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RAP publication 2002/ 26

Water:source of food security

2002 World Food DayBangkok, 14 October 2002

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONSRegional Office for Asia and the Pacific

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The designations employed and the presentation of the material inthis publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatso-

ever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory,city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of itsfrontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed in the articles by

contributing authors are not necessarily those of FAO.

FOR COPIES PLEASE WRITE TO:

Information OfficerFAO Regional Office for Asia and the PacificMaliwan mansion, 39 Phra Atit RoadBangkok 10200, ThailandE-mail: FAO-RAP@fao.org

BangkokNovember 2002

© FAO, 2002

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able of contents

Page

World Food Day theme 4

Address by Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand 6

Message of the FAO Director-General 7

Statement by Changchui He 8FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific

Water: source of food security, by Y.K. Alagh 10

Outstanding farmers 16

Annexes

Annex 1 - Media coverage 20

Annex 2 - List of guests 24

Annex 3 - Organizing secretariat 26

Annex 4 - Publications distributed 27

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Water:source of food security2002 World Food Day/TeleFood theme

Each year on 16 October, theFood and Agriculture Organiza-tion of the United Nationscelebrates World Food Day —in commemoration of its found-ing on that day in 1945. TheWorld Food Day/TeleFoodtheme for this year, Water:Source of Food Security,recognizes the essential rolefreshwater plays in feeding theglobal population and ensuringfood security – having regularaccess to enough high-qualityfood to lead active, healthylives. Currently, more than 800million people do not haveenough to eat.

Limited access to water isincreasingly becoming a con-straint to food production. Watercovers three quarters of theEarth, but only a small fractionis accessible as freshwater. Ofthe total amount of waterwithdrawn, agriculture claimsalmost 70 percent to produce the

solution to meeting future foodand water needs is to improveagricultural productivity andwater use efficiency. By usingbetter seeds, boosting soilfertility and improving on-farmwater management, farmersproduce higher yields, obtainingthe greatest gains from preciouswater supplies.

food that fuels human activity.As population grows, so too willfood needs. FAO estimates thatby 2030, the world will require60 percent more food. About 80percent of that increase willcome from intensified agricul-ture supported by irrigation.

But water is already scarce inmany countries. An FAO studyof 93 developing countriesindicates that a number ofnations are already withdrawingwater supplies faster than theycan be renewed. Ten countriesare in a critical state meaningthey withdraw more than 40percent of their total waterresources for agriculture andanother eight are water stressed,withdrawing more than 20percent. At the same time, thecompetition for water fromindustrial and domestic userscontinues to grow.

FAO is convinced that the

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But even where water is plenti-ful, access to it is not alwaysequitable. For example, specialattention should be paid towomen, who represent themajority of the developingworld’s farmers yet are oftenexcluded by tradition fromowning land and managingwater.

Another concern is keepingwater use within limits, sothat use in one area doesn’tdeprive people of access inanother. Environmentalimpacts must also be kept toa minimum: while irrigatedagriculture can yield two tothree times as much as rain-fed lands, attention must bepaid to proper drainage inorder to prevent water-loggingand salinity build-up.

At the same time, agriculturemust compete for water withmunicipalities and industry.Currently, industry claims about20 percent of total water with-drawals and municipal users theremaining 10 percent. Agricul-ture will be under increasingpressure to use water moreefficiently and to improve thequality of the water that itreturns to watercourses andaquifers.

Improving irrigation efficiencywill also be vital. The mostcommon forms of irrigation –flood and sprinkler irrigation –can result in more water beingapplied than can be taken up bycrops. More efficient andlocalized methods such as dripirrigation, which put water onlywhere it’s needed, can signifi-cantly reduce agricultural waterdemand. Rain-fed agriculturebenefits from agriculturalpractices adapted to uncertainwater availability. By construct-

ing water harvesting structuresranging from small furrows todams, farmers can conserverainwater and direct it to crops.This practice can boost yieldtwo to three times over conven-tional farming.

Policies and strategies to guideagricultural water use areneeded on the international,national and local level. Andwhen major sources of watercross borders, internationalagreements help to regulate howmuch water is allocated to eachcountry or region. At the sametime, existing local traditions ofwater management and accessneed to be respected and incor-porated into policies andsupporting legislation.

To back up new water policies,investment is required. Nationalgovernments will need toestablishthe condi-tions toattract suchinvestment.Innovativeforms ofcredit willhelp thepoor to takeadvantageof improvedwatermanage-

ment techniques.

Water is one of the most press-ing issues in development today.The choice of this year’s WorldFood Day/TeleFood theme,Water: Source of food secu-

rity, serves as a call togovernments, civil societyand the internationalcommunity to recognize theimportance of water inachieving food security.World Food Day andTeleFood activities aroundthe globe will help todeliver this importantmessage about water whilepromoting the overallobjective of this annualevent: to raise awarenessabout the problem of

hunger and to work towardslong-term solutions to guaranteefood for all.

FAO looks forward to com-memorating the upcomingInternational Year of Freshwaterin 2003. And FAO will bepresent at the 3rd World WaterForum in Japan next year whereit will deliver this message: Wecan find enough water to feedthe world, but we must pool ourresources and strengthen ourcommitment to improve watermanagement for agriculturalproduction.

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It gives me great pleasure to joinall of you today in the 2002regional celebration of WorldFood Day in Bangkok. This is aspecial occasion for FAO andThailand also because this yearmarks the 50th anniversary of theestablishment of the FAO Asia-Pacific office in Bangkok.Thailand is most honoured tocontinue hosting the FAOregional office, and fully awarethat FAO has been guiding andassisting countries in the regionto fight hunger and poverty forthe past half a century.

The theme of this year’s WorldFood Day Water, source of foodsecurity is especially relevantand of the highest importancefor Thailand’s future agricul-tural development.

Despite rapid industrializationand development of servicesover the past decades,Thailand’s economy is stilllargely based on agriculture,which employs 60 percent ofour people. Agricultural devel-opment is the highest among ournational priorities, not only forensuring sufficient food for all,but also for creating ruralemployment and thus helpingfight poverty which is the maincause of hunger.

It is a well known fact thatbesides fertile land, water is thekey agricultural resource thatenables Thailand to continueproducing farm surpluses forexport, in particular rice, whichis an important foreign ex-change earner.

Although Thailand as a whole isblessed with ample water resources,the geographical distribution ofwater is uneven. In particular, theNortheast of Thailand known asIsaan faces a serious water shortagewith long dry spells even during themonsoon, resulting in low cropyields and less income for farmers.

Agricultural and rural develop-ment programmes initiated byThai government now and in thepast have emphasized thedevelopment of water resourcesand practically eliminatedmalnutrition from the country.Thailand’s water resourcesdevelopment budget has steadilyincreased and presently absorbsa large amount of the nationalbudget for development.

Thailand has also benefitedgreatly from the wisdom andguidance of His Majesty theKing who has always recog-nized the importance of water inthe life of the people.

His “New Theory” on landmanagement and developmentof water resources for agricul-tural purposes has been ofimmense value in promotingsustainable farming practices.He advised farmers in droughtprone regions to reserve 30percent of their land for theconstruction of farm ponds tostore rain water for use duringdry spells. This has broughtsignificant increases in cropyields and incomes to farmers ina number of Royal Projectswhere this theory was applied.

As in most countries of theworld, agriculture is the highestconsumer of water in Thailand,with a present share of morethan 70 percent. Growingdemand from other sectors suchas industry, tourism and domes-tic use, together with an expan-sion of irrigated land, meansthat there will be less wateravailable per unit of land infuture.

This should not cause majorproblems if water is used moreefficiently. We have to establishand enforce incentives, regula-tions and penalties that will guideand convince farmers to makemore rational and equitable use ofthis precious resource.

Thailand is furthermore going torestructure its agricultural sectoras a whole using a US$600million loan from the AsianDevelopment Bank to finance,among others, several projectsto improve our irrigationsystems, including a restructur-ing of the Royal IrrigationDepartment.

We are also very grateful toFAO for providing us withtechnical assistance in theformulation of a World Bank-funded project on naturalresources management as wellas in providingtraining for Royal IrrigationDepartment staff in participa-tory irrigation management,legal aspects of water userassociations, water use rights,strategic planning, monitoringand evaluation.

This year’s World Food Day hasprovided us with anotheropportunity to reaffirm ourcommitment and political will tothe fight against hunger. As partof our efforts to alleviatepoverty and achieve higher andsustainable agricultural produc-tion, Thailand established anational water vision in 1997which declares:

“By the year 2025, Thailand willhave sufficient water of goodquality for all users throughefficient management and anorganizational and legal systemthat will ensure equitable andsustainable use of water re-sources, with due considerationfor the quality of life and theparticipation of allstakeholders.”

We are now going to translatethis vision into action and I amconfident that we will succeedin attaining our goal of foodsecurity for all.

Thank you.

ddress by HE Sora-at KlinpratoomMinister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, ThailandA

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More effective solidarity shouldcall on the cooperation of alldevelopment partners in resolv-ing potential conflicts andmobilizing financial resources.The conditions are also neededfor the economic managementand fair distribution of water.

Greater mobilization of civilsociety and farmers’ organiza-tions is fundamental if we are totackle the water crisis andfinally achieve our objective of‘Food for All’.

