As food prices continue to exhibit volatility and with food prices driving inflation, it is likely that the millennium development goal (MDG) of reducing poverty and hunger by 2015 would not be achieved. So said Florita Kentish, sub-regional coordinator of the Caribbean of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Kentish was speaking on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the Tenth Caribbean Week of Agriculture under the theme, Caribbean Food and Nutrition Security in a Changing Climate: The Nature Isle Experience, at Windsor Park Stadium, Dominica. She said it was also expected that food prices would not return to levels experienced before the food crisis of 2007/2008 and they would be extremely volatile.
"As a consequence, a large section of the population is having substantially fewer resources to address other basic human requirements, such as health, housing and education, and it is likely that MDG of reducing poverty and hunger by 2015 would not be achieved." Kentish said the data has shown that in 2009, more than one billion people were chronically undernourished, representing around one-sixth of the global population. This number, she said, represents an increase by more than 150 million since 2006, as a result of soaring food prices, which peaked in mid-2008 and the subsequent global financial crisis.
Poverty and food security
However, Kentish said the opportunity to address this crisis presents itself in the world paying more attention to agriculture and its potential to eliminate poverty and increase food security. One of the many solutions is the focus the establishment of stable and effective policies and pragmatic actions to address high and volatile food prices, which must focus on medium- and long-term investment programmes. These medium- and long-term programmes should include investing in Caribbean agriculture, particularly in low-income food deficit countries. Kentish advised that Caribbean countries give high priorities to investment in research, rural infrastructure, and support of producer organisations and strengthen the access of small producers.
Investments in food processing and agricultural research and technological innovation need to be stepped up as well as functional market infrastructures that promote investment in the agriculture sector. Kentish said she is optimistic that the Caribbean could win the battle against hunger and poverty because there are Caribbean countries which have succeeded in significantly reducing hunger by moving from being net food importers to exporters. "This means that we know what to do and how to do it in order to overcome all the challenges and ensure a food-secure Caribbean region."
The conference discussed rising food prices, which has been taking place simultaneously with decreasing levels of food availability and declining agriculture production, as they are presenting major challenges to Caribbean agriculture and the development of rural spaces. These issues were studied in a report by Food and Agriculture Organisation Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the analysis of global food situation. That report indicated that the availability of food is expected to worsen with time, as demand is outstripping supply and production is down.