4 May 2009, Paris - Amid growing evidence that the fight against hunger risks being lost, senior experts from FAO and the 30-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) open a two-day, high-level meeting tomorrow to map out long-term investment and financing strategies to avert the menace of unprecedented levels of hunger.  

Under-investment in agriculture over the past 30 years, high and volatile food prices and continuing economic turmoil are all combining to sharply increase the level of global food insecurity, which is expected to aggravate further this year as the financial and economic crisis hits the developing countries.

It is currently estimated that close to one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, compared with some 825 million a decade ago. On current trends, the 1996 World Food Summit's target of halving the number of hungry people by 2015, and the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG-1) of halving the prevalence of hunger and poverty appear increasingly unattainable.

High population growth

Continuing high population growth in developing countries - some 80 million extra mouths to be fed every year - plus the rising challenges of climate change and a limited resource base also represent some of the longer-term constraints on the world's capacity to adequately feed all of its inhabitants.

Starting some 50 years ago, the Green Revolution produced an abundance of cheap food for a world population which doubled to six billion between 1960 and 2000. But what made it possible was a high level of both public and private investments, combined with a conducive public policy framework.

Investments have lagged more recently, however, prompting some to doubt whether the feat can be repeated as humankind swells to over nine billion in 2050.

Left-behind countries

Particularly at risk of widespread famine are over a dozen so-called "left-behind" countries - almost all in sub-Saharan Africa - that feature severe and increasing natural resources constraints coupled with high population growth and limited non-agricultural income possibilities. Policy actions and aid and investment strategies must be specifically tailored for them to avert huge-scale future humanitarian disasters.

"Investment in sustainable agriculture is the key to ensuring the food security of present and future generations," says Hafez Ghanem, FAO Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development.

"But agriculture's share in total Official Development Assistance (ODA) slumped from 17 percent in 1980 to a mere 3.8 percent in 2006. It urgently needs to be reversed to its historical level of some three decades ago," he added.  

Investment push

Furthermore, experience also shows that during periods of international economic crises investment tends to fall and it is safe to predict that as a result of the current crisis, marked under-investment in agricultural capital will occur unless an investment push is launched to increase long-term growth rates.

The Paris meeting will also review current policies and incentives provided to farmers in developed and developing countries. It will go on to consider how policy coherence can make investment in food and agriculture more effective and how the appropriate timing, pacing and sequencing of trade liberalization measures can be conducive to agricultural development and investment.

The meeting will be addressed by Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO and Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, who will hold a joint press conference on Wednesday afternoon.