A number of Latin American countries have accused the UN food summit in Rome of incorrectly diagnosing the root causes of a crisis threatening millions with starvation, but stopped short of torpedoing the event. Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina were the strongest critics of a final declaration approved by the summit of 183 countries.
It was passed without their support only after hours of protests by delegates. In their final declaration, the countries have undertaken to halve global hunger by 2015. They also agreed that food must not be used as a political or economic weapon.
 Press Conference held by WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, (photo © FAO/Alessandra Benedetti) |
A member of the Venezuelan delegation said developing countries needed to be able to shield their markets from free trade when necessary, including when facing a dangerous influx of foreign imports that could devastate local industry. Venezuela's ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which hosted the event, questioned why the poor countries in Africa and elsewhere supported the declaration.
The huge costs of subsidies
Most Ghanian farmers are smallholders, producing around subsistence level. If the market for agricultural products would be entirely open those small farmers would be swept away by more productive and more efficient producers from western and Asian countries.
During the conference European and US agricultural policy has been accused of 'intolerable protectionism' of their markets by subsidising their farmers. According to the British International Development Secretary, rich countries subsidise their agriculture with $1 billion a day, costing poor farmers in developing countries an estimated $100 billion a year in lost income.
'Careful with liberalisation'
The liberalisation of markets also appears to be a problem for India, one of the biggest and most rapidly growing producers and consumers in the world. Ravi Srivastava, Professor of Economics in New Delhi has strong opinions on shielding the Indian agricultural sector against dumping of western agricultural products and the influence of western companies:
"We have to be very careful when we talk about liberalisation. Developed countries have very substantial subsidies in the agricultural sector, and the agricultural trading sector is very oligopolistic in structure."
Green revolution
Both critiques on the liberalisation of markets however, agree with the end declaration of the Summit concerning the rejuvenation of the agricultural sector in developing countries. Ban Ki-moon estimated that a 10-13 billion euros a year is needed in the coming years to raise productivity considerably. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), headed by former UN general secretary Kofi Annan, is the embodiment of this opinion.
It's feared that the food crisis will push an additional 100 million people into hunger, added to the group of 850 million already affected by food shortage. The United Nations World Food Program announced during the conference an additional 0.77 billion euros of food assistance to help those hardest hit by the high food prices.
Tags: 2015, Argentina, Cuba, food, hunger, Rome, summit, UN, Venezuela