Closer monitoring is needed,especially in countries andregions that are affected bydrought, so that famine andconflict can be avoided.

Tomorrow’s world will haveenough water if we start manag-ing it prudently today.

That is the meaning of themessage of World Food Day:“Water: source of food secu-rity”.

Water is central to the survivalof humanity. It is a matter ofgreat concern to all, because alimited resource shared by agrowing population.

Water has political, economic,social and ecological implica-tions. But it is above all linkedto food, for 70 percent of theworld’s water resources are usedfor agriculture.

In a world with diminishingsupplies of drinking water, howare we to ensure that all havethe water they need to feedthemselves without harmingother sectors, without destroyingour environment?

This is first and foremost achallenge for agriculture. Theproduction chain must producemore with less water, and smallfarmers need to play a part.They must therefore be trainedand actively involved.

A new water policy is needed,with priority to solutions thatavoid waste.

essage of the FAO Director-GeneralJacques DioufM

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tatement by Changchui HeFAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific

On behalf of the Director-General of FAO Jacques Diouf,and on my own behalf, I havegreat pleasure in welcoming youall to the FAO Regional Officefor Asia and the Pacific for thecommemoration of World FoodDay 2002 which marks the 57th

birthday of FAO. It is also aspecial occasion for Thailandand the FAO regional office,which was established inBangkok 50 years ago.

This year’s World Food Daytheme, Water: source of foodsecurity states a well-knownfact. It also highlights what isnot so well known, namely, thatthe limited availability of waterfor agriculture is increasinglyaffecting the ability of theworld’s farms to produceenough food for a growingpopulation.

This is especially true of theAsia-Pacific region, whichaccounts for more than half ofthe world’s agricultural wateruse. Three-fourths of theworld’s farm population lives incountries in this region and, onaverage, the water availabilityfor agriculture in Asia and thePacific is one-sixth of that in therest of the world. Asia-Pacificfarms have to feed half of theworld’s population living in theregion, which includes two-thirds of the 800 million hungrypeople in the world.

Warnings of water scarcity maysound strange at a time whenlarge parts of our host countryThailand and other countries inAsia are affected by severefloods. But it is only a matter oftime before the floods recedeand soils become dry again. Thesuccessive floods and droughtsin the region show the unevendistribution of water through theyear, with most of the waterflow in the big rivers confinedto just a few months.

The WFD 2002 messageemphasizes that enough water isavailable to produce food for allif we learn to manage this finiteresource wisely and produce‘more crop per drop’. This is allthe more necessary because theuse of water by agriculture isfacing growing competitionfrom industrial and urbandomestic consumers.

This year’s WFD theme aims toincrease awareness amonggovernments, civil society andthe international community ofthis fact. Above all, it is a callfor strengthening politicalcommitment to ensure adequateinvestment, suitable policies,institutions and infrastructure toensure fair and equitable accessto as well as efficient use of thewater available for agriculture.

Declining national and donorsupport to development of waterresources is a cause for concern.We at FAO estimate that irriga-tion needs about one-third of theUS$30.7 billion additionalannual investment required inagriculture in developing countriesto ensure food security.

We have to introduce improvedtechnologies and farmingpractices, and train farmers tomanage and use water wisely,and help decision makers todevelop and enforce policiesthat encourage sustainable wateruse. We have to increase pro-ductivity of the region’s largerainfed areas and modernisewasteful water delivery andirrigation systems. Irrigatedagriculture will need to berethought. This will involve ashift from a supply-driven to ademand-responsive approach,with greater participation bywater users.

It is also a reminder to agricul-ture to shoulder its environmen-tal responsibilities much moreactively. Intensive agricultural

water use can result in large-scale environmental damage inthe form of water-logging andsalinization. Indiscriminate andimproper use of chemicalfertilizers and pesticides cancause irreparable damage tosurface and groundwaterreserves, leading to environmen-tal catastrophe.

The WFD theme reminds us ofthe close link between water andpolitics. This precious naturalresource is at the root of anumber of difficult internationaland intra-national water sharingdisputes in the region. FAO,through its technical coopera-tion programmes, is helpingensure fair and equitable accessto shared water resources.Policies and agreements to guideagricultural water use are asimportant at the international asat the national and local levels.

The choice of the WFD 2002theme by FAO supplements itsleadership role in the com-memoration of the UN’s Interna-tional Year of Mountains thisyear. More than half the world’spopulation relies on water thatoriginates from mountains, whichfor this reason are also known as‘water towers of the earth’. Asiaand the Pacific has the world’shighest peaks and some of theworld’s mightiest rivers emergefrom these mountains. Hence,sustainable management ofmountains and watersheds are ofparticular interest and impor-tance to this region.

The WFD theme is also closelylinked to the upcoming Interna-tional Year of Freshwater in2003 and the Third World WaterForum, to be held in Japan nextyear. We at FAO will continueto seek close partnership withinterested partners and variousstakeholders to play an impor-tant role.

Thank you

S

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There has in this decade beennew understanding in the area offood security to the effect thatthe agenda is not just grainproduction and targeted employ-ment and food distributionprogrammes for poorpopulations. Such programmeshave a role, but only as a part ofa strategy and a policy frame-work of widespread growth andincome generation and this mayalso in fact under fairly plausi-ble circumstances requirediversification away fromgrains. Land and water develop-ment programmes are a centralpart of this approach. Much ofthe discussion at Johannesburgand earlier at WFS+5 wasaround the findings by now wellknown that widespread agricul-tural growth based on sustain-able land and water develop-ment and management pro-grammes, has a dual effect: –food commodities becomeavailable at cheaper prices andsufficient and sustainableemployment and income isgenerated.

A large part of the poor andhungry segments of the workforce are low productivity foodproducers. Demarcation ofhunger zones – and targetedprogrammes – has to take thislager context into account. Thislarger context is the requirementof an explosion of small projectsof a sustainable kind on landand water development, diversi-

fied agricultural sub-economieson and of food, non-food cropsand non-crop based agriculturelike animal husbandry, fish, andtree crops and rural diversifica-tion possibilities. Markets,training for processing andtrade, and first stage processingare examples. Development ofnewer organisational systemswhich encourage fast replicationof success stories and creditreform are essentials, as alsomacro policy reform targeted atthe agricultural sector.

Developments at Johannesburghave seen a major improvementin the understanding of the newparadigms and concretisation ofthe partnership and financingarrangements for it. We tracethese developments and make aplea that the Asia-Pacific regionmust aim at policy convergenceto push these concrete agendasforward, so that water and foodsecurity targets are achieved.Otherwise flag waiving andslogans on environment will notreally push the SustainableDevelopment Agendas beyondRio and Rio was ten years ago.

Recent work with participativerural appraisal analysis suggeststhat the earning power of hungryhouseholds is related in asignificant manner with thedemographic status of thehousehold (hungry householdsmore often tend to be womenheaded or consist of disabled

workers) and health status of themembers of the household(morbidity significantly reduceseconomic status). On thepositive side, hungry householdsin rural areas showed consider-able dignity and desire toimprove their status. Thedemocratic policy was seen as afactor empowering them and infact there was considerableresistance in classifying them-selves as destitute or hungry.Food security policies have tobe embedded in more generalhuman security approaches.

A hunger removal programme,embedded in a food securitystrategy will have to be a part ofthe wider process of diversifica-tion of agriculture and largerexposure to trade. Sustainabilityconsiderations will also requirerelease of land from low produc-tivity cereals to more appropri-ate cropping sequences indifferent agro-climatic regimes.

There is evidence to suggest thatshort sighted policies at theinternational level are leading todiversification trends beingreversed by distorted tradepractices. This is strange sincetrade should normally hastendiversification and suggests thatmacro and trade reform needsstrategic synchronisation withthe poverty removal agenda.

ater: source of food securityKeynote speech by Y.K. Alagh

W

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Food prices, poverty, hungerand food security

An increase in food pricesmakes the poor relatively worseoff, as amongst others a classicIndian study by R.Radhakrishnain a framework of completedemand systems had shown inone of the earlier works of thistype. Such work using large datasets of time series of cross-sections of household budgetarystudies, led to the by now“conventional knowledge” thatfaster increase in food priceswould make the poor justifiablyfeel relatively more deprived.With food stocks, foreignexchange reserves, monitoringmethods and remedial policies,these trends can be avoided. [...]

In India, the present author wasthe chairman of the Alagh Taskforce that defined the povertynorm at 2400 Kcal per personfor rural areas and 2100 Kcalfor urban areas, or the povertyline, is anchored in a givencalorie norm and the corre-sponding all-India consumptionbasket for 1973-74. It alsodeveloped a procedure forupdating the poverty norm foryears for which householdconsumption surveys were notavailable. Based on demand andincome distribution studies doneby Radhakrishna and his associ-ates, the task force developedincome and price responses ofboth poor and rich householdsseparately in rural and urbanareas. This work started a

growth would be 7 percentannual in East Asia and 4.4percent in the Near East andNorth Africa, with the WestAsian (Near East) componentgrowing faster. Per capitaincome growth was 5.7 percentannual for East Asia. With thiskind of income growth therewas a shift of demand to non-cereal food items and commer-cial crops. Oilseed demand, forexample was to grow at 4.2percent annual in East Asia and4.1 percent annual in the NearEast and North Africa. Coun-tries projected to have highvolumes and growth of agricul-tural imports were Japan, HongKong, the Republic of Korea,Saudi Arabia, Singapore,Malaysia, Indonesia, the IslamicRepublic of Iran, Thailand,Kuwait and Oman. Thesecountries were estimated to belarge and growing markets forfruit and vegetables, meat andcountries like Japan and Korea,of fish. In fact up to the midnineties the agricultural importof each of these countries wasgrowing between 4 to 8 percentannual.

