Have we succeeded in eliminating extreme hunger and poverty?

World Food Day 2007 - 'Right to Food':

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Every year, World Food Day (WFD) is celebrated on October 16 with around 150 countries celebrating it each year under a theme aiming at an area of common focus. This year's theme being Right to Food, the focus is on eliminating extreme hunger and poverty.

It has been found out that hunger is not caused merely by the fact of non-availability of food but, by and large the inability to purchase food due to poverty. 'Right to Food' has been recognised as a human right by the international community and renewed efforts are being made by Governments to encourage investments in agriculture in order to eradicate extreme poverty and resultant hunger.

World Food Day also commemorates the founding of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945. As the 'Right to Food' is interlinked with human rights including right to education and healthcare, concrete measures have to be taken by Governments to address issues concerning poverty and disparity in income distribution in order to narrow the urban-rural development gap.

This fact is further emphasised by commitments made by nation's states on previous on WFD. In 1996, at the World Food Summit Heads of the States committed to promotion of investments in the agricultural sector with the aim of reducing half the number of hungry people by 2015.

It has been found out that seventy per cent of the world's hungry people live in rural areas and by and large depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

One of the significant features of the this years WFD is that it comes at a time that Sri Lanka launched a National Drive for Promoting Local Food Production.

Food Security vital

Given the volatile climatic conditions and global warming, the option of importing food, especially essential food items would not be possible, in case of scarcity of food in the exporting destination or soaring prices due to the same reason. In both cases, the country importing food items depends solely on imports for its domestic consumption will suffer, perhaps, creating a crisis in the economy.

In fact, none of the developed countries has neglected the food security. Although the percentage of population engaged in agriculture may be smaller than in some of the developing counties, still the farmers produce enough food to feed the population and sometimes, excess for export.

A right to food encompasses some important aspects of food security such as availability, access, stability and utilization with concern for human dignity. Accessibility to food can only be improved through fair distribution of income.

This specially affects the poorest of the poor in rural sector. In order to achieve food security, large scale investment is needed in the agricultural sector generating much-needed employment opportunities in the rural sector.

Considering the present situation in Sri Lanka, it is imperative for Sri Lanka to deviate from some food habits such as over reliance on imported food items like wheat flour in order to achieve food security.

The World Food Day should not be allowed to pass as any other day of significance as it is the day that the nation should resolve, at least, to achieve food security, perhaps, through a national drive for local food production.

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