FAO calls for collaborative global action to tackle hunger, water shortage
Dr. QU Doungyu
From Cyril Mbah, Abuja.
The Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr. QU Doungyu has called for global action to tackle hunger and identified threats to food production especially the disappearance of fresh water sources around the world.
Dr. Doungyu observed that the importance of fresh water to agriculture and the sustainance of life cannot be taken for granted because water helps to feed human beings and is central to achieving the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In a message to mark the 2023 World Food Day, Dr. Doungyu said:"We must not take water for granted: we must work together to manage this finite, precious resource. Water is essential to life on earth. It covers the majority of the planet’s surface, makes up over 50 percent of our bodies, helps keep us fed, supports livelihoods and is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."
He called for firm approach in tackling the complex challenges of shielding existing freshwater resources and aquatic food systems from pollution and the impacts of climate crisis, while ensuring that people have equal access to water.
The director general remarked that with about 70 percent of freshwater going to agriculture, changing the ways we produce our food and other agricultural products, failure to act now in protecting fresh water sources will have the gravest consequences on humanity in the near future.
His words "Fresh water is not infinite, and we must stop taking it for granted.
Consider that over the last two decades, each of us on earth has lost approximately one-fifth of the freshwater available to us. Unless we act urgently, we are on course to increase our water use by more than a third by 2050 globally, given our planet’s growing population. That means, collectively, we risk reaching a point of no return.
"Rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, economic development, and the climate crisis have all taken a toll on our water resources. Combined with water pollution, over-extraction and lack of coordinated management, this creates a complex mix of overlapping challenges.
"Increased extreme weather events, drought and flooding are stressing our ecosystems, with daunting consequences for global food security. Smallholder farmers, particularly the poor, women, youth, indigenous peoples, migrants, and refugees, are the most vulnerable," he said.
The message, which was read on his behalf by Mr. AlHassan Cisse, Head of FAO Nigeria, continued by stating that governments must do more to address the combined challenges of securing sufficient water for agriculture, while also reconciling the competing water needs of other economic activities, especially as urbanization accelerates.
"Good governance is crucial for sustainable and equitable water allocation, through integrated and inclusive approach with all partners. Water governance and tenure, water pricing, regulations, and incentive measures, are needed to drive change and ensure equitable access to clean and safe water resources.
"We need to implement integrated water resources management through coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources to maximize human well-being, without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. For this we need both national and regional designs. Investment in innovative, efficient water management practices is vital, including in modern irrigation and storage technologies and science-based solutions to address water scarcity and harnessing flooding."
Dr. Dounghu also called for appropriate financing mechanisms and investments, at the right and big scale to build and maintain capital-intensive infrastructure.
"Resilience-based solutions are key. Prioritizing green and blue infrastructure to promote agriculture and fisheries respectively can enhance water quality, maintain biodiversity and provide other benefits to agri-food systems and rural areas. In Sri Lanka and Zambia, for example, FAO is piloting multifunctional paddy fields for fish and shrimp farming, in addition to rice production," he concluded.
The week long activities to mark the 2023 World Food Day ended at the weekend with a two-day agricultural products exhibition at the Abuja premises of the prestigious International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the stakeholders engagement and launch of the YAS Project designed to attract young people to farming and other agro-related business ventures.
Addressing stakeholders at the gathering, the Director General if IITA, Dr. Simeon Ehui called for the redirection of focus in agriculture to make it more attractive to the younger population.
Dr. Ehui used the occasion to announce the launch of YAS project in three states namely Kano, Oyo, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory stating that about 8,000 to 10,000 youths were being targeted in the areas chosen for the pilot project which has the capacity to raise the number of beneficiaries in the near future.
Also speaking through zoom, former President Olusegun Obasanjo appealed to the federal and state governments to modernise agriculture by making it a business backed with affordable loans that would be attractive to the youths pointing out that the current interest rate on loans was outrageous and scares people with interest in agriculture from patronising banks for such facilities.
The Head of FAO Nigeria, Mr. AlHassan Cisse, who spoke at the event also supported the suggestion that affordable loans should be provided for youths to go into agricultural business.
He stated that the FAO has started implementing programmes that aims at tackling the effects of climate change problems in some states in Nigeria and while calling for collaboration and partnerships to enable the nation enter a new dawn in agriculture, Cisse also described youths as the future torch bearers in the agriculture sector.
Many other speakers at the forum including Ambassador Wouter Plomp, of the Kingdom of Netherlands, were in support of shifting attention from the crude methods of farming to mechanised systems, the upgrade of agriculture to a viable business venture and the introduction of favourable conditions such as interest free loans to attract youths and women into taking up agriculture as lifetime occupations.