Reducing global hunger by half in 2015 still possible

THE Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the world’s 1.020 billion undernourished people by half between now and 2015 is still possible.

This was revealed by Dr. William Dar, director general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat), last week in a three-day international conference on Eliminating Hunger and Poverty: Priorities in Global Agricultural Research and Development Agenda in an Era of Climate Change and Rising Food Prices in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

The seminar was organized to mark the 85th birthday of Dr. MS Swaminathan, the acknowledged father of India’s Green Revolution.

Dr. Dar said the MDG target could still be attained if the “business as usual” approach is replaced by a new strategy to fight hunger, which is inclusive of poor women and children.

This strategy, which Icrisat coined as IMOD (inclusive market-oriented development), is a dynamic progression of smallholder farmers from a subsistence level toward market-oriented agriculture.

Studies of the World Bank and Icrisat have shown that dryland poverty rates in Asia are declining compared with that of sub-Saharan Africa as emerging Asian urban markets absorb farm produce as opposed to their African counterparts.

“Icrisat recognizes that market benefits are mainly captured by men, so we must be proactive to ensure that it includes women and children,” Dar, a Filipino who was the former secretary of the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture, said.

He suggested that women form groups that could gain access to land similar to the Market Garden cooperatives in West Africa, where women produce vegetables with the help of water-conserving drip irrigation.

Setting up a five-point agenda for policymakers to bring down the number of malnourished people, he called for higher investments in agricultural research and extension; bringing in new players, such as the private sector, philanthropic organizations and development investors to invest in agriculture; adopting a country-led bottom-up approach; adding to decision-makers information by policy experiments and pilot projects; and fulfilling commitments made to enhance food security.

Lauding Dr. Swaminthan’s efforts in harnessing science as a tool to alleviate poverty in the world, Dr. Dar termed the former as a visionary, eminent policymaker and an inspiring leader who played a pivotal role in bringing Icrisat to India.

At the same time, Dar called for the use of basic science in developing plants that could adapt to drought.

“Being experts in the area of plant nutrition, you are well aware of its intricacies and importance in sustainable food production. Your work in plant nutrition is so critical and important because of the need to ensure food for the more than 6 billion people on earth today,” said Dar, who is also the chairman of the first International Conference on Plant Nutrition (ICPN 2010) organizing committee.

He also urged Dr. Maarten Chrispeels, professor emeritus of Biology at the University of California, San Diego in the US, who received the ICPN 2010 award for his work on Aquaporins (proteins embedded in the cell membrane that regulate the flow of water), to help Icrisat in increasing productivity of dryland crops under global warming.

Earlier, in his speech on “Soil Health and Plant Nutrition: Critical Drivers for Food Security,” Dar pointed out that merely finding scientific solutions to problems of soil health and nutrition will not help until the knowledge is made available to billions of smallholder and marginal farmers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in a cost-effective manner.

“How else will they handle balanced plant nutrition on their farms? Unless scientists and change agents work with farmers, they will not be able to fully appreciate their problems,” Dar said.

KS Raju, chairman and managing director of Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. and chairman of Fertilizer Association of India and who was the chief guest for the inaugural session, also urged scientists to deliberate on providing nutrition to farm animals, since this adds to the welfare of the smallholder farmer.

Dar said the roadblocks are not at the level of scientific solutions but at the delivery and operational levels. Once the evidence and solutions are in place, convincing policymakers to come out with appropriate policies for sustainable development is critical, he said.

The conference, held at the Icrisat headquarters in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India, attracted 200 delegates from across the globe. ICPN 2010 is focusing on contemporary issues, such as molecular plant nutrition, plant nutriomics, integrated plant nutrition, custom plant nutrition, environment pollution caused by plant nutrition, and policies for effective plant nutrition. The conference was organized by Icrisat and Infinitus Agri. –Businessworld