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IFA, FAO agree fertilizers are vital to meet global food needs
3 April 2003, Paris
During a discussion on good agricultural practices, a number of governments attending the current session of the Committee on Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Tuesday in Rome emphasized the importance of fertilizers to improve global food security.
The FAO Secretariat repeated the need for greater fertilizer use in many developing countries, a recurring theme at last week's conference "Global Food Security and the Role of Sustainable Fertilization", which was jointly organized by FAO and the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA).
The depletion of nutrient stocks in the soil, which is occurring in many developing countries, is a major but often hidden form of land degradation, making agricultural production unsustainable. This problem was highlighted at last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
A number of policy recommendations and considerations emerged from the joint conference and were transmitted to FAO's Committee on Agriculture this week.
Policy Recommendations and Considerations
Partnerships Are Vital to End Hunger
- The campaign to eradicate poverty and hunger is a joint effort shared by public and private institutions: No one can do it alone. This presents a new challenge for the international community: how to work effectively in public-private partnerships.
- For some 30 years, the FAO and the fertilizer industry worked together to improve farmers' access to and knowledge about agricultural inputs. Unfortunately the agricultural community in developing countries no longer enjoys this same level of support. Now is the time to complete this unfinished work.
- Farmers should have the opportunity to formulate their own needs for academic research, product development and extension services, as well as participating in the evaluation and priority-setting in these areas. The academic, R&D and extension communities, in turn, need to cooperate more closely.
- In Africa, governments should create an enabling environment for farmers to invest in their soils and for the private sector to invest in market development. Greater regional cooperation would facilitate this process.
Opportunities to Improve Human Nutrition
- Government policies should move beyond productivity to look at nutrient output as a key goal if malnutrition is to be eliminated as well as hunger. This includes agricultural policies to foster the production of crops rich in a wide variety of nutrients as well as the effect of other policies, such as trade, on the nutrient content of available foods.
Soil Mining Threatens Food Security
- Ongoing soil mining and expansion into fragile ecosystems continue to degrade soils and reduce agricultural productivity in many developing countries, especially in Africa. To help farmers access the necessary plant nutrients, investments in rural infrastructure and institutional innovation are paramount.
- Proper management of nutrients and land resources is essential for meeting the World Food Summit goals and for promoting sustainable soil fertility practices, as mentioned in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Knowledge and Technology for Food Security
- Improving both access to fertilizers and crop response to fertilizers is imperative for food insecure farmers in many developing countries. The challenge is to help farmers get the maximum benefit possible from fertilizers through improved management practices that include all sources of nutrients and innovative technologies.
- In order to achieve food security, farmers – in particular women farmers in Africa – need secure access to natural resources, appropriate inputs and support services and markets.
- To increase opportunities for sustainable food development, a greater investment is needed in effective research attuned to the education and economic reality of farmers. The public and private sectors both have an important role to play, but it is essential that information be shared between these two research streams to make each more effective.
- The efficient management of plant nutrients and nutrient cycling, soil conservation practices, restoration of nutrient-depleted soils and the identification of plant genotypes that tolerate abiotic stresses, including nutrient deficiencies, toxicities or drought warrant greater research efforts.
FAO and IFA held this conference from 26 to 28 March as a practical follow-up to recent key political meetings, including the World Food Summit (1996), the Millennium Summit (2000), the World Food Summit: five years later (2002) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002).
Key speakers included FAO Deputy Director-General David Harcharik; Wladimir Puggina, President of IFA and President/CEO of Fertibras SA (Brazil); Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize Laureate; Henk Mathot, President, Cargill Crop Nutrition; Louise Fresco, Assistant Director-General, FAO; Christian Bonte-Friedheim, Humbolt University, formerly FAO and International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), William Doyle, President and CEO, PotashCorp.
Outcomes of the conference are available by contacting:
International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) at fax +33 1 53 93 05 47 or e-mail pheffer@fertilizer.org
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at fax (+39) 06 570 56275 or e-mail jan.poulisse@fao.org.
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