[...]

Studies by the InternationalFood Policy Research Institutesuggest that malnourishedchildren of age five years orbelow, in rural India are nowplaced at 250 million. The onlyrural area in Asia, where thisnumber is marginally exceededis China, where malnourishedchildren are placed at 266

tradition of econometric investi-gation which has continued(Table 1 below gives somerecent estimates.) This meantthat income supplementationand public distribution policiesworking through pricing anddual markets (an open marketand a rationing system) could beintegrated quantitatively intocommodity market and policyreform specifically aimed athouseholds below the povertyline. This was the beginning ofmarket based solutions to theproblem.

India and some other countries,notably the Arab Republic ofEgypt, adopted a system of dualpricing in respect of selectedgoods of mass consumption.The rationale of such a policy isderived from the fact that priceelasticity in respect of essentialcommodities - cereals, pulses,edible oils - is relatively higherfor persons below the povertyline both in urban and ruralareas. These kinds of policiesare now undergoing dramaticchanges in a phase of rapidgrowth, opening up of econo-mies to trade impulses anddiversification.

Agricultural growth anddiversification and foodsecurity

The diversification of theagricultural demand basketbecame a significant feature ofthe ESCAP economies from themid-eighties onwards. FAOprojected that up to 2010, GDP

Table 1Price elasticities: 1998

Commodity Rural UrbanPersons below Persons above Persons below Persons abovepoverty line poverty line poverty line poverty line

Cereals -0.530 -0.161 -0.430 -0.099Edible oils -0.794 -0.589 -0.799 -0.417Sugar -0.941 -0.800 -0.740 -0.294

Source: Ravi, C. (2001), Complete Demand System, Welfare and Nutrition: An Analysis of Indian Con-sumption Data, Phd dissertation, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad

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million. China and India arelarge countries and so theabsolute numbers are large, butsubstantial numbers are under-nourished in the rest of SouthAsia and also countries likeThailand, Indonesia, Malaysiaand the Philippines. These arealso all countries with a demon-strated capacity to grow grain.

[...]

However, grain growth willslow down more than in thepast. In fact livestock produc-tion grew by 4.3 percent inSouth Asia and generally thepattern is that non grain cropsgrow faster than grain crops andanimal husbandry and fish evenfaster. Diversification is thename of the game and incomesgrow fast in response to demandchanges. But it is not happeningfast enough. You need invest-ment in land and water and asthe Bangkok Declaration says,their is synergy in land andwater investment when it ismade together. You need reformand investment in rural infra-structure. This reform is moredifficult. [...]

More recently the East Asianslowdown seems to have led toa slowdown in the diversifica-tion of the agrarian economiesof the NIE’s and this is genu-inely worrying since IFPRImodels have conclusivelydemonstrated that without tradeand infrastructure reform thepoverty and food securityagenda will definitely get asetback. I have for this lecturedeveloped a simple indicator ofdiversification’ namely the

change in the index of livestockproduction in a country dividedby the index of agriculturalproduction. According to WorldDevelopment indicators, longterm annual GDP growth ratethrough 1997 was 6.9 percent,7.0 percent, 7.3 percent, 8.1percent for Indonesia, Malaysia,Thailand and the Republic ofKorea, respectively. In theperiod 1984 to 1994, the incre-mental livestock to agriculturalproduction ratio was 2.12, 2.18,2.59 and 2.56 respectively forthese countries. For those of youwho are economists thisemerges from the Engels Law.The GDP growth of thesecountries went down to 4.7percent, 2.9 percent, 0.3 percentand 4.4 percent and the incre-mental livestock to agriculturalproduction ratio went down tominus1.79, 1.01, minus 1.61 andminus 0.72 in these countries,from 1994 to 1999. On the otherhand countries like China andIndia which grew at around 8percent and 6 percent respec-tively since 1980 and where thegrowth did not decelerate, hadthe incremental livestock toagricultural production ratio of1.82 and 1.15 in the earlierperiod and 1.59 and 1.53 in thelater period suggesting that themomentum of diversificationand widespread agriculturalgrowth was kept up. Againdetailed data on vegetable andfruit production is available onlyfor the nineties, but the incre-mental vegetable to cerealproduction ratio is minus 1.14 inIndonesia, minus 2.58 in Malay-sia, minus 0.3 in Thailand and1.43 in South Korea from 1994to 1999. In fact since grain

export ishighlysubsidized inthe OECDcountriesthere arefurtherconstraintson diversifi-cation assome Asiancountries arealso grain

exporters. These are fairlyserious matters and highlight theimportance of macro policies ifpoverty removing agendas are tobe given priority.

Approaches such as that con-tained in Robert Wade’s wellknown World Politics Paper onEast Asia’s Economic Successand his famous justification of‘strategic trade theory’ is Ibelieve still relevant. Wade’spaper shows that it is a smallworld, since he begins and endshis paper with a reference to anIndian description of SouthKorea’s policy perspectives inthe early phases of industrializa-tion. The reference by Wade toa South Korean perspectivefrom Y. K. Alagh’s view fromSouth Asia in the Asian Devel-opment Bank’s journal theAsian Development Review(Y.K.Alagh, 1989 ) became awidely cited part of the strategictrade theory literature. Later, forexample John Stopford was toplace this experience in a largerstrategic global politicaleconomy perspective and drawmanagement implications forthe global firm from it in acontemporary perspective. AsStopford argues a strategicapproach to policy in aglobalised economy is not easy,since mindless intervention canbreed sloth and vested interest,but there is no question that asStiglitz has recently shown,there is no unique way to reformand the poverty agenda shouldbe a part of the agenda.

What is the nature of reformrequired? The problem ofimposing a hard budget con-straint at the local level andhelping those who help them-selves, is a difficult one toaddress. Another way of settingthe problem, is to harness thegreat vitality of decentralizedmarkets in replicating wide-spread rural growth, within thecore areas of local and globalconcern. The need is to harnessthe great vitality of decentral-ized markets in replicatingwidespread rural growth, with

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institutions and organizationswhich foster limited and wellfocused areas of community andcooperative action. If a commu-nity is willing to pay the price ofreform, it should not be asked towait, for the reform as designedby a global or national institu-tion, for the system as a whole.

Watershed development, forsettled agriculture alternatelytree crops, reclamation of salinelands, farmers run lower levelirrigation systems, aquifiermanagement in difficult situa-tions, like coastal aquifiers,tribal irrigation cooperatives,tank irrigation have all beenreported as success stories in thecontext of poverty removal andfood security and studied. Thequestion is replicability on alarger scale.

1. Success stories are commu-nity and leadership based,with leadership comingfrom diverse sources - aprogressive farmer, anNGO, a local army retiredperson, a ‘concerned’ civilservant, a scientist workingin the field . The leaderseither had a science back-ground or new enough toadapt from a nearby scienceinstitution. The organisa-tion structure was neitherpurely private ownership,nor fully community orsocial control. The leader-ship invariably argued foraggressively functioningmarkets and land ownershipwas private and agriculturaloperations at the householdlevel. However there wasfor land or water manage-ment, limited and welldefined cooperation. Thiscould be drainage, soilshaping, contour manage-ment, improvement andmanagement of lower levelcanals, de-silting of tanks,raising embankments, fishculture, market develop-ment, controlled grazing andso on. They estimated theland and water developmentcosts, The labour compo-

nent, ‘outside finance’, theoutput in terms of foodrequirements met, energyrequirements met andfodder supplies. There wereestimates of ‘economic ratesof return on the investment’,i.e. at accounting borderprices, with a shadow wagerate 25 percent higher thanthe market rate. Financialrates of return at marketprices were also estimated.These studies showed higheconomic rates of return, 18percent plus , making themvery productive invest-ments.

2. There have to be wellidentified shelves of a largenumber of such smallprojects on land, water andother infrastructure projectsavailable for financing.

3. Financial institutions haveto design structures suchthat community collateral ispossible for viable projects.Self help financing groupsare only one such group.Land and water develop-ment groups, local infra-structure projects, in road orcommunication sectors,productionising productsdeveloped in R&D institu-tions, training for produc-tion with improved tech-niques, market developmentschemes developed by localand community groupswould be other examples;

4. Lending through a weatheror project cycle would benecessary.

5. Developing policy “champi-ons” for sorting out admin-istrative, financial andproceduralissues atlocal,regional andnationallevels, whenproblemsarise withthese kind ofdevelopmentstrategies. Itis reasonablycertain thatproblems are

going to arise in develop-ment experiments which areoff the beaten track. Thequestion then is, is theresomebody in the policydecision making structurewho will sort out theproblem. ADB reports in adetailed study of farmermanaged irrigation systems,that the failure cases werethose where such supportdid not exist. Failure here isdefined as performancelevels in water deliverylower than by governmentagencies.

