FAO warns hunger still stalks Asia<\/p>\n
By Rene Pastor<\/p>\n
MANILA (Reuter): The fastest-growing economies of Asia are
\ncrisscrossed by inequalities, leaving millions in hunger and
\ndeprivation, the director-general of the United Nations Food and
\nAgriculture Organization said on Monday.<\/p>\n
He warned more must be done to boost food production.<\/p>\n
"Despite your achievements, the region is criss-crossed by the
\nfaultlines of severe disparities," director-general Jacques Diouf
\nsaid in a speech at the opening of a five-day regional FAO
\nmeeting attended by 35 Asia-Pacific nations in Manila.<\/p>\n
The amount of arable land to fuel Asia's dynamic economies is
\nshrinking as cities expand rapidly, so that increasing farm
\nproduction is a daunting challenge, Diouf said.<\/p>\n
"The challenge of supporting more than half of the world's
\npopulation on 27 percent of its arable land is a formidable one
\nfor the region," said Diouf, a 56-year-old Senegalese diplomat
\nwho was elected director-general in November 1993.<\/p>\n
"Behind our statistics of growth, millions of our people
\ncontinue to succumb to hunger and poverty," Philippine President
\nFidel Ramos told the conference.<\/p>\n
The conference is preparatory to an FAO World Food Summit in
\nearly 1996, at which threats to food security and plans to
\nincrease food output up to the year 2010 will be studied.<\/p>\n
Diouf said the number of malnourished people in Asia had
\nfallen to 528 million people in 1990 from 751 million in 1971 as
\ngovernments around the region invested heavily in facilities to
\nboost agricultural production.<\/p>\n
The "Green Revolution" which sharply raised production of
\nmajor crops like rice, the staple food for much of the region,
\nhas helped staved off hunger, Diouf asserted.<\/p>\n
Food security in Asia has improved vastly since 1974 when
\ndoubts were expressed openly at the region's ability to feed its
\nburgeoning population.<\/p>\n
But millions still go hungry in south Asia and elsewhere, with
\nhundreds of thousands of people crowding into upland areas or
\nfragile coastal regions that cannot support them for long, Diouf
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Livestock development, the use of biotechnology, and a
\nstrengthening of implementation skills will be crucial in heading
\noff any threats to food security, he said.<\/p>\n
"Realism demands that we address the issue of genetic
\nresources, not in fragments but for all interlocking components
\nin food and agriculture," the FAO director-general said.<\/p>",
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