Researchers vow to work for the poor

JAKARTA (JP): A group of international agricultural scientists, acknowledging the difficulty of maintaining the current levels of food crop yields, has agreed to prioritize its research programs on ensuring food security for the poor.

Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Ismail Serageldin told a press conference here yesterday that CGIAR members are aware that the world's increasing population and the stable level of food stocks have raised questions on whether current food productivity levels can meet rising demand.

"I don't know whether we can expect food prices to go down, but this is needed for the poor. This is the purpose of CGIAR... and if we don't start (research) now, when will we start?" Serageldin said.

The CGIAR, the world's largest international research consortium for agriculture, ended its four-day mid-term meeting yesterday after its members agreed to focus more on poverty alleviation, food security and conservation of the environment towards the year 2000.

He added that maintaining current food yields and prices is already difficult enough. It will be even harder to increase the yields to bring prices down to levels which are affordable to the poor.

Serageldin, who is also vice president of the World Bank's program for environmentally sustainable development, noted that presently some 800 million people -- half of whom are in Asia -- are still poor, most of them suffering from hunger and malnutrition.

CGIAR's research programs are aimed at developing more sustainable and productive cultivation of basic food crops such as grains, roots, tubers and legumes.

These crops form the bulk of poor people's diets and, overall, account for 75 percent of the calorie and protein intake in developing countries.

CGIAR consists of 52 member countries, with representatives coming from both governments and private sectors. The group, established 25 years ago, is jointly sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Development Program, the UN Environment Program and the World Bank.

CGIAR presently oversees 17 research agencies, including the Bogor, West Java-based Center for International Forestry Research, the International Rice Research Institute and the International Center for Research in Agro-forestry. (pwn)