Malaysia: Expedite FAO Reforms To Overcome World Hunger

Rome, Italy | November 20, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

The Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia as chairman of the D8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, was commited to achieve the Kuala Lumpur Initiative of strengthening collaboration in production and distribution of quality agriculture inputs

The Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has urged that reforms in the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) be hastened to overcome hunger in the world, which is now affecting more than one billion people.

He said a reformed FAO was very much required to be effective to also improve global food security, as reported by Malaysian News Agency, BERNAMA.

“We must be bold to be critical and to take corrective action swiftly. Although the FAO’s reform process has started, progress is slow and results are still not visible,” he said when addressing the World Summit on Food Security here Tuesday.

Muhyiddin was joined by more than 60 heads of state and government in the three-day global summit starting Monday, aimed at pushing for a new momentum to eradicate hunger affecting 1.02 billion people.

Also present was Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar.

Muhyiddin also said rich nations were socially and morally responsible to help poor countries expand and improve their food production.

“They must also assist them to improve production and supply chain efficiency because it’s a collective responsibility of the global community,” he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that there was a need to set up a global trading system that was fair and pro-poor to ensure food security for all.

He said developed countries must reduce and eliminate their huge farm subsidies and distorted support that was displacing production in the developing countries.

He said to increase farm incomes, investments by rich nations in agriculture on a long-term basis was equally important.

“However poor countries with scarce financial resources are unable to commit sufficient funds to increase investments. Therefore a proposal to strengthen investment in agriculture in poor countries must be packaged with access and availability of funds.

“International financial institutions must also commit a higher amount of funds to finance investment in agriculture in developing nations,” he added.

In this respect, Muhyiddin said Malaysia welcomed the G8 L’Aquila Joint Statement of the Global Food Security in July this year, which called for the mobilisation of USD20 billion to allow small-scale farmers to increase the production.

However, he said these pledges must be quickly translated into actual disbursements to developing countries to increase their food productions.

He said the FAO must also ensure that the world shared technology and techincal expertise in agriculture that could assist poor countries increase their yields and cropping intensity.

“Countries which have the wealth of knowledge and the technology must be magnanimous to transfer technology to countries which lack technical expertise,” he said.

He said to increase agriculture production, farmers must also be assured of access to quality inputs.

To achieve this, he said Malaysia as chairman of the D8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, was commited to achieve the Kuala Lumpur Initiative of strengthening collaboration in production and distribution of quality agriculture inputs especially for seed, animal feed and fertilisers to increase food production and productivity.

To overcome the effects of climate change, Muhyiddin suggested that developed countries must make firm commitment to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions to tackle increasing global temperature.

“Malaysia is fully commited to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to eradicate hunger and poverty. We have invested much to improve the infrastructure in the agricultural sector to increase food production,” he added.

*To download full speech please click here: Malaysia Country Statement at FAO World Summit

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