 At the same time as European Member States agree to provide 1 billion euros in support to farmers in developing countries, Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for a global summit to design a "new world agricultural order" and find 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate hunger "once and for all". At a special session of the FAO's governing conference on November 19 in Rome, Diouf urged world leaders to hold a summit in the first half of 2009 to "correct the present system that generates world food insecurity on account of international market distortions resulting from agricultural subsidies, customs tariffs and technical barriers to trade". "After more than 60 years (since FAO's foundation) it is essential to create a new system of world food security," he said. The summit "should lay the ground for a new system of governance of world food security and an agricultural trade that offers farmers, in developed and developing countries alike, the means of earning a decent living." He argued that leaders should also "come up with 30 billion dollar per year to build rural infrastructure and increase agricultural productivity in the developing world."
His speech emphasised that "plans, programmes and projects to resolve the problem of food insecurity in the world do exist," and that the challenge was one of finding the political will rather than any great technical difficulty. It is hoped that US President-elect Obama may take the lead in generating this political will. Sources:
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