SUZANNA PILLAY New Straits Times 16 Nov 14;
KUALA LUMPUR: THE impact of climate change will make it more difficult to secure food security for all in time to come, said Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
“We will see much more impact of natural disasters, like floods and droughts, on food production and this will bring more stress to food markets.
“Due to the impact of climate change, there will be much more uncertainty in food and crop harvests, and also in food markets, where prices will be more volatile all the time, moving up and down.”
Da Silva, who was here recently on a working visit, said genetically-modified crops could be a very important consideration in the future due to climate change and growing population.
“We may need such technology to feed the additional two billion people expected by 2050.”
He said food security was an important issue because insecurity could lead to conflict, violence and stress.
He said lack of available land for farming also contributed towards food insecurity.
“We recommend that a country produce part of their food locally and not rely on imports alone, but it has to be noted that some countries cannot do it.”
He said it was encouraging that more and more countries in the Asia-Pacific region were committed to the goals set in the zero-hunger challenge, which was launched in the region last year, in response to the call made by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon at the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference.
The goals include 100 per cent access to adequate food all year round and ensuring adequate nutrition for children under 5.
“An estimated 162 million children below the age of 5 are stunted, 51 million wasted or acutely malnourished. Today, more than 800 million people still suffer from undernourishment.
“Two-thirds of them live in Asia, including nearly 65 million in Southeast Asia. Hunger affects some 12 per cent of the world’s population, or nearly one in eight people.
“So, while we make a push to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by 2015, as set out in FAO’s Millennium Development Goals, we also need to look ahead and be even bolder in our ambitions towards our real goal to end hunger in the world. ”
Da Silva said the other goals included achieving responsible consumption.
“Currently 30 to 50 per cent of what the world produces are lost or wasted, which puts a lot of pressure on the natural resources we use to produce food.”
A report by the FAO last year said 1.3 billion tonnes of food were wasted every year.
As hosts of the FAO Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in 2016, da Silva said Malaysia had the opportunity to strongly contribute to food security and tackle food loss and waste at national level. Last year, Malaysia was recognised by the FAO as one of 15 developing countries that had held hunger rates below five per cent since 1990.
