Indonesia is encouraging its 240 million population to diversify from their heavy rice diet as the country is vulnerable to food crises. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)
Addis Ababa. Leaders and experts declared food security a global policy priority at an international conference in the Ethiopian capital that concluded on Saturday, as climate change, natural disasters and humanitarian crises take their toll on agriculture.
The conference “Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security,” brought together at least 140 speakers and 800 participants from developing countries to address the impacts of climate change, natural disasters and humanitarian crises, such as civil war, on food security.
“It is poor regions that will suffer the most [from climate change, however] they don’t have resources, capacity and access [to cope with the impacts].” said Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which hosted the event.
Fan suggested a three-pronged approach to dealing with these impacts.
“We need new technologies that can reduce [the use of] water or less water [in agriculture] and at the same time we also need new types of technology that can increase nutrition. So it’s not just about increasing productivity but also increasing its nutrition,” he said.
“Second, [we need] policy innovation, for instance to lift water subsidies in certain developing countries as it might push for more efficiency.
“And, three, open, fair and transparent trade, especially when food prices increase. Don’t protect the food, meaning not selling the food, and starving your neighbors.”
Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), shared the similar ideas and pushed for government implementation of policy, especially in Africa and other developing nations.
“During the 2011 drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, the impact in Ethiopia was limited compared to the horror stories of the 1980s. How did this happen? Leadership and government policies that addressed macroeconomic issues and ensured investment in drought preparedness and smallholder farmers,” Nwanze said in his keynote address.
He added that Ethiopia had become the fastest-growing non-oil economy in Africa, with annual economic growth of about 10 percent.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that unrelated policy decisions and shocks could wreak havoc on the global and local food systems.
“Climate change and extreme weather events pose the greatest challenge to food production and productivity. While every effort should be spent in preventing as many of the shocks as possible,” he said.
He added that his country, which has been subject to severe and repeated droughts, needed to bolster its economic, social and political systems.
“For us, anticipating, adapting to and recovering from shocks are essential to our future,” Desalegn said.
Ethiopia, as the host country, has previously struggled to ensure an adequate supply of food for its citizens, with the famine of 1983-85 leaving an estimated 400,000 dead. Learning from the experience, the country has invested heavily in the agriculture sector, committing up to 15 percent of its annual budget, the highest rate in Africa. Today, agriculture accounts for about half of Ethiopia’s GDP and 80 percent of jobs in the country.
Food resilience in Indonesia
Compared to Ethiopia, Indonesia has proven more resilient when it comes to food security, although there is room for improvements.
Tahlim Sudaryanto, the assistant minister for international cooperation at the Agriculture Ministry, said the government, needed to improve food quality.
“Our production and consumption are safe, but in terms of quality, we still need to tackle nutrition issues.”
Tahlim said efforts must also be made to maintain food security in light of the wide range of natural disaster threats that Indonesia constantly faces, including tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and drought, in addition to climate change threats.
“We still need more initiatives to improve our adaptation,” Sudaryanto said. “We need to address these impacts because if we are late to tackle them then they will [lead to] decreasing nutrition levels.”
Handewi Saliem, the director of the Agriculture Ministry’s Indonesian Center for Agricultural, Socioeconomic and Policy Studies, said a major factor in achieving Indonesia’s food resilience was the amount of land available for growing food crops.
“We are running out of land for agriculture because most of the land is being used for housing and infrastructure,” she said. “Even if there are regulations ensuring these lands should not be used for other uses, it is still difficult because the authority is now in the hands of local government.”
She added that existing agricultural lands were facing degradation because of overuse and the excessive use of chemical fertilizers.
“In Brazil, they have lands specifically for soya only, for instance. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, in a small area of land they can plant three different crops. That affects the quality of the soil, especially when they are using lots of fertilizer,” Saliem said.
The post Food Security a Priority for Poorer Regions: Leaders appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.