, a veces que se han plasmado en los distintos informes de los Comités de Productos Básicos que se han celebrado desde que empezó el año. En la última reunión del Comité de Productos Básicos hemos pasado revista a la situación y hemos comprobado que en la década del ochenta se ha constatado un descenso en el precio de los productos agrícolas que ha amenazado prolongarse en la década del noventa. Si comparamos los precios de los años noventa, con los del comienzo de los años ochenta, los precios de los productos agrícolas, pesqueros y forestales exportados por los países en desarrollo han descendido en un 39 por ciento. En cuanto a los productos exportados por los países desarrollados, el descenso de precios ha sido solamente de un 19 por ciento. Como consecuencia de la caída de los precios, el crecimiento del valor real de los ingresos por exportaciones procedentes de la agricultura, ha sido insignificante, además, muchos países que dependen en gran medida de esta fuente de ingresos para financiar sus importaciones entre ellas, el alimento, para hacer frente a su deuda externa y para revitalizar su economía ven caer dramáticamente sus ingresos, junto a ellos otros países en desarrollo de menor desarrollo relativo están aumentando sus exportaciones de alimentos. Su balance comercial agrícola está empeorando y según los documentos preparados por la Secretaría, probablemente se convertirán en importadores netos de productos básicos al final del siglo. Esto demuestra que la participación de los países en desarrollo de una manera positiva en la producción agrícola y en el comercio internacional de productos básicos se encuentra seriamente comprometida.
Así hemos escuchado a diversas delegaciones, en particular delegaciones de América Latina, pero también delegaciones de otras regiones, manifestar su desazón por las caídas brutales de los precios, del café, del cacao, del aceite de palma, del algodón, del sisal, asimismo hemos escuchado reiteradamente, y nos asociamos a ellos, los pedidos de ampliar el acceso a los mercados, los pedidos de que no se cierren las puertas a las exportaciones y no se desalienten una y otra vez más a los campesinos a producir.
Esta mañana, señor Presidente, sin embargo, hemos escuchado por parte de la delegación de Bélgica en nombre de los países de la Comunidad Económica Europea, cierto aliento al explicarnos que la Comunidad Económica Europea está embarcada en el proceso de la negociación de la Ronda Uruguay y que confía que se termine en el menor tiempo posible. Hemos escuchado también algunos países industrializados y la decisión de hacer esfuerzos y aportes a estas negociaciones multilaterales mayores que las que se esperan de los países en desarrollo.
Creemos que ha llegado el momento, señor Presidente, de no vacilar y de seguir firmemente en este camino con la condición que el camino de la abolición de las trabas y obstáculos de intercambio es el que nos llevará al crecimiento generalizado.
John Bruce SHARPE (Australia): Firstly, we should like to acknowledge the efforts of the Secretariat in producing a precise and informative report on the current world food situation.
While the paper provides a useful description of the current situation, we consider that it would have been helpful to have included some forecasts of production and stocks into the next year or so. As they were included in the report of the current world food security situation presented at the recent Committee on World Food Security, we would have thought that would have been helpful. This would have assisted the Council to gain a fuller understanding of emerging trends and to anticipate any possible future actions required. It is encouraging that there has been an overall increase in the production of staple foods over the past years and the stockholdings have increased in contrast to last year, but we note that a satisfactory harvest in 1993 will be critical to safeguard the current overall food security situation. This slight overall improvement unfortunately masks the localized food shortages and the difficult situations there are in so many parts of the world. The overall food situation in Africa is of concern. Per caput staple food production is below other developing regions and in 1992 there was a reduction in food production itself. We share with all here the concern about this situation and those in other areas of the world, including our own neighbourhood of Asia.
Particularly worrying is this continuing trend among many low-income food-deficit countries that per caput food production continues to fall. Combined with poor trading conditions, the world recession and no incre'ase in aid flows, the prospect is for worsening future food security in many of these countries. FAO clearly has an important role to play in helping to combat these problems and in improving world food security at all levels - household, national, regional and global. FAO must maintain a strong focus on food security in its work programme. Improving household food security is an important component of the action plan arising from the International Conference on Nutrition. Australia participated actively and constructively in that Conference and we support FAO's role in implementing the Plan of Action. Follow-up to the ICN has rightly been identified as a priority in the Summary of FAO's Programme of Work and Budget for 1994-95.
With regard to the suggestion in the paper that food aid shipments are expected to be lower in the next year, we would like to point out that Australia, despite the tight budgetary circumstances we are facing, has been able to maintain its contribution in real terms to the World Food Programme for the 1993-94 biennium at $A 98.3 million. Australia has also expressed its support for a two-year extension of the 1986 Food Aid Convention from June 1993 and its agreement to maintain our annual Food Aid Convention commitment at 300 000 tons of wheat or its equivalent.
Australia is planning an expanded role for its developmental food programme with closer cooperation with the World Food Programme in its implementation, especially in activities involving poverty alleviation and making greater use of the expertise of the World Food Programme and NGOs in its delivery. In particular, with the cessation of hostilities in Mozambique and some alleviation in the severity of drought in most of southern Africa, the Australian aid programme is now looking towards a greater redirection of its food aid from emergency relief to the support of developmental projects in those countries.
Mme Yvette LANGRAND (France): Les commentaires de la délégation française porteront sur les deux points de l'ordre du jour concernant la situation mondiale de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Ils complètent la déclaration détaillée de la Communauté européenne et je serai relativement brève.
Sans revenir dans le détail des informations fournies sur la situation mondiale de l'alimentation, le document CL 103/2 appelle de notre part les remarques suivantes.
Nous notons avec satisfaction une tendance globale à l'amélioration de la situation en 1992, liée à une augmentation des disponibilités alimentaires. Mais ce constat ne doit pas faire oublier l'existence de disparités régionales importantes;de nombreuses délégations l'ont noté.
En effet, cette relative stabilité ne signifie pas que la sécurité alimentaire soit assurée pour tous les pays et toutes les couches de la population dans les perspectives à long terme.
L'évolution démographique à moyen terme, dans une grande partie des pays d'Afrique et d'Asie notamment, entraînera une forte augmentation de la demande d'approvisionnement globale; d'autre part, les guerres civiles qui touchent particulièrement le continent africain entraînent à la fois, avec le déplacement des producteurs, la diminution de la production des pays en guerre, l'augmentation des besoins d'aide alimentaire des populations déplacées devenues insolvables et la dégradation des capacités de production des sites dans lesquels elle sont regroupées. C'est-à-dire que nous devons prendre garde: - d'un côté, à maintenir un potentiel de production alimentaire suffisant dans les pays développés; - de l'autre, à encourager lés pays en développement à atteindre l’auto-suffisance alimentaire.
Selon nous, l'aide alimentaire d'urgence fait en effet gonfler considérablement les chiffres des besoins exprimés par les pays en développement.