There is by now considerableacceptance of these needs in theglobal debates. For example oneof the preparatory meetings forthe World Summit on Sustain-able Development at Johannes-burg was the Expert ThematicRound Table on PromotingSustainable Development in AGlobalizing World, Feb.2002.This expert group squarelyaddressed the issues we havebeen pleading for as listedabove. The former SwedishP.M. Ulsten, the present authorand the Former EnvironmentMinister of New Zealand werethe monitors for the differentsections of the discussion.Amongst others “The followingproposals for action emergedfrom the discussion of theRound Table are important,because with minor changesthey have been incorporated inthe Johannesburg Declaration:

• Improve investment proc-esses in developing coun-tries and countries with

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economies in transition tofacilitate access to creditlines as well as to preferen-tial terms of financing andof providing funds forcollateral support systemsand sharing of investmentrisk. In this context, pro-vide securities for localinstitutions involved ininfrastructure developmentand specific knowledgebased activities to supportsustainable economicgrowth, through, for exam-ple, creation of collaterals,interest differentials andtrading of financial papers.These processes should betargeted, amongst others, toartisan and producer groupslinked with local and globalmarkets, local governmentagencies providing socialand economic infrastructure,and farming and ruralcommunities.

• Improve coordinationamong international finan-cial institutions and redirectfunds to sustainable devel-opment projects.

• Develop new or strengthenexisting mechanisms suchas the Clean DevelopmentMechanism (CDM), tofinance or re-financecommunity projects in ruralareas aimed at land andwater development, agricul-tural diversification andagro-processing, develop-ment of infrastructure, trade,and rural energy supply.

• Use debt swap mechanismsto finance sustainabledevelopment projectsincluding projects forenvironmental conservation.

• Create fairer trading sys-tems through, for example,initiating consumer –producer partnerships forthe production and con-sumption of goods andservices that have positivesocial and environmentalimpacts and developingproduction and productstandards for improving thecompetitiveness of thosegoods and services.

• Strengthen internationalsupport to developingcountries for efforts ofsustainable agriculturalpractices, while the globalagricultural markets arebeing reformed.

• Study for the purpose ofreplication, existing modelsfor providing access of ruralcommunities to ICTs inorder to enhance the level ofinformation in rural commu-nities on productions, crops,markets, prices and tech-nologies as well as insupport of medical servicesand education.”

Aspects of social and environ-mental degradation: hungerand poverty

Human security implies safetyfrom chronic threats such ashunger, disease and oppression,linking it to the broader conceptof human development. Onethird of people in the world liveon less than US$2 per day.More than one billion people indeveloping countries livewithout adequate housing, andan estimated 100 million arehomeless. What is it thatmakes individual households aswell as national and regionalsocieties vulnerable to hungerand famine? How does theaffected population cope withvulnerability and risks? Andhow far can research contributeto a reduction of these risks andstrengthen the coping capabili-ties of these communities?

Endemic poverty can be differ-ent from both hunger andvulnerability. Poverty in India isnow estimated at 28 percent ofthe population, but we knowthat people who claimedthat they do not havetwo square meal a daywent down to less than atwelfth of the populationin 1993 from around afifth in 1983.

Does environmentalstress leading to faminesituation have a different

impact on women, children orthe aged? The questions aboutthe linkages between hunger,poverty, land degradation,destruction of resources anddemographic changes have beendiscussed for decades. TheBrundtland Commission onEnvironment and Developmentstated: “Poverty is a majorcause and effect of globalenvironmental problems. It istheoretically futile to attempt todeal with environmental prob-lems without a broader perspec-tive that encompasses thefactors underlying worldpoverty and internationalequality.”

It is mainly the poor that sufferfrom famine, hunger andmalnutrition. But not all poorpeople are equally vulnerable tohunger, and it is not always thepoorest who are exposed to thegreatest risks. There are manyother factors that determine thevulnerability to hunger. Theseinclude the risk of exposure tocrises, stress and shocks. Thereis also the population which issubjected to risk by civil break-downs and violence on acommunity scale. As theChairman of the AdvisoryCommittee of the GujaratDisaster Management AuthorityI have argued that the fastdevelopment the state has gonethrough, without correspondingdevelopment in civil societyorganisations, can lead togreater vulnerability. If Gujaratsmanufacturing sector doublesevery seven years as it has in thepast and development takesplace on a highly decentralisedscale as it has, with everydistrict having more than tenthousand workers in the manu-

15

facturing sector’ when disasterhits like an earthquake or civilviolence, the damage is farmore. Earthquakes are natural,but damage depends on landuse, the nature of developmentand social and governanceinstitutions to cope up.

As vulnerability is not coinci-dent with poverty, malnutritionor other indices of humandeprivation, more researchshould be based on a betterunderstanding of such environ-mental crises. Also publicresponses to improve the copingfacilities of social groups shouldbe assisted by targeted researchand development projects, andnot just by relief. A number ofapproaches have been chosen toaddress these problems (e.g.entitlement, empowerment,enfranchisement). Food secu-rity should be closely tied tohuman security. While foodsupply to the rural poor is still amajor problem, more emphasison urban food security isneeded.

The general tendency to combatenvironmental and social formsof degradation as expressed infamine and poverty should benot only to be “reactive” but tostress preventive measures. Theterm “preparedness” shouldmove into the centre of atten-tion. This leads to the increasednecessity of early warningsystems. Policy makers havereacted already by establishingshort and medium term earlywarning systems for the mostvulnerable regions. The FamineEarly Warning System beingdeveloped by the United Na-

tions is an example of such areaction. However, withoutaccurate socio-economic andpolitical information from thefield, such computer assistedwarning systems based mainlyon biophysical parameters, willnot be able to accurately predictfamines social breakdown in agiven region.

The larger issues

The concept of partnershipsshould include phasing,sequencing and much greaterunderstanding of the localnuances of the reform process.Our argument in each case isthat policies for enduringdevelopment basically emergefrom the positive energies,which can be generated by asocio-economic structure andsuch a process of developmentis sustainable in the sense that itgenerates resources for propel-ling it and also works withincarrying capacities. The tasks ofcreative’ systems are to laydown the contours of suchdevelopment and governancesystems at national, regional andglobal levels have to supportsuch development and helpthose who help themselves. Theargument is that of meshingmarket and strategic objectives.

An interesting corollary of ourargument is that such partner-ships have to both local andglobal and the global questionscannot be addressed withoutaddressing local and nationalissues. This was the basis of theRio declaration and needsconstant reaffirmation. Thesame issue has been emphasized

in the globalmodels pre-sented in thelast few years.Sustainablepolicies are notjust questionsof globalnegotiations,but have tograpple withissues ofenergy require-

ments, land use, food demandchanges and agriculture andtechnology for meeting indus-trial and service requirements.This point can be made in asomewhat different manner. Ifcommunities are out of balancewith their resource endowments,there can be no question ofsignificant advance in the areasof global concern like carbonsequestration or biodiversity.

Country case studies on largecountries also bring out theseverity of sustainability con-straints being faced and the needto make a beginning to “ favour-able “ paths immediately. Chinaand India are two examples.Growth in large countriesunderlines the quantum jumpsbeing faced. Indian studies makethe point that if severe watershortages are to be avoided, theimprovements in irrigationefficiency and cropping inten-sity will have to be much fasterthan historical rates. If bad coalof over a billion tonnes is not tobe burnt for power needs,alternative energy managementstyles will have to be imple-mented and hydel and nuclearoptions considered, in additionto a major focus on renewables.Modern technology will have tobe integrated with artisan andrural populations so that thebenifits of national and globalmarkets can percolate to thework force. Trade andglobalisation will have tograpple with these questions.Regional arrangements maywell be a part of the answer. Ifthese kinds of links cannot beestablished in concrete terms,the concept of partnerships willremain an empty box, even afterJohannesburg.

Thank you.

16

part in the desert control opera-tion and more than 60 percent offormer desert land is nowcovered with trees and shrubswith an estimated commercialvalue of about USD$4 million.

Mr Shi’s efforts have broughtprosperity to one of the coun-try’s poorest regions. Wheatyields have gone up by as muchas 40 times in his village and allfamilies have new houses.Sidahao has become a model forother areas in Dingbian that stillremain below the nationalpoverty line. His company hasan annual gross income of aboutUS$130 000 and fixed assetsworth close to US$ 1.5 million.

Mr Shi has set up an elementaryschool and a night school forfarmers in his village. He hasattracted wide media publicityin China and won nationalawards such as National Pov-erty-Alleviation Hero andExcellent Greening Individual.He has been invited for meet-ings with top national leadersincluding with President JiangZemin, and attended confer-ences of the UN Convention toCombat Desertification(UNCCD). He believes thatfarmers in China and other

Shi Guangyin

Shi Guangyin is 59 years old,married, has four children andlives in Sidahao village,Haiziliang Township inDingbian County in China’snorth-west Shanxi province.Over the past 40 years, Mr Shihas successfully fought back theMaowusu desert that once madefarming extremely difficult inDingbian. He has controlled 13000 hectares of sandy land byplanting a 50-km protection beltof trees and shrubs. In 1986, heset up China’s first such desertcontrolling company in partner-ship with other farmers. About300 households are now taking

countries can follow his exam-ple and create prosperity evenout of harsh conditions.

