MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) - On February 24-26, the World Agricultural Forum (WAF) will take place in Uganda's capital Kampala.
It is going to discuss what to do about agriculture to enable it to feed the whole of humanity rather than its minority.
This is the first time the forum is convened in Africa. It used to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, where its headquarters is located. Missouri is part of America's agricultural belt, and plays host to the headquarters of several major American agro corporations. The WAF is a young organization, and its activities are somewhat ambiguous. It was established in 1998. Out of 192 UN members, 110 countries, including Russia, regularly take part in its work. Its meetings are attended by heads of state and government, politicians, ministries, scientists, and experts from the most diverse spheres with any link to agriculture, journalists, and leaders of the biggest national and transnational corporations. The WAF can be called the agricultural Davos. Like Davos, it does not make any binding decisions. It is rather a discussion club.
Hunger remains a major problem. Despite all meetings and summits, the world's advanced nations prefer not to notice it. As before, it is rampant on "the outskirts." In UN estimate, since the 2007 Rome summit on food security, the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition has risen from 850 million to about 970 million. Now the problem will be aggravated by the banking crisis and shortage of loans.
Until now the gist of the orthodox view was as follows: The idea that developing nations should feed themselves is obsolete; the best way to ensure their food security is by importing cheap American and European agricultural products. It did not do any good for Africa and Asia but made them totally dependent on these food imports. Now the authors of this idea are trying to resolve the problem. Experts of the UN program International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development are warning that world agriculture needs capital repairs, a complete change in trade in food products, and a change in the pattern of subsidizing agricultural production.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