Comme l'indiquait ce matin Monsieur le Directeur général, l'aide alimentaire doit être intégrée dans les programmes de réhabilitation et de développement. Il semble, à cet égard, plus important de déterminer si elle a été judicieusement répartie plutôt que de poser les problèmes exclusivement en termes quantitatifs.
Il convient également de souligner l'intérêt des opérations triangulaires et des achats locaux; ceux-ci vont dans le sens d'une organisation régionale des marchés des pays en développement: ils assurent un débouché aux productions excédentaires d'un pays et ne modifient pas les habitudes alimentaires des populations.
Il s'agit là d'une politique à long terme que nous devons encourager, malgré les difficultés de mise en oeuvre.
A cet égard, ma délégation tient à rappeler son attachement aux principes énoncés dans la Charte de l'aide alimentaire dans les pays du Sahel. L'objectif principal de cette charte est de parvenir à une gestion cohérente de l'aide alimentaire permettant d'en faire un outil au service du développement dépassant le cadre de l'aide humanitaire d'urgence.
De nombreux pays en développement ont mis en oeuvre de nouvelles politiques économiques dans le cadre de programmes d'ajustement. Dans le secteur agricole, ces politiques se traduisent par des réformes institutionnelles visant au désengagement de l'Etat mais il faut souligner les risques que font courir à la sécurité alimentaire, dans certains cas, les mesures de libéralisation des marchés intérieurs, ainsi que sur les agricultures nationales, une libéralisation trop rapide des échanges.
Veillons surtout à ce que les producteurs agricoles des pays en développement les moins protégés du monde reçoivent quelques chances de stabilité des conditions de production et de commercialisation de leurs produits, faute de quoi, comme chacun sait maintenant, ils iront, bien que sans espoir, grossir les villes, là où il y a des ports, là où l'aide arrive.
J'en viens à présent au rapport du CSA; mon pays a participé aux travaux du comité et souhaite revenir sur quelques aspects particuliers.
S'agissant des activités du PASA, nous nous félicitons des activités de l'OAA qui a réalisé d'intéressants travaux méthodologiques pour la mise en place de programmes complets de sécurité alimentaire. Ma délégation adhère aux orientations générales de la méthodologie ainsi définie. Mais il convient désormais de faire entrer ce programme dans une phase véritablement opérationnelle. Les réalisations sur le terrain restent effectivement modestes.
La conception de projets selon une approche multidisciplinaire doit être encouragée ainsi qu'une meilleure prise en compte de la dimension régionale de la sécurité alimentaire. A cet égard, je me permettrai de rappeler les commentaires du représentant du CILSS au cours de la réunion du comité qui proposait un rapprochement des activités de son organisation avec celles de la FAO. La recherche d'une action concertée avec l'ensemble des partenaires bilatéraux et multilatéraux doit être une priorité.
Enfin, je rappellerai l'engagement pris par le secrétariat de fournir aux membres du CSA des informations complémentaires sur la réalisation des projets ainsi que les rapports par pays.
J'en viens en dernier lieu, à la question de la fréquence des sessions. La décision est étroitement liée aux conclusions de l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies sur la restructuration du système des Nations Unies dans le domaine économique et social.
Cependant, la France saisit cette nouvelle occasion de marquer son attachement au maintien à Rome d'un mécanisme de coordination entre les secteurs alimentaires et agricoles (FAO, PAM, FIDA) nonobstant toute évolution possible du mandat du CMA.
LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie la Représentante de la France pour son intéressante déclaration. Elle a abordé non seulement le point qui nous est soumis, à savoir l'alimentation dans le monde, mais également les problèmes de sécurité alimentaire et nous a fait part de son point de vue concernant la coordination. Je crois qu'il incombe à l'agence opérationnelle de la famille des Nations Unies d'assurer une coordination et cette tâche est particulièrement important et complexe.
Parviz KARBASI (Iran, Islamic Republic of): It is a great pleasure for the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to see you, Sir, in the chair. My delegation would also like to congratulate the three Vice-Chairmen of the 103rd Session of the Council.
I would like to thank the Director-General for his statement, and also Mr Hjort, the Deputy Director-General, for his remarks regarding the current World Food situation. With regard to my own country, the first five-year economic and social plan gives priority to agriculture. With reference to staple food, I would inform this Council that during the last four years the production of wheat per hectare has been increased as much as the increase in the 30 years before that period. We have increased wheat production from 7.5 million tons to 10.5 million tons within four years. We did.this by putting emphasis on adapted research, education and extension.
We all know that the main responsibility for food security lies on the shoulders of the Members States themselves. Food aid is just an initiation to this task. This responsibility will produce real action when there is awareness.
His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture of Lebanon mentioned that every year 100 million people will be added to the world and that 90 million of them will be in the developing countries. This again supports my proposal that awareness is one of the fundamental problems for food security as a whole.
In this connection, I will not talk about production, import and export of food aid because many delegates have already raised the issue in a most excellent manner. However, I would like to make the request of FAO that there be a new movement for its missions to the developing countries to assist the developing countries to increase their food production through training. If we look at the development of agriculture there are two main sources for the development of food security. The first is to have inputs into agriculture like fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides and machinery which mainly come from the developed countries and which are getting too costly. The second is to give know-how to the experts, to the extension workers and the farmers in developing countries. I think the second point is one of the major functions of FAO which I would like to bring to the attention of delegates here in support of my proposal.
In this regard, my delegation believes that, during their visits to the developing countries the missions of FAO should try to encourage efforts towards training. At this moment, many missions go for just a short time to discuss related issues with the project manager, and then they return home with the report. My delegation believes that if the host country is ready the experts - whether he, she or they - should give a lecture, a seminar or a workshop to the local experts in the same field. This makes evaluation more clear for the FAO experts and also for the consultants who are steeped in the atmosphere of FAO; it also spreads knowledge to a greater number of experts in developing countries.
Regarding sustainable agriculture and the implementation of Agenda 21, the Islamic Republic of Iran has plans to allay desertification of 10 million hectares within five years. We have also assigned to one of our provinces the implementation of sustainable agriculture. Over the last two years we have made preliminary studies with the assistance of FAO, for which I would
like to thank them. We are hoping to involve all the United Nations agencies in cooperating in this issue. We plan to implement the ICN Declaration in this province and welcome any technical assistance in this regard.
We are aware that two of the staple foods are wheat and maize. They are good commodities, but they are costly for low-fertile soils and low-income countries, so it is important that FAO pays more attention to traditional crops which will produce a better world food situation. We hope that the donor countries will offer some engineered plant genetic material for this purpose to the developing countries.
Regarding agricultural trade, we hope to see fair trading conditions as a result of agreement at GATT. Regarding the restructuring of the United Nations system we believe that FAO should be the focal point of all activities related to food and agriculture but it is necessary that some kind of better coordination should be created with FAO and GATT.
Kiyoshi SAWADA (Japan): Firstly, I would like to express our pleasure in seeing you, Mr Saintraint, in the chair, and we offer our congratulations to the three Vice-Chairmen on their election. I would also like to express our compliments to the Secretariat for this concise document.
