Realising the Right to Food

The earth, in its present form, can comfortably feed all people, provided the world community shows its sense of responsibility and will to go about the task without any bias or pre-conceived notions. An instance of the latter is the manner governments of European Community are sealing off their markets, thereby making it difficult for farmers from developing world.

This sense of erudition, and inarguably a forthright observation by Gerd Muller, German Federal Minister for Development Cooperation, set the tone for the exhilarating World Food Convention that was held on a massive scale in Berlin recently.

It was a 500-delegate strong get-together of some of the best brains from diverse fields, including politics, industry, diplomacy, NGOs, science and academia. A no-holds-barred and well-intended discussion revolved around some burning issues confronting mankind like global food production and distribution with the thrust being ‘Right to food is a universal human right’ and on how the world can be fed without destroying it.

A general understanding is that by 2050, approximately nine billion people would be in need of food to ensure qualitative sustenance. As things stand, ‘sustainable’ manner is seemingly ‘mission impossible.’ 

Most speakers agreed that a radical change to the way we eat, produce food and govern global food systems was paramount to address the critical issue. Towards this, it was felt that it was imperative to weigh the impact of consumer behaviour in developed countries on emerging and developing countries and to draw attention to sustainable management of natural resources and strategies to eradicate hunger, poverty and unequal distribution of opportunity.

Invariably, the six key broad-based issues that need to be given top priority are: (a) What is the present state of world food availability for the people; (b) Can integration of agricultural and food policy help; (c) Ecological agriculture can achieve only 50-70% of possible yields; (d) Right to food is a universal human right; (e) Digitalisation of agriculture and (f) From start-ups to companies. 

A grim, but realistic, picture was presented by the chief economist of the World Food Program, Dr Arif Hussain, who pointed out around 124 million people are suffering presently from extreme food insecurity – 74 million because of military conflicts and 38 million because of climate change aka global warming. 

This is of course a challenge to the policy makers in designing their development priorities for future. As things stand, in the common man’s language, the number of people who go hungry every night has increased from 777 million in 2016 to a mindboggling 850 million already this year.  

Julia Klockner, Federal Minister for German Agriculture, called for an urgent integration of agriculture and food policy and proposed a highly efficient and locally adaptable agriculture as a solution. Stating that the yield potential in many countries remains low till this date, she cited the example of Ethiopia where only 15 per cent of land was used for agriculture although 40 per cent was suitable for cultivation!

Globally, farmers could take cue from the glimmer of hope that comes in the form of bio-farmers, who, by breeding their own seeds, managed to procure yields as high as that achieved by conventional farmers. However, it has been noticed that crop yields of food grains have remained stagnant or nose-dived due to excessive use of fertilizers and chemicals.

This is one of the reasons why farmers in Punjab and other States, driven to impoverishment, are resorting to extreme steps like suicides.  

A profoundly emotional point came from Gerd Muller, who lambasted Germany’s food distribution structure, which was resulting in one-third of food getting wasted or ending up as garbage. That is a very valid observation because the ‘surplus’ food could help feed millions elsewhere. 

Joachim von Braun, Director of Center for Development Research, was bang on when he stated that international migration (2.8%), per se, cannot be the main cause for global food crisis.

Given the fast-paced world that we live in and considering the advent of technological innovations, a way forward is in digitalisation of agriculture at every level. As stated by Debisi Araba, Africa Director of Center for Agriculture, use modern technology, self-driven tractors, drones and Whatsapp hold immense benefits to the agricultural lot. 

Having seen the changing dynamics and applications found across the globe, I feel that there is an urgent need to intensify the transformation of agriculture in the developed countries from highly intensive to environmentally sound farming and food systems. 

Understandably, the challenges are multifold in the developing world considering that tough act needed to bring about a balance between yield and income thereof and initiate a transition from low-value to high-value agriculture without compromising on the food quality and nutrition interests.  

Alas for all the positive signs, what remains a bane is that the long-standing United Nations plea that developed countries should devote 0.7 percent of their gross national income as financial aid to developing countries remains unfulfilled. Food for thought! 

By: Dr Ramesh Chennamaneni
(The writer is an MLA from Vemulavada and Humboldt Expert in Agriculture, Environment and Cooperation)