Malawi

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. D’Escoto Brockmann on his election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-third session. I also take this opportunity to congratulate his predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the wise leadership he provided to the General Assembly during the past year. I wish to start by stressing that the global food crisis is a collective challenge to the United Nations. Throughout the world, more people are now unable to find enough food to feed themselves. There are increased cases of food riots that, in turn, lead to political instability. The food crisis has resulted from the failure of all nations to increase and sustain the production of staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, millet, potatoes and lentils, as well as of fish, meat and poultry. As leaders in the United Nations, we were aware of the signs pointing towards the global food shortage, widespread famine and malnutrition, but we decided to ignore those signs. We the world leaders failed to acknowledge that the food crisis poses a new threat to the stability of the social framework and economic prosperity of all nations, especially small ones. I submit to the Assembly that the global food crisis is beginning to erode and even negate the gains made in national and global economic growth and trade that were manifested in many developed and developing countries. If those negative trends are not addressed effectively, there will be growing conflict within and among nations as the scramble for food to feed the people intensifies. Several factors have contributed to the global food crisis, but I will mention only a few. First, during the past two decades food production in many countries has been affected by persistent severe climate changes, such as cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, drought, rising sea levels and desertification. Those climate changes reduce productivity in agriculture and food security. The high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, especially in developing sub-Saharan countries, has also placed such countries at the mercy of the vagaries of nature. It is a matter of great concern that global responses to those problems have been in the form of world conferences, seminars and workshops on climate change, but that not much has been done by way of concrete global action. Secondly, agriculture and food production have been given low priority by international development institutions in their allocation of resources and investment funds. That has been compounded by low national budgetary allocations to food production in 08-51839 10 many countries, especially in Africa. The recent diversion of food crops towards the production of biofuels has also reduced the stock of food and created food insecurity in some countries. That is further aggravated by the preference of commercial farmers to grow cash crops rather than food crops, thereby creating deficits in food production. Thirdly, there is general concern in Africa that multilateral and bilateral institutions continue to oppose subsidies to agriculture and food production, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America. That has been the case despite overwhelming evidence that smallholder farmers continue to find enormous difficulties in accessing agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, improved seeds, insecticides and herbicides. Those institutions also know that farmers are unable to produce enough food to feed themselves without subsidies. A matter of global concern is that food production in many developing countries has been adversely affected by environmental destruction and the degradation of agricultural lands caused by serious pollution through the deliberate dumping of toxic waste and hazardous materials in rivers, lakes, seas and other water sources, largely by industries from the North. That has deprived many farmers of land to produce more food. The dumping has spoiled coastal lands, destroyed tourism and brought misery to people who can depend on neither agriculture nor on fish in their waters in order to earn a living. The problems I have enumerated pose a serious challenge to global food security. World leaders in the United Nations can no longer detach themselves from those serious issues. We should be part of the solution. First, the Government of Malawi sees the attainment of global food security as a collective challenge. It must be premised on the ability to produce sufficient food and to move it from surplus areas anywhere in the world to food deficit areas. In order to alleviate the global food crisis, Malawi proposes that a compact should be reached by which countries that can produce sufficient food surpluses should be empowered to share with others in the world, wherever they may be, through a fair international trading system. That would ensure that all of humankind has enough food. Secondly, Malawi proposes that the United Nations urge industrialized countries to make significant increases in resource allocation to agriculture, especially food production. Special attention should be given to improving infrastructure, machinery, equipment and capacity-building for farmers, especially smallholder farmers. The private sector in industrialized countries should be persuaded to increase investment in food production, paying special attention to the application of science and technology to agriculture, and in research on climate change and on measures to protect food-producing nations from the vagaries of climate. Thirdly, Malawi believes that the global food crisis could be mitigated if the United Nations, the World Bank and other multilateral and donor agencies were seriously to consider granting subsidies for agriculture and food production as an integral part of their global development policy and aid packages to developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It would also be useful if the international community were to acknowledge Africa’s potential and capacity to contribute significantly to the solution to the global food shortage. To that end, the United Nations should fully support the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which is chaired by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. More specifically, Malawi appeals to the Group of Eight countries to support us in creating a green belt around our lakes and along our rivers to irrigate land up to 20 kilometres from the shores. The Malawi Government plans to grow a lot of rice, wheat, maize, millet, cassava, potatoes, beans and lentils for local and international markets. I wish to conclude by stating that Malawi is convinced that, in order to achieve global food security, the United Nations must persuade the rich industrialized countries to share research, science and technology in food production and processing with the poor countries. Furthermore, the industrialized countries should consider funding food research programmes and subsidizing agriculture in developing countries as part of attaining global food security. The global food crisis is not beyond the capacity of the community of nations to resolve. The global policy to create a hunger-free world must be adopted here in the General Assembly. All nations big and small, rich and poor, must work together to eliminate the global food shortages, famines, hunger and 11 08-51839 malnutrition. Together we can do it. God bless the United Nations.