As the first intervention to a series of Agenda Items prepared for this 103rd Session of Council, my delegation would like to present briefly our basic view. Food is the most significant issue for every country and the effort to secure a stable food supply to their own people should be treated as an estimable one in the international community. In this sense, my government highly appreciates the initiatives of FAO in resolving world food and agricultural problems and fully supports FAO's activities in this sphere. Moreover, the data analysis and information service provided by FAO concerning world food, agriculture and trade is very useful for my country as well as others, since Japan relies for most of its food on the world market.
My delegation is anxious about the current trend that low-income food-deficit countries are likely to increase their food reliance on some food-exporting developed countries. Furthermore, there is a more serious problem for the future as this will bring about instability of food supply and demand in the world. We believe that great attention should be focused in the programme on supporting self-help in the low-income food-deficit countries so as to pass on the increase of food production capacity. We would like to assist FAO and member countries in supporting these activities.
The measures by trade liberalization only and endless food aid cannot be considered a perfect way to solve the problems. On the contrary we have to be careful whether these measures would accelerate the problems.
My government is also worried that the argument in the Uruguay Round tends to be somewhat biased to the issues among food-exporting developed countries and expects FAO to discuss more about the role of agriculture which is vital in social and economic development.
With regard to fisheries, the environment protection activities which do not harmonize with them is becoming a big problem for continuation of fisheries which have supplied food, particularly animal protein, to increasing population. Recently, the Convention for Endangered Species, namely CITES, is
examining the possibility to control even fish and shellfish in the world which is the food for listed endangered species. If this movement were to be realized, food supplies from the fisheries sector will be seriously damaged. The situation which is going on must not be overlooked by those, including FAO, who earnestly struggle with securing stable food supply to human beings.
As in the reasons just mentioned, my delegation strongly expects FAO to continue its balanced attitude based on sustainable development.
Finally, the paper on Agriculture Towards 2010 is awaited patiently and is so interesting that it is earnestly requested to distribute it to member countries sufficiently prior to the discussion in the coming conference.
Daudi NGELAUTWA MWAKAWAGO (Tanzania) : My delegation is happy to see you in the chair. It is our hope that you will guide the deliberation of this council to the right conclusions. May I also join my colleagues in extending our congratulations to the three Vice-Chairmen from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and of the Republic of Korea. We wish them well. We would also like to thank the Director-General for his very powerful report on the status of FAO and thank the Secretariat for preparing the comprehensive document CL 103/2 under discussion and Mr Hjort for introducing it very ably.
Tanzania is a poor developing country whose economy is dependent on agriculture. Its population is increasing fast and the country's food needs are also rising.
In 1991/92, Tanzania's food production was below national requirements mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions. Most parts of the country did not receive adequate rainfall and yields were therefore reduced. As a result the country has been facing a food deficit estimated at about 320 000 tons of cereals to fill the gap. Till the end of March this year Tanzania managed to receive only a total of 196 330 tons of cereals in the form of commercial imports, grants and food aid. We thank the WFP, EEC, Japan and France for the food assistance extended to Tanzania as this has greatly helped to improve the food situation in the country. We are also grateful to Tanzania's private sector for mobilizing food commercial imports.
Tanzania is also grateful to the FAO for assisting us to prepare a National Comprehensive Food Security programme whose long-term objective is to solicit efforts and resources, and coordinate the different components of the food security system in order to increase food production and improve food security and availability nationally.
Crop production in the 1992/93 production season has been affected by two major factors. Firstly, there has been a general shortage of production inputs, particularly fertilizers, throughout the country for lack of foreign exchange to effect adequate importation. The country has only managed to import less than half of its fertilizer requirements due to the high costs involved. Most of this fertilizer, however, arrived late and could not therefore reach most farmers in time. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to thank Japan for extending a good amount of fertilizer to Tanzania and the FAO for its assistance amounting to 1 000 tons of fertilizers extended to Tanzania in this ongoing season.
The second factor is bad weather conditions. Outlook at the beginning was good but optimism was short-lived due to unexpected changes in the weather pattern. Several regions have received good rains but rains in other regions have been erratic and have resulted in floods which have caused property and crop devastation. In some other parts of the country rains have been poor and harvests will certainly be reduced.
According to recent crop assessments made as the end of the rainy season approaches, national cereal production is forecast to be satisfactory at 4.17 million tons. A marginal cereal surplus of 85 000 tons is anticipated nationally.
The southern regions of the country are projecting above average cereal harvests, but with pockets of reduced yields here and there. Production in the central regions is projected to range from normal to below normal, while the northern, western and north east regions will generally experience reduced yields. The latter regions will therefore have several food-deficit areas which will need assistance.
Production of export crops, vital for foreign exchange earnings have also been affected. But to compound this problem, commodity prices have slumped. The poor availability of production inputs and unfavourable weather conditions in most parts of the country are responsible for reduced production. This again will affect availability of foreign exchange to allow adequate importation of production inputs for the coming season.
In brief, this is the current food situation in Tanzania. Once again my delegation is grateful to the FAO for its continued support to Tanzania efforts to increase food production despite problems of resources at its disposal.
Gamal Mohamed AHMED (Sudan) (Original language Arabic) : It is my pleasure to see you chair the deliberations of this session of the Council. Furthermore, I wish to congratulate the three honorable Vice-Chairmen.
I would like to pay tribute to the Director-General for his fine presentation. His presentation is considered as one of the basic documents of this session and he gave many valuable indications and information related to our work.
I would also like to thank Mr Hjort for his fine introduction of this Agenda Item after the comprehensive statement delivered by the Director-General.
The significant improvement in the food situation and supplies recorded in some parts of the world did not have any positive repercussions in the African countries. These countries have been suffering, and for long periods, from inadequate food supplies and it is due to natural disasters, civil wars and other man-made disasters which further exacerbated the poverty situation, undermined the social structures and destroyed all structures and capabilities of the countries concerned.
Sudan is one of the largest countries of the African continent. We rely mostly on agriculture and thanks to the sound agricultural and economic policies, combined with a favourable autumn season Sudan was able to achieve two successive good crops which could help achieve food security for the Sudan. However, there are many problems, namely that many provinces in Sudan are
still affected by drought and where poor food security conditions due to civil strife still make it difficult for people to rely on themselves and therefore, they rely on food grants. The Government of the Sudan, in cooperation with the international community was able to alleviate this situation and this through the distribution of large amounts of cereals to the needy. However, the government still lacks necessary capabilities to secure adequate resettlement of people and adequate handling of shipments for distribution of foods.
I have referred to the case of Sudan bearing in mind that it is a country which falls within the category of countries which many have food supplies but lack nevertheless the supplementary capability to achieve food stability. Hence the subject I wanted to raise, namely that because of the low prices of our food exports we are unable to receive the necessary income to be ploughed back in the purchase of agricultural inputs, the prices of which kept growing year after year, thus this contributes to the lost opportunity for development. Furthermore, low agricultural production prices along with protectionist measures, bilateral agreements, all these matters contributed to the dwindling of export earnings. Consequently the farmers lose their drive and motivation to produce.