Genevieve Ichiro Rechelbang

The outstanding marine fisherfrom the Pacific, GenevieveIchiro Rechelbang is 45 yearsold with four children and livesin Iyebukel Hamlet, Koror Statein the Republic of Palau. A highschool graduate, she gave up aregular paid job to take up fulltime fishing in the mid-1980s inorder to ensure food security forher family.

.S. Rao Awards for outstanding farmersY

17

Starting with a small boat shepurchased in the early 1990’s togo further out beyond the reefsinto deep water, she is now aleading marine fisher with anaverage monthly income ofUS$800. She usually sells hercatch in the local market orprocesses it and also caters tospecial requests from individu-als and restaurants in Koror.

According to a survey by theOffice of Marine Resources inPalau on the role of women infisheries, Mrs Rechelbang is oneof the few women engaged infishing there, who uses allfishing methods common inPalau. These include bottomfishing with hook and line;spear fishing with spear gun;general gleaning; night fishing;surround net; seine net; cast net;and trolling.

She is perhaps the first womanin Palau to dive into the sea witha fishing spear gun, which shealso does at night with the aid ofa flashlight. This is quitedangerous as the water is full ofsharks, but they do nothing aslong as she is careful. “I likefishing. I feel strong” aftercoming out of the water, shesays. Her example has inspiredother women in Iyebukel tolearn diving and spear fishingfrom her and make her feelproud, Mrs Rechelbang says.

K. M. Opananda

The outstanding tea farmer fromSri Lanka, K. M. Opananda is55 years old and has a plantationin Gonawalapathana village inNawalapitiya town in the hillsof central Sri Lanka. Marriedand with three sons, he is achemical engineer by trainingwho gave up an overseas job to

return to his farming rootsnearly two decades ago.

Unlike his father who was apaddy cultivator, Mr Opanandadecided to work on a 6-hectaretea garden he bought in the mid-1980s. Over the years, he hasconverted three-fifths of hislow-yield seed-based teaplantation into a more produc-tive one, with a capacity of 100000 vegetative propagatedplants. As he says, the switch is“a challenge for the small-holder” since it involves a waitof about five years before theplanter gets a return on hisinvestment.

Mr Opananda is the recognizedleader of small tea farmers in SriLanka. For four years in succes-sion, he has been electedpresident of the Sri LankaFederation of Tea Small Hold-ings Development Societies,which represents 150 000 smalltea farmers and has worked toobtain better deals from the teafactories. In addition, he isdirector of the Sri Lanka TeaBoard, the Tea Research Insti-tute, the National Institute ofPlantation Management, and theTea Association of Sri Lanka.The Tea Shakthi Fund, of which

he is the executive director,assists Sri Lanka’s small teafarmers and has set up 11profitably managed tea facto-ries.

Ireen Tatong

A most recognized farmer, IreenTatong is 51, a mother of fourchildren and lives in Nongbuasub-district, Phattananikomdistrict of Lopburi province incentral Thailand. A highlysuccessful farm entrepreneur,whose mangoes frequently winthe first prize for quality inprovincial and regional contests,Mrs Ireen had to strugglethrough a series of unsuccessfulventures before tasting sweetsuccess as a fruit farmer.

She took up mango farming 30years ago and now harvests anaverage of 250 tonnes of fruitevery year from her 16 hectaresof mango plantation. She usesinnovative techniques such asgrafting for mango fruit initia-tion, drip-irrigation and theapplication of bio-fertilizers thatensure high yields and quality.She is one of the few mangofarmers growing the fruit off-season for which she washonoured by leading Thai media

18

organizations in 1999.

Mrs Ireen is now well knownand often invited by public andprivate horticulture institutionsacross the country to lecture andoffer advice on fruit farming.Her farm is a centre for thetransfer of horticulture technol-ogy and a provincial agro-tourism centre. She is a consult-ant on horticulture to theMember of Parliament fromLopburi, a member of theAdvisory Committee on Agri-culture of Lopburi Agriculturaland Technology College andheads a number of local farmorganizations. She has takeninitiatives in sustainable horti-culture like using fertilizer madefrom decayed mango, banana,guava and papaya fruit and non-chemical pesticides extractedfrom natural medicinal plants.

Honoured with the prize of“Outstanding Woman” ofLopburi province in 1999, shewould like other farmers tofollow her formula for success,which she describes as “hardwork, sincerity and diligenceand saving”.

Xuan Mai Phan Thi

An outstanding rice farmer,Xuan Mai Phan Thi lives inHamlet 1, My Tan Commune,Cai Be district of Tien Giangprovince in southern Viet Nam.Thirty-nine years old and withone daughter, Mrs Xuan isgrowing paddy since her mar-riage in 1990.

Initially, her family faceddifficult times because theirtraditional farming methodsproduced low yields and in-come. Things changed for thebetter when new farming

methods and high-yielding ricevarieties were introduced totheir village in 1997. “Integratedpest management gives us moreincome from rice growing”, saysMrs Xuan. Together withchanges in agricultural policies,this has enabled Mrs Xuan todouble output to more than 7tonnes of paddy per hectareduring the winter-spring cropand to 4/5 tonnes per hectare forthe two remaining crops. Theincome has allowed the familyto buy additional land and itnow owns 3 hectares of farm,one-third of which is a fruitorchard.

Using her experience, she hastaken part in the selection ofhigh-yield rice varieties that aresuitable for export. She is alsoencouraging other farmers touse the right quantities offertilizers and pesticides toreduce ecological damage. MrsXuan is a guide and mentor tothe village women as vice-chairperson of the local wom-en’s union, which has 500members. She says that shewants to help the low-incomewomen farmers in her villageand has given out D35 million(about US$2 000) in the form ofrice seeds and cash loans. Shewill be repaid after the harvest-ing. She has also helped insetting up revolving funds,which provide interest-freeloans to poor women farmers inthe village.

19

Annexes

20

Media coverage

14 October - Announcement on Radio Thailand world service and an interview withHe Changchui, RR (07:00 hrs.)

- Advertisement in the Bangkok Post

- Advertisement in the Nation

- Late news report on WFD celebration at FAO Regional Office on Channel11

16 October - Report on WFD celebration at RAP and YS Rao awardee from Thailandon Radio Thailand world service

- and an interview with He Changchui, RR (07:00 hrs.)

- The recording of He Changchui’s welcome address at WFD celebration on14th Oct was played by Radio Thailand world service (7:30 hrs.)

21 October - Late news report on national WFD celebration organized by theMinistry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Rajabhat Institute of Ubonratchathani and RAP on Channels 5, 9, 11 and iTV.

Annex 1

21

Bangkok Post, Monday, 14 October 2002

Thai fruit grower named in top five Asia-

Pacific farmers by UN agencyPublished on Oct 16, 2002The United Nations Food and Agriculture

Organisation has named a Thai fruit grower

among its five outstanding farmers from the

Asia-Pacific region.Ireen Tatong received the award from

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sora-

at Klinpratoom.The other outstanding farmers are: Shi

Guangyin, an agro-forester from China;

Genevieve Inchiro Rechelbang, a fisher-

man from Palau; KM Opanada from Sri

Lanka; and Xuan Mai Phan Thi, a rice

farmer from Vietnam.

17/Oct/2002 THAILAND: LOPBURI MANGO

GROWER HONORED ON WORLD FOOD DAY.

A most recognized planter in

Phattana Nikhom

District, Nonthaburi P

rovince, in central Thailand was

among the five winners of the 2002 Y.S. Rao Award

issued by the FAO Regional Office in Bangkok to

mark the World Food Day.

Mrs. Ireen Tatong, 51, a mother of fo

ur, was cited

outstanding planter in the Asia-Pacific region,

together with Mr. Shi Guangyin fro

m China, Mrs.

Genevieve Ichiro Rechelbang from Palau, M

r. K.M.

Opananda from Sri L

anka and Mrs. Xuan Mai Phan

Thi from Viet Nam.

Before becoming a successful agricultural entrepre-

neur, Mrs. Ire

en had to struggle through a series of

unsuccessful ventures. After 30 years of mango

planting, she now harvests an average of 250 tons of

fruit every year from her 16 hectares of m

ango

plantations. She uses innovative techniques such as

grafting for mango fru

it initiation, drip-irri

gation and

the application of bio-fertilizers that ensure high yields

and quality. Her m

angoes have frequently won the

first prize for quality in provincial and regional ontests.

Mrs. Ireen is now well known and often invited by

public and private horticulture institutions across the

country to lecture and offer advice on fruit planting.

Her plantation is a center for th

e transfer of horticul-

ture technology and a provincial agro-tourism center.

She has taken initiatives in sustainable horticulture

like using fertilizer m

ade from decayed mango,

banana, guava and papaya fruit and non-chemical

pesticides extracted from natural m

edical plants.

(c) 2002 Thai News Service.

