Rome, November 16: The United Nations opened its world food summit on Monday by saying that a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger as rising temperatures threaten farm output in poor countries.
Government leaders and officials met in Rome for a three-day U.N. summit on how to help developing countries to feed themselves, but anti-poverty campaigners were already writing off the event as a missed opportunity.
The sense of scepticism deepened at the weekend, when U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, though European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action.
"There can be no food security without climate security," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Rome summit.
"Next month in Copenhagen, we need a comprehensive agreement that will provide a firm foundation for a legally binding treaty on climate change," he said.
Africa, Asia and Latin America could see a decline of between 20 and 40 percent in potential agricultural productivity if temperatures rise more than 2 degrees Celsius, the FAO says.
Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be the hardest hit from global warming as its agriculture is almost entirely rain-fed.
With the number of world's hungry topping 1 billion for the first time, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation had called the summit in the hope that leaders would commit to raising the share of official aid spent on agriculture to 17 percent of the total -- its 1980 level -- from 5 percent now.
That would amount to $44 billion a year against $7.9 billion now. Farmers in rich countries receive $365 billion of support every year.
TARGETS DILUTED
But a draft of the final declaration to be adopted on Monday includes only a general promise to pour more money into agricultural aid, with no target or timeframe for action.
A pledge to eliminate malnutrition by 2025 was also taken off the draft, which now states that world leaders commit to eradicate hunger "at the earliest possible date".
Last year's spike in the price of food staples such as rice and wheat sparked riots in as many as 60 countries. Rich food importers have rushed to buy foreign farmland, pushing food shortages and hunger up the political agenda.
Food prices have fallen back since, but they remain high in poor countries.
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Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social consition of people who frequently exprerience or live with threat of experiencing the physical sensation of hunger. HUnger at askdiana.com
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