My delegation wanted to support the previous speakers to stress the importance of this issue. We urge the Council to make an appropriate recommendation related to this problem, hoping that this issue would be raised at the international fora because the issue transcends the states and has nefarious effects on the farmers and the rural poor.
Finally we wish that the Uruguay Round would reach a positive conclusion which would help the developing countries to receive adequate prices for their products.
Carlos A. DA ROCHA PARANHOS (Brazil): As this is the first time I have the opportunity to take the floor I would like to express our delegation's appreciation of your work as Chairman of this Council and of your wise guidance. I would like also to express our congratulations to the three Vice-Chairmen elected this morning, the representative of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and the Republic of Korea.
I would also like to second my colleague in thanking the Director-General for his presentation which gave a clear picture of the situation in FAO and also to Mr Hjort for his document CL 103/2: We think that the excellent document prepared by the Secretariat gives a very clear picture in the terms of the present food supply and production in the world.
Although there are some improvements which are shown in the text, it shows in a very balanced and realistic way the dramatic situation that a growing number of countries face. As you are aware it is widely accepted that most Latin American independent countries have faced what we call a lost decade, the 80s. But to face changing in this situation, it is necessary tro face the necessary structural changes. I think that most Latin American countries, and Brazil in particular, are facing courageous adjustment reforms and opening up our market and opening up to imports. We would like to see our efforts and the efforts and of those developing countries that are going through economic adjustment processes and courageous reforms being rewarded in terms of access of their products to the international market. We were surprised - and I make reference to the comments made by the Colombian Ambassador - at certain data
that were circulated last week during the Committee on Commodity Problems, and on the perverse combination of such data as the incredible and growing amount of subsidies given to agricultural production in developed countries in certain developed areas with an evident market disrupting effect, and also with the incredible decay of prices of important agricultural products of interest to developing countries. We were particularly touched and impressed by your reference this morning to the work of Josué De Castro, a former Chairman of this Committee whose portrait illustrates here this debating room. Let us hope that the spirit and the thesis of De Castro may illuminate the work in this Council. He spoke of the geography of hunger and the geopolitics of hunger. Unfortunately, we must recognize that the geography of hunger, the distribution of hunger, is still basically the same with an ever-growing increase in terms of numbers of those who actually face the horrendous problem of hunger. We think that in order to respond to the important structural changes that certain developing countries are undergoing, it is not only necessary to give financial aid or food aid. These countries have to have their efforts rewarded, and we would like in this context to second proposals made by other countries in the sense that the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations should be the effective forum for specific results, and we would like to see the pace of the negotiations advance so that we could fruitfully get to a new and effectively liberalized trading system with an effective differential treatment to developing countries.
José Mari GEROCHI (Philippines): On behalf of the Philippine delegation, I wish to commend the Secretariat for the concise yet comprehensive document on the current world food situation and outlook.
Allow me, Mr Chairman to give you a report on the state of Philippine agriculture for 1992, as well as the first quarter of this year. For the whole year of 1992, Philippine agriculture grew at a modest 1 percent in Gross Value Added terms from 1991. In terms of volume, production fell 75 percent from the previous year. Paddy rice production dropped from 9.6 million tons in 1991 to 9.1 million tons in 1992. Corn production dropped from 4.6 million tons to 4.5 million tons over the same period. The drop in cereal production was the result of natural calamities and a prolonged drought in the major growing areas. In spite of this, the country continues to have sufficient stocks of rice and corn, making importation - for the present -unnecessary. Growth sectors, on the other hand, included poultry - which grew a hefty 11 percent in 1992 - banana (4 percent), fibrecrops (5 percent), cattle (3 percent) and aquaculture (3 percent) and commercial fisheries (6 percent).
For the first quarter of 1993, on the other hand, the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors registered 1.7 percent growth over the first quarter of 1992. This is quite significant in the light of the zero growth attained by the overall economy. Indeed, the only two bright spots in an otherwise dismal Philippine economy are the agriculture sector and the overseas labour sector.
Last December, in this city, the Philippines enthusiastically ratified the World Declaration for Nutrition, which it helped draft during the International Conference on Nutrition. I am pleased to announce that this July 1, we will be launching the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition as our commitment to the Declaration. The Plan will seek to address the problems of chronic hunger, malnutrition and micronutritient malnutrition affecting large numbers of Filipinos.We have also closely linked the Plan with the
larger development programmes, such as Philippines 2000, so that we could build a sound human resource base to support future growth and development. Indeed, the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition is based on our belief that the Nation's future depends on the quality of our people. This quality begins with good nutrition and good health, as well as a productive agriculture, and equitable and efficient food distribution. As Brillat-Savarin wrote, "The destiny of countries depends on the way they feed themselves".
I am also pleased to report on our country's efforts to follow up the protocols drafted in last year's Earth Summit. As early as September of last year, President Fidel Ramos created the Philippine Council on Sustainable Development to tailor Agenda 21 recommendations to Philippine conditions. A Philippine Strategy on Sustainable Development was later approved for implementation by the Philippine Cabinet. In addition, a Magna Carta on the environment will soon be passed by the Philippine Congress - stating in simple terms, as well as enacting into law, the many imperatives of sustainable development. I am also pleased to announce that this very day, June 14, the President will launch the Ecological Revolution - which is a comprehensive effort to enlist the hearts and minds of all Filipinos in the task to protect the environment. Our Government believes that ecological consciousness should permeate the thinking of every Filipino so that environment-friendly actions will become part of his everyday habit. The Ecological Revolution seeks to turn every Filipino into an environmentalist.
In closing, let me assure the Council of my country's close cooperation in all FAO activities and initiatives, especially in the area of food security in all levels. In turn, we ask that the FAO continue its support of Philippine agricultural development, particularly now that we are embarked on a bold and creative Agenda to optimize productivity, increase the incomes of our farmers and fishers, and bring Philippine agriculture in general to the 21st century.
Hugo CUBILLOS (Chile): La delegación de Chile, señor Presidente, le felicita por verlo nuevamente presidir nuestros debates, y además le felicita puesto que conocemos sus parentescos y familiaridad con Chile. Igualmente nos complace felicitar a los tres Vicepresidentes, pero a usted, señor Presidente, quiero agradecerle el haber mencionado y evocado la figura del Josué De Castro esta mañana. Para nosotros los chilenos esta fue una lumbrera al recono cimiento Latinoamericano y le agradecemos que haya elegido esta oportunidad para traer ese recuerdo. Yo le conocí personalmente cuando era Presidente del Comité para el Desarrollo y creo que cada cual que le haya conocido habrá aprendido mucho, no solamente sobre aspectos de la agricultura como usted lo mencionó esta mañana, sino en asuntos relativos a la humanidad en su conjunto.