THAI NEWS SERVICE 17/10/2002

The Nation, Monday, 14 October 2002

BANGLADESH

http://www.dailystarnews.com/200210/17/n2101701.htm#BODY6http://www.nation-online.com/200210/17/n2101701.htm#BODY1

Use surface water as much as possible: PM (The Daily Star, Bangladesh and the New Nation 17October)

UNB, Dhaka

Against the backdrop of alarming fall in groundwater level, Prime Minister Khaleda Ziayesterday called for optimum use of surface water in irrigation for the country’s sustainabledevelopment.“Like many other countries in the world, the groundwater level in Bangladesh is falling graduallydue to excess lifting. It will be beneficial for us if we can ensure the best use of surface water inagricultural work as quickly as possible,” she said.Inaugurating a countrywide programme here marking the Wold Food Day 2002, Khaledadescribed this year’s theme of the day “Water: Source of Food Security” as very timely.Organised by the Agriculture Ministry at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium, the function wasaddressed, among others, by Agriculture Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, Food MinisterAbdullah Al Noman, State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and FAORepresentative in Bangladesh Bui Thi Lan.The prime minister recalled that Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman realising this fact had firsttaken initiative to build up an integrated infrastructure by using surface water for bettermanagement of irrigation.“He (Zia) had launched the programme for canal digging and river dredging, and encouragedthe people to dig thousands of kilometres of canals and dredge rivers in remote villages of thecountry,” she told the audience of diplomats, MPs, ministers, government officials andagricultural experts.Explaining the usefulness of this scheme, Khaleda said water to be held by these canals andrivers in the rainy season would be used during dry season for irrigation.She said Bangladesh had attained food autarky within a short period of time due to thisrevolutionary step of Shaheed Zia.Khaleda said farmers would have to be made aware about soil and water management apartfrom being encouraged to adopt scientific methods of cultivation.Turning to the growing population and shortage of arable land in Bangladesh, Khaleda Ziacalled for producing more food through optimum use of land and adopting modern technology.“The country’s population will hit 17 crore in 2025 when the demand for food will go up to 3crore metric tons,” she said.The prime minister reminded that there are problems of excess rain, floods, drought and salinityin Bangladesh. “So the challenge to boost food grain output for the increased number ofpopulation is very tough, particularly in this adverse situation.”Underlining the importance of bringing qualitative changes in crop production management, theprime minister said more and more lands are needed to be brought under irrigation facility.“Salt tolerant varieties of crops will have to be cultivated on lands in coastal areas where cropdo not grow due to salinity and water logging. We have to apply biotechnology, if necessary,”the prime minister said.“It means we have to ensure the best use of every inch of our land. That’s how food security canbe ensured,” Khaleda told the function.The prime minister said the country’s development activities should be carried on by proper andlogical use of natural resources in the interest of the present and future generations.Referring to the increasing trend of irrigation in agriculture, she said in irrigation 77 per cent ofwater comes from underground sources while 23 percent from rivers, canals and ponds.On the occasion of the World Food Day, the prime minister called upon all to get involved inTele-Food Programme to fight against hunger.Agriculture Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami said, “We need to boost the country’s foodproduction by 15 per cent to meet the increased demand in the year 2025.”He said the demand for water would be 24,370 million cubic metres in the year 2020 when thedeficit will be 880 million cubic metres.

NEPAL

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishdaily/ktmpost/2002/oct/oct11/features.htm#1

War against food and water security (‘Kathmandu Post’ 11 October 2002)

By KAMALESH ADHIKARI

The world is in a “race against the clock” in the war against hunger. While hunger is aconsequence of poverty, the opposite is also true: Hunger causes poverty. This was the basicreason why the global community celebrated the World Food Day/TeleFood 2001 with thetheme “Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty”.

Most notably, World Food Day is celebrated every year on October 16 to commemorate thefounding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 1945. First observedin 1981, each year World Food Day highlights a particular theme on which to focus activities.While the theme for 2000 was “A Millennium Free from Hunger”, themes for the previous twoyears were: “Youth Against Hunger” (1999) and “Women Feed the World” (1998).

The World Food Day is important for two main reasons. First, it aims to heighten publicawareness of the plight of the world’s hungry and malnourished. Second, it encourages peopleworldwide to take action against hunger. More than 150 countries observe this event every year.

Currently, more than 800 million people do not have enough food and freshwater to eat anddrink. Despite the global pledge made during the World Food Summit in November 1996 inRome, Italy to halve the number of undernourished people and eventually to achieve foodsecurity for all by 2015, the prognosis, as was expected, does not look promising.

The target made is not on progress and the governments are not getting “on track” in reducinghunger. Moreover, according to FAO estimates, since the world will require 60 percent morefood by 2030, the situation might become even more pathetic in the years ahead if precautionsand necessary rectification in the policies are not immediately taken or implemented.

Against this backdrop, the World Food Day/TeleFood theme for this year is “Water: Source ofFood Security”. This theme recognises the essential role of freshwater in feeding the globalpopulation and ensuring food security - having regular access to enough high-quality food tolead active, healthy lives. Water covers three-quarters of the Earth, but only a small fraction isaccessible as freshwater. Limited access to water is increasingly becoming a constraint inproducing enough food and thereby in ensuring food security. Of the total amount of waterwithdrawn, agriculture claims almost 70 percent to produce the food that fuels human activity.According to a study conducted by FAO in 93 developing countries, the situation of waterscarcity is severe to such an extent that a number of nations are already withdrawing watersupplies faster than they can be renewed. Ten countries are in such a critical state that theywithdraw more than 40 percent of their total water resources for agriculture and another eightare water stressed, withdrawing more than 20 percent. At the same time, the competition forwater from industrial and domestic users is continuing to grow, posing other serious threats tothe livelihoods of the people.

And, most dangerously, the severity of water problem in the world is not merely to do withscarcity. It deals with access to and quality of water as well. Even if water is plentiful, access toit is not always equitable, and quality of it is not always hygienic. For example, take the case ofwomen, who represent the majority of the developing world’s farmers, but are often excluded bytradition from owning land and managing water. Even in the context of Nepalese women, theyare used up in farming on a larger scale but they are in most cases excluded from owning landand managing water.

Similarly, though immensely rich in water resources, the country has not been able to provideadequate drinking water and sanitation facilities to a vast majority of its population. Due to thelack of quality of water, people here often suffer from different waterborne diseases. Some44,000 children under the age of five die every year from such diseases. With these reasons,the target to reduce the number of undernourished to half by 2015 is not merely tough but italso looks impossible.

The choice of this year’s World Food Day/TeleFood theme has therefore been centered on therole of freshwater in food security. This year’s theme serves as a call to governments, civilsociety and the international community to realise the importance of water in securing food forall. This day can be taken as a reflection of the global concern, regarding the gap between therequirements and the availability of water in most parts of the world. In the United States alone,450 national, private voluntary organisations sponsor World Food Day, and local groups areactive in almost every community. Similarly, another initiative is the TeleFood Campaign, inwhich television and radio broadcasts, concerts, celebrity appeals, sporting and other eventspass on the message that it is time to fight against hunger.

Therefore, for Nepal also, it is urgent to give full recognition to the need of solving the waterproblem on a national scale. While international cooperation and commensurate resources areessential to prevent the present global water crisis from becoming a source of dangerousfriction in the years ahead, the Nepalese government itself should also be more planned andorganised in launching programmes to prevent water crisis in the country and thereby to ensurefood security.

It definitely needs renewed political will and commitment from the government. Likewise, equallyimportant roles will be of the international and national non-governmental organisations, othergrassroots level organisations, educational institutions and media. Citizens of the countryshould also realise that they do also have a key role to play in managing sustainable use ofwater and ensuring food security in the country. Hope this year’s World Food Day will contributeto a large extent in highlighting the importance of freshwater as a source of food security, notonly in the country but also in other countries of the world, which are suffering from acutehunger and malnutrition.

PACIFIC

WORLD FOOD DAY: Water for agriculture vital for the future, day stresses

Rome (PINA Nius Online, 13 October 2002) - Wednesday’s World Food Day theme,“Water: source of food security”, points to the essential role of water in food production, theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.Around the world speakers will highlight the importance of better water management practicesin agriculture production. There will be events in more than 150 countries, including in thePacific.

Each year on the anniversary of its founding, 16 October 1945, the FAO draws attention to theproblem of hunger and malnutrition in the world. It highlights crucial issues through World FoodDay.

An FAO study of 93 developing countries indicates that some water-scarce nations are alreadywithdrawing water supplies faster than they can be renewed. Ten countries are already in acritical state, it said. Agriculture uses about 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn from theearth. More and more water will be used for irrigation, as world food production increases tofeed a growing population. Water used for agriculture must be managed wisely, the FAOstresses as part of World Food Day. It is among reasons it is joining with the internationalcommunity to promote the sustainable use and management of water as an essential globalresource, it said. - PINA Nius Online.

22

PAKISTAN

http://paknews.com/top.php?id=1&date1=2002-10-16

Water a precious commodity: Musharraf (Pakistan Daily, 17 Oct)

ISLAMABAD: Oct 16 (PNS) - President General Pervez Musharraf Tuesday said that water waswas a precious commodity for Pakistan. The water irrigating much of Pakistan’s Punjab and alife-line for agriculture and live stockflows from Kashmir. The Indus Water treaty has been theframework of water sharing between Pakistan and India. Without Kashmir waters, the entirePakistan is likely to turn into a barren desert.

