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UN chief calls for steps to address food crisis
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-02 00:48 BEIJING -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called on the international community to take urgent steps to address the global food crisis. Ban said in a speech at the China Foreign Affairs University that the pledges of world leaders earlier this month of 6 billion dollars in emergency aid to feed the poorest and to develop long-term solutions to the crisis must be reflected in immediate food assistance, as well as seed, fertilizer and irrigation for smallholder farmers in countries worst affected. He said that at a time of high energy and transportation costs, food production needed to be boosted in areas of hunger. "We must also support the world's farmers by removing export restrictions and levies on food commodities, in particular those procured for humanitarian purposes, and cut agricultural subsidies in developed countries to free new resources for agricultural investment in low income, food insecure countries," he said. EMISSION CUT He added that increased food production required enhanced efforts to combat climate change, as rising temperatures were changing weather patterns, eroding soil and drying up water systems. Global warming was also expanding the habitat of mosquitoes, widening the transmission of tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. "If farmers are confined to sick beds, agricultural yields will continue to stagnate," he said. He called for the "collective efforts" of all countries to address the three linked challenges facing the world: food and fuel prices; climate change; and the quest to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the deadline of 2015. |