Quisiéramos también, señor Presidente, hacer una reflexión a la interesante declaración introductoria del Director General de la FAO. Nos ha presentado una visión muy completa de lo que la FAO hace y lo que puede hacer, pero también nos llena de preocupación la referencia a los recursos que tiene que hacer la FAO para mantener por lo menos su capacidad de trabajo actual. Hemos visto, por ejemplo, que ha aumentado la producción de alimentos, es importante, sin embargo, la situación de hambre continúa subiendo y desarrollándose en el mundo. Nos preocupa particularmente el decrecimiento en el continente africano donde la producción de alimentos bajó en un 13 por ciento en el año 1992. Yo creo que toda la comunidad internacional tiene un deber con Africa. El hambre no solamente afecta a las personas que la sufren,
sino que el hambre y la malnutrición también afectan a las generaciones futuras; un niño, una mujer malnutrida, señor Presidente, va atrayendo consecuencias para el futuro de las generaciones que son imposibles de imaginar hoy dia. Por eso que nuestra delegación piensa que un esfuerzo particular debe hacerse en favor del Africa. Estamos de acuerdo con el señor Representante del Congo, por ejemplo que dijo que los recursos de urgencia, de emergencia no debían tener tanta preponderancia con respecto a los recursos para programas regulares. Son los programas regulares los que hacen que la agricultura en los países puedan producir debidamente.
La FAO tiene una gran responsabilidad en lograr que estos esfuerzos de la comunidad internacional se amplíen. Nosotros pensamos que la FAO fundamentalmente debería preocuparse de la formación de recursos humanos, tal como lo mencionó el señor Representante de Irán hace unos minutos. En ese sentido creo que a pesar del esfuerzo que hacen los países donantes, es necesario también que los propios países en desarrollo hagan un esfuerzo, por ejemplo, en el caso africano para ir en ayuda de estos países.
Tenemos programas sobre cooperación técnica que han sido desarrollados por la FAO y que siguen siendo desarrollados por la FAO y que tal vez deberían impulsarse en el futuro. La cooperación técnica entre países en desarrollo es fundamental, creemos que hay peculiaridades de la agricultura de los países en desarrollo y que nosotros mismos somos los que mejor podemos evaluar la situación de determinadas regiones. Por eso la cooperación técnica entre países en desarrollo podrá ser y deberá ser una de las actividades que impulsa la FAO incluso en cooperación con el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo que tiene un fondo para estos efectos.
El traspaso de tecnologías se puede hacer no solamente a través de tecnologías que han sido elaboradas en países más adelantados pero también tecnologías de países en vías de desarrollo. Las tecnologías para la adecuación de terrenos que permiten enfrentar condiciones climáticas que se transforman adversas por su continuidad, todos esos problemas creemos que deben examinarse cuando se trate de hablar de los problemas del Africa, y creo que hay muchos países en vía de desarrollo que podían aportar ese esfuerzo.
Refiriéndome al comercio internacional, señor Presidente, al cual han hecho referencia muchas delegaciones, como a todos nos preocupa el proteccionismo creciente en muchos países, particularmente los países desarrollados, si bien, esa protección muchas veces afecta el intercambio de productos agrícolas entre los propios países desarrollados, esa protección es mucho más grave y más dura para los países en vías de desarrollo que aún en muchos casos dependen en un 80 por ciento y 90 por ciento de su agricultura. La caída de precios debido a las medidas proteccionistas como son los subsidios hacen que muchos países en desarrollo no puedan continuar aumentando sus producciones agrícolas.
Nosotros pensamos, señor Presidente, que debería tenerse en consideración el aval que le hemos dado al mundo muchos países en desarrollo que hemos hecho grandes esfuerzos para mejorar nuestra política comercial e internacional y hemos emprendido reformas estructurales de mucho aliento, hemos bajado nuestros aranceles, abierto nuestros mercados, y, sin embargo, nos seguimos encontrando con estas medidas proteccionistas que afectan a nuestra producción.
Se ha hecho referencia por la mayoría de los oradores a la necesidad de un pronto y equilibrado término de la Ronda Uruguay.
Nosotros también, la delegación de Chile cree que la Ronda Uruguay debe terminar de forma pronta y equilibrada. Estimamos que la declaración del señor Representante de Bélgica a nombre de la Comunidad Económica Europea, tal como lo señaló recientemente la señora Representante de Argentina, debe la Ronda dar las oportunidades para que todos los países puedan llegar a beneficiarse de una apertura en el mercado mundial, pero lo que es más importante de la Ronda Uruguay para los países en desarrollo es que los países desarrollados se ajusten al nuevo GATT para decir a los mecanismos de solución de controversias, porque cuando nosotros, por ejemplo, tenemos problemas para colocar la fruta en la Comunidad Económica Europea, no tenemos las posibilidades de negociación bilateral directa, tenemos que tener mecanismos multilaterales que nos permitan poder tener una solución satisfactoria a los problemas con que nos encontramos muchas veces para resolver estos problemas.
Finalmente, para terminar, todo esto nos lleva a pensar en este problema de la feliz solución de la Ronda Uruguay, y nos preocupa mucho la recesión mundial, la recesión en los países industrializados, no es porque pretendamos ser industrializados un país pequeño como Chile, sino que nos hemos dado cuenta que hay productos que estamos exportando a los países industrializados en recesión que no pueden llegar hoy día a las masas consumidoras porque ha caído el poder de compras.
Yo creo que de esta reunión del Consejo debería hacerse una reflexión en ese sentido. Los países industrializados tienen una obligación de poner término a la recesión que están sufriendo muchas de sus economías.
Gideon NYAMWEYA NYAANGA (Kenya): First of all, allow me to express my delegation's appreciation to you for the excellent guidance which you have given to the Council during your tenure of office, and to congratulate Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea for their election as Vice-Chairmen.
Secondly, I take this opportunity to thank the Director-General for his inspiring statement to this session and, more importantly, for the able leadership role which he has played in mobilizing international support to combat the widespread food crisis around the world during the last two years. We would also commend the Secretariat for its comprehensive overview of the world food situation as contained in document CL 103/2. We are in agreement with the analysis and general conclusion of the report.
It is encouraging to note from the report that there has been a significant recovery in the global output of staple food in 1992 after the big drop of 4 percent in 1991. We are further encouraged to know that global cereal stocks are expected to increase appreciably by some 5 percent above the 1992 opening levels, with the cereal carryover exceeding the minimum level necessary to safeguard world food security.
We acknowledge the above global gains, consider them as improvements in the prospect of maintaining widespread pockets of food shortfalls around the world this year. Nevertheless the continuing regional imbalances in food production, as the escalation of disasters competing for emergency food aid, remain a major challenge in the concerns to be addressed.
Access to food in sufficient quantities at affordable prices for every human being is a basic human right. Kenya's national objective is to make food available to every household. The government is committed to a policy of self-sufficiency in food production, giving food security a top priority. Some of the policies and strategies pursued include intensified research to develop high yielding varieties of crops, improved agricultural exchange services to increase farm productivity, price policies to encourage farmers to produce more, farm input supply, improvement of storage capacity including maintenance of national strategic reserves, and the promotion of crop diversification.