In his message on the occasion of World Food Day, Musharraf said: “I am pleased to note thatWorld Food Day is being observed today with a most apt theme ‘Water, Source of FoodSecurity’ in light of the present global scenario of food insecurity and poverty.Water is a precious and finite resource. Although it covers three quarters of the earth only asmall fraction of this resource is accessible as freshwater, of which about 70 percent is used toproduce food. In Pakistan, water is most precious with intense competition between agricultural,industrial and domestic consumers on its use. With a growing population and developingeconomy, Pakistan’s demand for water is ever increasing. Unfortunately, over the years, noeffort was made to augment the country’s existing water reservoirs, which have depleted due tosilting and other factors. Protracted drought and desertification over the past few years havefurther impacted this precious resource.I am proud to state that the Government in a brief period has taken a number of short, mediumand long-term measures to address the issue of water shortage in the country. A comprehensiveprogramme for expanding storages through environmentally safe and sustainable approacheshas been launched. Alternate technologies are being explored not only to derive maximumbenefits from all the available water resources but also to reduce the negative effects ofexcessive use of irrigation water on soil and the environment. Despite the severest of droughts,with the benevolence of Allah and appropriate policy reforms, we have been able not only toachieve self-sufficiency in our main food grain, wheat, but also to export sizable quantities of it.Pakistan feels a strong bond with other members of the world community in the common goal ofreducing poverty and hunger in the world. We are bound to share our know-how and resourceswith other states in working towards the achievement of this common goal to which we havejointly committed in the declarations of the World Food Summit of 1998 and the follow up WorldFood Summit of June 2002.On the occasion of the World Food Day, let us renew our commitment to provide an enablingenvironment for food security of the poor and vulnerable segments of our society. We alsopledge to support all international efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition from the world.”

INDIA

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/10/19/stories/2002101900561000.htm

Global food insecurity (Editorial in The Hindu, October 19 2002)

MUCH HAS BEEN said during 2002 about a new global effort to accelerate sustainable develop-ment. At the Financing for Development conference and at the World Summit on SustainableDevelopment, two high level United Nations conferences that were held earlier this year, agendaswere adopted and declarations were issued on a new partnership between rich and poor countriesthat would take the world to the Millennium Development Goals on poverty, health, education andgender equality. But now we have a U.N. agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, issuinga warning that the world will not meet the first and most basic of goals - of halving by the 2015 thepopulation suffering from chronic hunger.

The FAO warns, in its grimly titled report, State of Food Insecurity, that there are now 799 millionpeople in the developing countries suffering from under-nourishment. The latest estimates show a20 million decline between 1990-92 and 1998-2000 in the number afflicted by malnutrition, but thisis far too slow a fall in the scale of chronic hunger in the world. The imperceptible progress that hasbeen made in the war against global hunger since the early 1990s means that from now onwards,every year as many as 24 million people have to be lifted out of hunger (compared to the recentrecord of just 2.5 million a year) in order to achieve the 2015 target of just 400 million peoplecoping with under-nourishment. Clearly, notwithstanding all the brave words spoken by the lead-ers of the world, the global fight against hunger is in urgent need of a much stronger thrust. If areduction in the spread of under-nourishment is proving so hard to bring about, elimination ofhunger must be a goal that keeps getting pushed further and further into the future. It is alsoworrying that what little progress has been made has been concentrated in a few countries -mainly China and six other nations in Asia and Africa. In the vast majority of developing countries,there is a slackening in the efforts to reduce malnutrition. Sadly, India is one country where evenas there has been a small decline in the proportion of people experiencing under-nourishment(from 25 to 24 per cent between 1990-92 and 1998-2000), the absolute number has grown by asmuch as 18 million. This is consistent with the Indian development experience during the 1990s,when in spite of a fairly rapid growth in average per capita incomes, widening regional disparitieshave meant that the absolute number of people suffering from chronic hunger has increased.

It is not that the Governments of the developing countries do not know what needs to be done tomake a major dent in this the most basic of problems afflicting the human condition. The agendafor action has been known for decades. What stands in the way is a combination of factors thatincludes Governments without political will, an unfavourable global environment and wrong priori-ties that get reflected in a paucity of resources. For Governments that care to listen, the FAO haslisted once more all the elements of an age-old package. Since chronic hunger remains predomi-nantly a rural phenomenon, land reform is as relevant today as it was decades ago. The FAOreport shows once again, if evidence was needed, that no country has succeeded very much inlowering malnutrition without first implementing land reform. The other elements of the packageinclude higher investment in rural infrastructure, restoration of degraded farmland, improved agri-cultural research and extension services and diversification of rural income. The FAO lists itsfamiliar five-point programme which would cost the world $24 billion a year for achieving a dra-matic reduction in the scale of under-nourishment. This may seem like an impossibly large amountin an era when few developed countries put their money alongside their lofty proclamations. But amonetary cost cannot be attached to reducing global hunger, the reduction - if not elimination - ofwhich must be the first and foremost task of the international community.

SRI LANKA

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World Food Day today : Emphasis on water for food security (Daily News Sri Lanka 16October)

Agriculture and Livestock Minister S.B. Dissanayake has congratulated the UN Director Generaland his representatives the world over for their efforts to fulfil the mission taken up by the Foodand Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in a World Food Day message. The Minister has said theFAO has taken up the unique mission of freeing mankind from hunger and poverty. The WorldFood Day commemorates the founding of the FAO.

The theme for this year “Water : Source of Food Security” is an extremely timely theme giventhe growing necessity to manage water which is an essential input for agricultural production.

Access to safe and nutritious food is the first fundamental human right. Policies of allgovernments strived towards achieving increased food production, access to food and a betterlivelihood for the farmers of this country.

The political will and commitment of our Government is to achieve food security for all in ourcountry. On this day which is dedicated to renew our pledge of ensuring food security, “ themessage said

http://origin.dailynews.lk/2002/10/16/new28.html

World Food Day celebrations by NGOs (Daily News 16 October)

by Galewela group correspondent

Many Non Governmental Organizations operating throughout the island have madearrangements to celebrate the World Food Day on October 16 highlighting the theme for thisyear ‘Water: Source of Food Security’, designated by ‘Food and Agriculture Organization’(FAO). Colombo FAO office has allocated some money to National NGO Council of Sri Lanka(NNGOC) and its Board of Directors met on October 10 and decided to distribute this moneyamong its affiliated NGOs who offered to celebrate the World Food Day - 2002. Girl Guides’Association and Sri Lanka Youth Council will conduct a programme in Colombo.

Wilpotha Women’s Thrift Association, Talawa ‘Samasewaya’, Hatton ‘Nawayugaya’, SocialDevelopment Forum, ‘Projects For The Youth’ Matara, Hambantota ‘Women’s DevelopmentFoundation’, Puttalam ‘Community Trust Fund’, ‘Sawiya’, ‘Gemi Jana Pubuduwa’, and ‘UwaFarmers’ Organization Badulla have notified their programmes scheduled to be implementedtoday 16.

‘United Schools Organization Sri Lanka’ in collaboration with ‘The Agriculture Science Society’of Galewela Central College has rescheduled its programme for October 18 to avoid clashingwith Colombo celebrations.Mazlan Jusoh FAO Resident Representative for Sri Lanka and Maldives will attend the ‘WorldFood Day’ programme to be conducted at Hector Kobbekaduwa Agriculture Training andResearch Institute, Colombo and FAO Programme Officer R. M. Ranasinghe and NNGOCChairman Saman Amarasinghe will be the chief invitees at Galewela Celebrations on October18.

Several Farmers’ Organizations receiving ‘World Food Aid’ also have come forward to fall inline with the international farmers to celebrate this world event.

Yatiwehera Lenawala ‘Sri Sarana’ and Kambarawa Kudumirisyaya farmers’ organizations havemade arrangements to engage in practical work to improve their tanks on October 18 to markthe World Food Day.

