Brussels, 23/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The international conference “Food for everyone - Towards a global deal”, held on Monday 23 May by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), sent a clear message to the decision-makers of the G20: in order to secure food for the world's constantly growing population, smarter long-term investment in agriculture is needed, particularly in the developing countries.
Staffan Nilsson, the president of the EESC, said: “Food security concerns us all (…). We simply cannot afford a new agriculture crisis in global markets. We need stronger political will to enable farmers to earn sufficient income and to strengthen small-scale farmers' capacity to organise themselves more effectively. Investment in sustainable and inclusive agriculture is investment in the future. And let's not forget that at global scale, the most typical farmer is a woman”.
Price volatility, climate change, demographic pressures, scarcity of water and land resources, lack of transparent information on markets are just some of the threats to global food security. New international dynamics are needed for agricultural development. The EU, too, must again include agriculture in its development policies and agenda.
Dacian Ciolos, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, said that “agriculture must return to the fore of the development programme and its main aim must be to increase global production capacity by creating conditions which are favourable to public and private investment in favour of farmers across the planet”. Ciolos said that he hoped that the discussions of the G20 would create a “roadmap to rethink the inter-relations between the agriculture systems of the world”. The G20 must “create a new international agricultural dynamic and set the tone”. The Commissioner argued that this dynamic must be based on four elements: strong agriculture policies, transparency on the markets, well thought-out trade and support for development. On the last of these, he spoke of the need for “new ambition for policies to support development”. “I am talking about support for development rather than aid, because I am firmly of the opinion that we should be facilitators, accompaniers of local initiatives, rather than prescribers, arriving with ready-made solutions”, Ciolos commented in his speech to the EESC (our translation throughout). He explained that the five pillars of the future development policy are: - looking for added value; - structuring local agriculture systems around solid producer organisations; - investing knowledge and knowledge transfers in agriculture; - boosting rural development policies and improving the quality of life in rural areas; - proper global governance of agriculture, with great involvement of large donors and an international organisation, the FAO, which is up to the task in hand.
Jean-Marc Bournigal, the head of the private office of French Minister for Agriculture Bruno Le Maire, stressed at a press conference that France had decided to put agriculture and the price volatility of agricultural raw materials “at the heart of the concerns of the G20”. In Paris on 22 and 23 June, the French minister will meet the agriculture ministers of the G20 to determine their response to the agriculture challenges.
Five main issues will dominate the debates, Bournigal explained: - 1) the increase of agricultural production “has a global consensus”. In order to do this, private and public investment must be relaunched. Better use must be made of research and innovation to develop projects, particularly those in favour of the developing countries; - 2) transparency: there must be improved viability of data (on stock levels) and existing data must be used more intelligently (there should be greater harmonisation to improve the pooling of information), in this area, the plan is to create an information system on the agricultural markets, as already exists for oil; - 3) international coordination: in recent food crises, all concerned were able to manage the situation “locally, but we live in a world in which everything is linked. We feel that there should be a place to show the general public that the international community makes decisions when tensions on the agricultural markets are threatening producers and consumers”, Bournigal explained - the idea would be to create a rapid response forum within the framework of the FAO to improve international coordination; - 4) financial regulation: “It is vital to create a framework for excessive speculation on the financial markets. Europe is working on this, with the revision of the directives on the financial markets, and the US has done a lot of work on this”, said Bournigal; - 5) tackling volatility to protect farmers in vulnerable countries (hedging instruments): the World Bank is working on various tools to help the governments and producer organisations to cover themselves against risks; the G20 has called on the international organisations to make proposals “for a system of humanitarian reserves already in places in the most vulnerable areas”; work should also be done on creating a framework and limitations on exports in favour of food aid.
Answering questions from the press, Ciolos said about the work to limit excessive price volatility that there should be more information and data in order to be able to predict things better. The Commission is in the process of improving its information and data collection systems to analyse them and make them available to farmers. In the dairy sector, the EU is working on the possibility for farmers and processors to negotiate prices together, “which presupposes that we have information on the market, to be able to adapt production and prices on the basis of the markets”, said the Commissioner. Action must be at international level, because some regions with a role to play in international trade do not have these data on the market or do not share them. There should also be a minimum level of framework for derivative products on the financial markets, the Commissioner said. “If this speculation is not accompanied by greater transparency, we will not get the investment we want in agriculture”, Ciolos concluded.
The conclusions drawn from the conference by the president of the EESC will be presented in the form of recommendations to the French Presidency of the G20. (L.C./transl.fl)