Despite the pragmatic policies put in place, Kenya and other developing countries continue to be faced by a host of internal and external obstacles in their efforts to achieve sustainable food security. These include, among others, rapid population growth, limited agricultural potential, a decline of trade for agricultural exports and underdevelopment of agriculture.
It is imperative that the international community should act in concert toward food security for all. It should be acknowledged that the solution to food security problems in food-deficit countries is to build long-term capacities for self-reliance in food supplies. The efforts to improve agricultural production require to be intensified and sustained while fairer trade terms are sought. The measures to strengthen disaster preparedness need capacity for post-disaster recovery to be intensified. The world community should continue to assist vulnerable countries to build self-reliance in food production.
I would now like to turn to the immediate problem facing my country, Kenya. Kenya has been one of the victims of the prolonged drought in sub-Saharan Africa. While the 1992 rains have to some extent improved the crop prospects in the sub-region, full recovery cannot be anticipated in one single good season. Unfortunately, Kenya has continued to experience abnormal weather conditions for much of 1992 and 1993. This phenomenon has caused severe disruption of agricultural activities, leading to a substantial decline in food production. A crop assessment carried out in March 1993 indicates that Kenya's cereal and pulse crop harvest for 1992 amounted to a total of 3.5 million metric tons, approximately 25 percent below the national aggregate consumption requirement. Furthermore, 50 to 70 percent of livestock in the arid and semi-arid districts of the country where livestock constitutes the main source of subsistence has perished.
Outside the severe drought, other factors have also come into play in aggravating the shortfall in food supply. World demand and the price of our main agricultural commodities have weakened sharply. The cumulative effect of this negative development has been a severe weakening of the government's capacity to sustain the levels of financial commitment to the agricultural sector and food imports needed to cover the food deficit. The direct impact on the population has been reduced access to food resulting in widespread malnutrition, especially among the young ones.
Let me at this juncture place on record the Kenya government's appreciation of the Director-General of FAO and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme for their timely and effective mobilization and coordination of international support for emergency food assistance for Kenya. Kenya is also grateful to many friendly donor countries, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations for their support.
In conclusion, my delegation fully endorses the Secretariat's conclusion in paragraph 23 of document CL 103/2 that a number of regional problems remain serious, requiring sustained international assistance. My delegation takes this opportunity on behalf of the Kenya government to reiterate its appeal to the donor community to maintain its assistance to Kenya, to enable her to go through the current year, 1993. Underscoring this need, my President has recently signed an international appeal to donors for continued food and relief assistance, confident that Kenya can count on their support during these difficult times.
LE PRESIDENT: Avant de passer la parole a M. Laroussi, Représentant de la République tunisienne, je voudrais signaler à la délégation de l'Angola que Monsieur le Ministre de l'agriculture et du développement rural prendra la parole en tout premier lieu lors de la discussion du point 5 de notre ordre du jour, demain matin.
Chadli LAROUSSI (Tunisie): Merci M. le Président et excusez-moi d'avoir abusé de votre gentillesse. En fait, je ne comptais pas intervenir, surtout après l'intervention du Directeur général qui avait brossé l'essentiel de la problématique de la situation alimentaire mondiale, face au défi auquel est confronté notre Organisation à la fin de ce vingtième siècle et après l'émouvant rappel que vous aviez fait de l'oeuvre de Josué De Castro, votre éminent prédécesseur à la tête de ce Conseil, il y a déjà vingt ans. Après de telles introductions, je ne pensais pas intervenir tellement la prise de conscience était claire, tout comme l'était l'engagement pour mettre notre Organisation au service du noble objectif qui lui avait été fixé par ses fondateurs il y a déjà presque cinquante ans, celui d'enrayer à jamais le spectre de la faim sur la terre. Malheureusement, aux termes de ce débat, il est évident que si cet objectif est largement partagé, et s'il reste présent dans les esprits, il n'en demeure pas moins que des propositions concrètes ne semblent pas se dégager pour contribuer efficacement à résoudre le problème de la faim et de la malnutrition dans le monde et, si l'on parle d'amélioration globale de la situation alimentaire mondiale, il ne faut pas oublier, comme l'ont signalé mes honorables collègues, délégués de l'Allemagne et de la France et d'autres, que cette situation cache des disparités très inquiétantes et il est normal que dans la logique des pays excédentaires on commence sérieusement à penser à des limitations de production si on ne les pratique pas déjà. Il y a des excédents dans ces pays mais d'un autre côté il y a des pays qui souffrent de pénurie et l'aide alimentaire ne peut être qu'une solution provisoire. Malheureusement la permanence des pénuries nous démontre que ce qui est provisoire devient chronique. Ce qui est plus grave encore, comme le mentionne l'excellent rapport préparé par le Secrétariat, et je tiens au passage a féliciter M. Hjort pour son exposé succinct et clair - c'est que l'Afrique, qui est la région la plus vulnérable, enregistre un recul sérieux de sa production alimentaire. En effet, le continent a enregistré un recul de 13 pour cent de sa production de produits de base par tête d'habitant alors que déjà ce ratio est de 171 kg, soit le ratio le plus bas de toutes les régions de la planète.
Devant cette situation je crois qu'il est de la responsabilité de la FAO d'attirer l'attention sur la nécessité de rechercher des solutions pour soulager des franges importantes de la population africaine de plus en plus menacées par la misère et la famine. Je crois qu'il nous revient de proposer desmesuresconcrètes etdes orientationsprécisespourcontribuerà la
Solution de cette problématique. Il est évident que l'orientation du système des Nations Unies pour favoriser des actions de développement durable et des actions d'amélioration de la nutrition pourrait contribuer à résoudre cette question s'il y avait une véritable volonté politique des Etats Membres de les mettre en pratique et, dans le cas qui nous intéresse ici, la suppression du spectre de la famine passe nécessairement par la mise en place d'un programme de développement agricole durable. Le programme d'aide alimentaire est le traitement symptomatique du mal mais le traitement radical nécessite une autre approche. Cette nouvelle approche devrait être basée sur une solidarité plus agissante entre le Nord et le Sud. Il est impossible à des pays fortement endettés et en proie à des situations de pénurie alimentaire de remettre sur pied leur agriculture sans avoir résolu au préalable le problème de la dette. Nous constatons que le service de la dette devient supérieur au déboursement au profit des pays en voie de développement et dans le secteur agricole en particulier le flux de capitaux est devenu négatif. C'est donc un secteur en état de désinvestissement, et comment pourra-t-on alors lui demander de régler le problème des pénuries, de la famine et de la malnutrition? C'est pourquoi nous appelons à une véritable solidarité internationale pour régler ce problème, et je conclus, à ce stade, en proposant le recyclage de la dette des pays en voie de développement au profit de projets de développement agricole durable. C'est, à notre sens, le meilleur moyen d'aider ces pays qui doivent évidemment compter sur eux-mêmes, à remettre sur pied leur agriculture et assurer en même temps une exploitation rationnelle de leurs ressources naturelles au profit de toute la planète.
LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie très vivement le Représentant de la République tunisienne pour son intervention.
Nous avons deux observateurs qui ont demandé à s'inscrire, l'observateur du Burundi et l'observateur de la Grèce. Je tiens à les remercier d'avoir accepté de remettre leur déclaration par écrit. Leur déclaration sera reprise intégralement dans le verbatim de la présente session.
Louis BIRIZANYE (Observateur du Burundi) : Comme les autres ont pu tous l'exprimer, c'est un plaisir de vous voir de nouveau diriger les travaux du Conseil. Je félicite également vos collaborateurs qui ont été désignés ce matin pour vous épauler.
J'ai demandé la parole en tant qu'observateur car le point que nous analysons aujourd'hui est pour nous un des plus importants de l'ordre du jour de nos travaux.
Ma délégation voudrait souligner un certain nombre de points que nous jugeons importants et qui nous tiennent à coeur.
Le point de l'alimentation dans le monde revient à chaque Conseil et à chaque comité qui traitent des questions d'agriculture.
Tous les documents que l'on produit sur ces points soulignent toujours la situation critique que vivent les pays en développement, spécialement en Afrique, et aujourd'hui dans certains pays de l'Amérique latine et des Caraïbes, et de l'Asie. Même si les déclarations des pays sont encourageantes, depuis que l'on parle de ce sujet il ne semble pas que nous puissions en sortir sérieusement.
Nos pays sont séparés des pays industrialisés par un fossé qui ne peut être comblé par des gestes d'aide humanitaire ou d'aide d'urgence. Le fossé est énorme - tout le monde le sait. Comment nos populations pourraient-elles ne pas mourir de faim lorsqu'elles travaillent encore avec une houe devant une machine. Toutes nos méthodes de production n'ont pas évolué devant un développement croissant de technologie connu dans les pays industrialisés.
Plus que les méthodes, nos populations n'ont pas accès aux intrants, car elles n'ont pas accès aux crédits ou à la technologie. C'est donc un cercle vicieux dans lequel se débattent les pays en développement et qui ne peuvent plus être des partenaires dans le développement.
La valeur du coût de nos produits : on ne peut plus en parler et notre patience face aux négociations de l'Uruguay Round s'épuise.
A propos de l'aide alimentaire, les pays en développement doivent saisir l'occasion d'un forum comme celui-ci pour remercier la communauté internationale pour l'aide accordée aux pays et spécialement celle accordée à l'Afrique australe lors de la crise alimentaire causée par la sécheresse. Les pays donateurs ont vraiment fait preuve d'humanité et cela a encouragé ces pays en crise.
Nous devons affirmer que l'aide alimentaire octroyée par les donateurs n'est pas insignifiante. Nous connaissons la récession économique que traversent les pays amis, mais il faut que nous soulignions que cette aide, comparée à nos immenses besoins, produit peu d'effet sur la carence alimentaire et sur l'augmentation de la production. Il faut plus que ces pays ne font aujourd'hui si l'on veut éviter que demain toutes ces populations disparaissent à cause de la faim.
Nous demandons d'être aidés afin que nous puissions aussi les aider à assurer la durabilité de leurs économies et de leur développement. Nous pourrions, pourquoi pas, devenir des consommateurs potentiels de leurs produits.
La FAO fait tout ce qu'elle peut, mais ses moyens sont limités.
L'Afrique est le seul continent où l'agriculture ne progresse pas. La communauté internationale est appelée à nous aider. Nous lui demandons de nous souligner nos faiblesses: quelles sont-elles? Pourquoi l'Afrique et pas les autre continents?
Nous avions des terres fertiles, mais elles ont été atomisées à cause de la forte poussée démographique. Mais pourquoi le peu de terres que nous avons ne produit pas?
Y aurait-il un autre forum pour se pencher sur tous ces problèmes et mettre les gouvernements devant leurs responsabilités sans retirer celles des pays industrialisés?
Lors de la Conférence régionale de la FAO à Accra, tous les Ministres de l'agriculture avaient fait une déclaration commune: qu'ils engageaient leurs Etats à essayer de nourrir leurs populations.
Cet engagement ne doit pas rester dans les documents, il doit produire des effets sur la production agricole et la diminution de la faim dans leurs pays respectifs.
Sur les guerres causées par l'homme, il faut aussi faire une réflexion. Si certaines d'entre elles sont le fruit interne des Etats, on peut se poser des questions sur le lieu de leur orchestration.
Nous sommes affligés par les conflits longtemps connus au Mozambique, en Angola, et en Somalie. Dans ce dernier pays, depuis quelque temps, on ne sait pas qui fait la guerre et qui ne la fait pas.
En Yougoslavie on parle aussi de la faim et de la mort malgré le développement que connaissait ce pays. On peut donc voir que la guerre n'est plus un signe de sous-développement.
M. le Président, ma délégation pense que nous avons suffisamment lu des documents sur la crise alimentaire. La dernière Conférence sur la nutrition nous a éclairés sur la gravité du problème.
La Conférence des Nations Unies sur l'environnement et le développement nous a souligné le lien qui unit obligatoirement les pays les plus riches et les plus pauvres.
Notre avis est que nous n'avons pas encore eu l'occasion d'attaquer le problème avec plus d'engagement. Cet engagement doit provenir tant des pays à déficit alimentaire que des pays à production alimentaire excédentaire.
Les efforts consacrés par les uns et les autres sont encore peu suffisants et les victimes sont toujours les plus nécessiteux, c'est à dire nous, les pays pauvres.
Jusqu'à quand pourrons-nous nourrir notre espoir? S'agissant de l'aide accordée aux pays de l'Est et celle accordée à l’ex-Yougoslavie, nous remercions beaucoup les pays de la Communauté européenne qui, à travers la déclaration de la délégation de la Belgique, nous confirment que cette aide est et sera additionnelle à celle accordée aux pays en développement.
Nous voudrions cependant demander à la Communauté de réviser l'aide accordée à l'Afrique compte tenu de sa situation critique aujourd'hui. Cette aide nous semble très insuffisante. Notre déclaration n'est pas pour autant pessimiste.
Nous avons été tout à fait d'accord avec la réflexion que vous avez faite ce matin en citant votre prédécesseur. Ce n'est pas en exterminant la population qu'on combattra la faim.
Nous remercions également le Directeur général pour sa déclaration et toutes celles qu'il a faites ces deux dernières années de son mandat, car il a toujours souligné le danger qui menace les populations des pays pauvres et il a eu le mérite de n'avoir pas fermé l'oeil sur certaines réalités qui font mal.1
Constantin G. POLITIS (Observer for Greece): Referring to what has already been said we would like to add some short remarks:
1 Texte reçu avec demande d'insertion aux procès-verbaux.
First we would like to stress that although world food situation is being considered as generally improved, there are still noticeable imbalances, not only between industrialized and developing countries, but also within the framework of the industrialized world.