THAILAND

17/Oct/2002 THAILAND: LOPBURI MANGO GROWER HONORED ON WORLD FOOD DAY.A most recognized planter in Phattana Nikhom District, Nonthaburi Province, incentral Thailand was among the five winners of the 2002 Y.S. Rao Award issued bythe FAO Regional Office in Bangkok to mark the World Food Day.Mrs. Ireen Tatong, 51, a mother of four, was cited outstanding planter in theAsia-Pacific region, together with Mr. Shi Guangyin from China, Mrs. GenevieveIchiro Rechelbang from Palau, Mr. K.M. Opananda from Sri Lanka and Mrs. Xuan MaiPhan Thi from Viet Nam.Before becoming a successful agricultural entrepreneur, Mrs. Ireen had tostruggle through a series of unsuccessful ventures. After 30 years of mangoplanting, she now harvests an average of 250 tons of fruit every year from her16 hectares of mango plantations.She uses innovative techniques such as grafting for mango fruit initiation,drip-irrigation and the application of bio-fertilizers that ensure high yieldsand quality. Her mangoes have frequently won the first prize for quality inprovincial and regional contests.Mrs. Ireen is now well known and often invited by public and privatehorticulture institutions across the country to lecture and offer advice onfruit planting. Her plantation is a center for the transfer of horticulturetechnology and a provincial agro-tourism center. She has taken initiatives insustainable horticulture like using fertilizer made from decayed mango, banana,guava and papaya fruit and non-chemical pesticides extracted from naturalmedical plants.(c) 2002 Thai News Service.THAI NEWS SERVICE 17/10/2002

VIET NAM

VIETNAMESE WOMAN FARMER WINS AGRICULTURE AWARD Bangkok, Oct. 15 (VNA) —A Vietnamese woman farmer was among five outstanding farmers in the Asia-Pacific regionreceiving the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2002 Y.S. Rao Award for their excellentcontributions to agricultural production. Phan Thi Xuan Mai, 39, living in hamlet 1, Tan Mycommune, Cai Be district in Tien Giang southern province, was able to double her rice yield tomore than seven tonnes per hectare in the winter-spring crop and to four-five tonnes perhectare in the two remaining crops of the year. The four other award-winning farmers werefrom China, Palau, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The award presentation ceremony was held inBangkok on Oct. 14 to mark the World Food Day.—Enditem

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ist of guests

The following is a list of selected guests who attended the regional observance of World Food Dayat the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific on 14th October 2002

Guest of Honour

HE Sora-at Klinpratoom, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand

Guest speaker

Y.K. Alagh, Vice-Chairperson, Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, India

Outstanding farmers

Shi Guangyin, agroforester, ChinaGenevieve Ichiro Rechelbang (Mrs), marine fisher, PalauK. M. Opananda, plantation farmer, Sri LankaIreen Tatong (Mrs), fruit farmer, ThailandXuan Mai Phan Thi (Mrs), rice farmer, Vietnam

Office of the Royal Development Projects Board

Somsong Rungroengsilpa (Mrs), Director of the Computer Center

Royal Thai Government

Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives

Petipong Phungbun Na Ayudhya, Permanent SecretaryChaiwat Prechavit, Inspector GeneralChavalvut Chainuvati, Director-General, Cooperative Promotion DepartmentPongpen Summapan (Ms), Director-General, Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid FundThammarong Prakobboon, Director-General, Department of FisheriesPreecha Petchmala, Deputy Director-General, Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid FundPoungpit Dulayapach (Ms), Deputy-Director General, Agricultural Administrative Development DivMonthip Krachangvej (Ms), Director, Agro-Tourism DivisionPayao Rattanaviboon (Ms), Director, Agribusiness Promotion DivisionPinit Korsieporn, Director, Foreign Agricultural Relations DivisionVachara Boonchuseth, Director, Fish Marketing OrganizationArunee Pintrayong (Mrs), Subject Matter Specialist, Department of Agricultural ExtensionNgomchuen Kongseree (Ms), Senior Expert in Rice, Department of AgricultureApiradee Prasertsuk (Ms), Chief Internal Audit Subdivision, Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid FundKasem Prasootsaengchan, Chief of FAO section, Foreign Agricultural Relations DivisionSunisa Boonypatipark (Ms), Chief, Foreign Relations Branch, Planning DivisionBenjarut Paelai (Ms), Foreign Agricultural Relations DivisionChompunuch Kanasoot (Ms), Foreign Agricultural Relations DivisionPrachuab Lewchalermvong (Ms), Foreign Agricultural Relations Division

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Laxanachantorn Laohaphan (Mrs), Deputy Permanent SecretaryPradap Pibulsonggram, Director-General, Department of Technical & Economic Cooperation (DTEC)Phenchome Incharoensak (Mrs), Deputy Director-General, International Organizations DepartmentWichai Vongsakul, Information Division

Universities and academic institutions

Birasak Varasundharosodth, Governor, Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research(TISTR)Songsak Srianujata, Director, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University at SalayaTharmasak Sammartya, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart UniversitySomporn Duanjai, Dean, Faculty of Technology Agriculture, Rajabhat Institute UbonratchathaniSittichai Kasetkasem, Head of Rural Studies Center, Kasetsart University Research & DevelopmentInstituteAthapol Noomhorm, Processing Technology Program Professor, Asian Institute of Technology(AIT)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Vichai Chokevivat, Secretary-General

Non-governmental organizations and associations

Chandra Pitrachat (Ms), Board Member and Treasurer, Chairman, International Relations, Distance Learning FoundationSorada Duke, Member (Mrs), Board of Foreign Relations, Distance Learning FoundationRosarin Smitabhindu (Ms), Assistant Director of the Royal Chitralada Projects

Embassies

Bangladesh HE Hemayet Uddin, AmbassadorBelgium Andre Laurent, Commercial CounsellorCambodia Ung Teaseam, CounsellorCanada Alan Lebr, First Secretary (Development)France Philippe Letrilliart, First SecretaryIndia HE L.K. Ponappa (Mrs), AmbassadorIndonesia RepresentativeIsrael Edward Shapira, Deputy Chief of MissionJapan Yoshitake T., RepresentativeLao Vansy Viliyaphone (Miss), First SecretaryMongolia HE Luvsandorj Dawagiv, AmbassadorNepal HE Janak Bahadur Singh, AmbassadorSri Lanka HE S. Palihakkara, AmbassadorVietnam Nguyen Hong Cuong, Minister-Counsellor & Deputy Head of MissionCEC HE Klauspeter Schmallenbach, Ambassador - Head of Delegation

United Nations

ESCAP Kim Hak-Su, UN Under Secretary-General and Executive SecretaryIBRD Patchamuthu Illangovan, Senior Environmental SpecialistUNEP Per Sorensen, Programme OfficerUNICEF Teresa H. Stuart, RepresentativeUNIS Kittisak Vardhanabhuti, Associate Information OfficerWFP Kenro Oshidari, Regional Director A.I.

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Officers for the outstanding farmers:Dai Weidong (China), M. Hazelman (Palau),Praneet Gunatilaka (Sri Lanka), Praphas Weerapat(Thailand), D. Salvini (Vietnam)

Liaison with Thai governmentDong Qingsong/D. de Vleeschauwer, ChairpersonsSri Limpichati (Mrs)Praphas Weerapat

LogisticsN.M. Hla, ChairpersonPravet AwachanakarnWichai NomkhumtodeCristina SriratanaPensri Yujang (Ms)Prasert Huatsawat

CateringLimpichati (Mrs), ChairpersonChainarong Palaprasert

Media, publications and photographsD. de Vleeschauwer, ChairpersonApinya Petcharat (Ms)Kanokporn Chansomritkul (Ms)Prayoon AmarMahesh Uniyal (consultant)Kanjana Sutthisirimongkhon (consultant)

FD 2002 organizing secretariat

Steering committee

Changchui He, Regional Representative (Chairperson)Dong Qingsong, Deputy Regional RepresentativeN.M. Hla, Chief, Management Support UnitK. Siegert, Water Resources Development and Conservation OfficerSri Limpichati (Mrs), ConsultantD. de Vleeschauwer, Information Officer (Secretary)

Organizing committees

Invitations, reception and protocolDong Qingsong/N.M. Hla, ChairpersonsD. de VleeschauwerKanokporn Chansomritkul (Ms)Kanjerat Boonyamanop (Ms)Monpilai Youyen (Ms)Praphas WeerapatNawarat Chalermpao (Ms)Navaporn Liangchevasuntorn (Ms)Kallaya Meechantra (Ms)Chotika Na Chiangmai (Ms)Thnomkwan Rachtachart (Ms)Kasarin Sirisoondhornpaibul (Ms)Rangrong Sodamak (Ms)Chanrit UawongkunTess Rattana-Areeyagon (Ms)Jaruwan Thananimit )Ms)Phavinee Tithipan (Ms)Bongkoch Prasanakarn (Ms)Aruneeprapa Peansanong (Ms)Parichat Chuntaketta (Ms)Pawadee Chok-oon-kit (Ms)Jintana Anunacha (Ms)Duangporn Sritulanondh (Ms)Kanerng KamuthavanichSunee Hormjunya (Ms)Thamrongsak TechatadakulPannee Sophannakorn (Ms)Jaruwan Thananimit (Ms)Suthep RakpanyakaewVishnu Songkitti (MC)

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ist of publications distributed

♦ 2002 WFD information note♦ 2002 WFD issues paper♦ 2002 WFD poster♦ The alliance against hunger leaflet♦ Brochure FAO at work♦ RAP publication FAO in Asia and the Pacific. Annual report 2001♦ RAP publication Selected indicators of food and agriculture development in the Asia-Pacific

region, 1991-2001♦ RAP newsletter Maliwan (July-September 2002 issue)♦ Address by the guest of honour♦ Welcome and introductory remarks by RR♦ Keynote address by Alagh Yoginder Kumar♦ Other: citations of outstanding farmers

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FAO on the web: http://www.fao.orgRAP on the web: http://www.fao.or.th

Photo credits:Cover photo: Apinya Petcharat; page 4: Nantawan Jintanasonthi; page 5: Vejayant Lekwutthigant/Kriangkrai Waiyakit; page 7: FAO WFD poster;pages 9, 10, 16, 17, 18: FAO/Prayoon Amari; page 12: FAO/R. Faidutti; page 13: FAO; page 14: FAO/I Balderi; page 15: Sampan Asirawaat