Referring to para 13 of document CL 103/10, we might point out some of the main reasons preventing developing countries from monitoring policies for sustainable agriculture such as:
- the general recession of world economy;
- the high prices of agricultural inputs;
- the high debt of many of those countries;
- the low prices of products to be exported (raw materials) compared to those to be imported.
Although we do fully share the wish for a successful outcome of the Uruguay Round, it should not be overlooked by all and everyone the fact that liberalization of trade might risk higher prices of agricultural products and reduction of stocks; aggravating in this way the situation in some developing countries, at least in a medium term and in particular for the low-income ones.
Final result for the net importers deterioration of their deficit in the balance of payments.
And this is exactly the field where international cooperation may play a predominant role.
FAO as the specialized agency is bound and has to play a pivotal role in the years to come.
Finally, as regards the food aid we support its distribution through global (overall) developing projects, which will provide financial resources to be used in "corrective adjustment projects".1
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: Firstly, I wish to express appreciation for the many comments on the Director-General's statement. I also noted that there was a good number of comments on my introduction. I wish to suggest that there is no comparison between those two in terms of quality. The Director-General's is far superior. I also appreciate the comments that were made with respect to the document, including the suggestions for improvement. I believe those suggestions are summarized by saying - more information, data on prices, more analysis, reasons for events, and forecasts.
I also appreciate the information that was provided on developments within your own countries to help us firm up our consolidated assessment.
I would also suggest, in view of the time and also the fact that the next Agenda Item picks up on the Report of the Committee on World Food Security, that whilst there were some comments here, I would refrain from addressing those until the debate is completed at the end of the next session.
1 Statement inserted in the verbatim records on request.
Also, I want to mention the comments that were made, and appreciated, from the European Community, for example, and I believe also from Australia, with respect to emergency funding and looking with more interest into rehabilitation or development, and hoping that those activities could be supported. As you know, it has been a difficult time over the last year. It has been extremely difficult to get the non-food assistance under an emergency programme so that countries can get back on to the path of rehabilitation and development.
I also appreciated - and I will not say more - the comments made about the basic right to food, the moral imperative and so forth. I thought that these were particularly timely now that the Conference on Human Rights has opened this morning in Vienna and continues for precisely the same days as this Council is meeting.
I also noted the high hopes expressed for the Uruguay Round completion. There were comments about subsidies. Actually, there were references to the Committee on Commodity Problems, the statement of the Director-General and the statement that I repeated in part this morning, in respect to the decline in real prices compared with a decade ago - that is, 39 percent with respect to the developing countries' products and 19 percent for the developed countries' products.
There was also a reference to a statement which was in the Director-General's statement to the Committee on Commodity Problems which was not repeated this morning. It is a telling one and an interesting way in which to think about the matter, and that is that US$354 billion were spent on the total transfers to agriculture from taxpayers to consumers and producers in the OECD countries in 1992. That amount was two and a half times the total value of agricultural, fishery and forestry product exports from the developing countries in that year. Turning to the specific questions, the Minister from the Lebanon wished us to tell him what the price of wheat is going to be between now and the end of the year. I see he is not here. I used to provide that advice, but I got paid for it when I was in private consulting. I think all I would say at this point is that the futures market on wheat have been drifting downward. In view of the fact that we are approaching the main harvest season for the Northern Hemisphere crops on wheat, which usually influence the market. I guess if I were in my previous occupation I would suggest to him that he might want to cover a portion of his future purchases in the futures market these days and gradually build up his coverage as one hits the normal bottom on the markets at the harvest. I do think that the downside risk - in other words, the potential for moving down - at least I would hope - is relatively limited. There have been many discussions and I will make a further comment on prices in a moment.
There was a specific question from the representative of the Congo - who also, I notice, is not here - about the food aid for Eastern Europe and the former USSR. The fact is, over 85 percent of the food aid shipments in 1992-93 to that region were provided as Programme Food Aid for balance of payments support. They were typically selling the food directly to households at below market prices, but a new development this year tends to be selling the donated food through private grain exchanges, using the counterpart funds for market development assistance programmes as well as humanitarian purposes. The other 15 percent is direct food aid. To our knowledge there are no Food-for-Work programmes.
There also were references to paragraphs 33 and 34 of the document and we do have that updated information. That information is from February 1993. I am not going to say everything is all right, but in the one particular question here - oh, these are too many numbers. We can put them in the record to update the latest figures as far as the World Food Programme activities are concerned.
So far as information on prices, I do apologize for only having cereals prices in the document. Those are not the only ones we cover. The Food Outlook which is issued ten times a year, as you know, carries prices in addition to cereals for soya beans and soya bean oil, palm oil, sugar, and we also keep and report in the Commodity Review and Outlook prices on meats, dairy products, fish, pulses and so forth. I think the point was made, and I think it was made by my colleagues, that we should be giving greater coverage to price trends, price movements and the reasons why prices are moving in the direction that they are.
Those are given in other documents such as those prepared for the CFS, which we are going to be talking about tomorrow.
The intergovernmental commodity groups have been meeting. Each one considers supply, demand, price, trade and so on, and they come together in the CCP, the Committee on Commodity Problems. For the Secretariat there is always the question, do you try to include all the information in each one of the documents. It seems not to be efficient to do so, but when we do not, we miss something and we have received some criticism for not having certain information in this document. But I generally agree, as I am sure my colleagues will confirm, that we should be doing more analysis, we should be having more price information, and we should be looking more to the future in these documents.
There was a question about liquid milk production in Latin America and the Caribbean. It does continue to rise - 45 million tons in 1992, up from a 40 million tons average in 1987-89. Interestingly enough, the milk situation is covered in the most recent Food Outlook, the May 1993 issue. We hope that provides the information wanted on milk.
A question was raised about cause/effect relationships. As someone pointed out, clearly this document and the particular paragraphs that were quoted by the delegate of Colombia are really description. Those particular paragraphs do not tell you any reason why anything was happening; they just tell you what happened. I mentioned briefly a while earlier - that these are succinct, very summary-type comments, but one should not interpret a simple cause/effect relationship between imports and prices. It is much more complex than that as will be evident when you read the more elaborate State of Food and Agriculture or the Commodity Review and Outlook, and the other documents that are published.
Finally, I shall not refer to the comments about fisheries. If it would be acceptable to the delegate of Japan in this case to delay and pick that up when we talk about the fisheries report, I would appreciate that.
I believe that covers the questions.
LE PRESIDENT: Demain matin nous examinerons, en toute hypothèse, le rapport du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Je constate qu'un certain nombre de délégués on déjà abordé le point 5 de notre ordre du jour au cours du présent débat. Je vous ferai part de nos considérations à ce moment-là. Je remercie l'Assistant Directeur général des réponses très complètes qu'il vient de fournir.
The meeting rose at 18.00 hours.
La séance est levée à 18 heures.
Se levanta la sesión a las 18.00 horas.
