S’pore must join world’s fight against hunger

Singapore is home to one of the world’s remarkable urban environments, an Asian hub of modernity. As one of the region’s most important economies, the Republic faces challenges ahead. Perhaps, the greatest is one shared by countries in the region: Ensuring future food security.

Being a relatively small island with a large population, Singapore relies mostly on food imports to meet the dietary needs of its population.

While food is plentiful now, the Republic will need to be prepared for potential disruptions to its food supply. In 2008, global food prices rose and became more volatile, affecting food prices in many nations, such as Singapore.

This led the Group of 20 to establish the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), whose secretariat is housed in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The AMIS provides a tool to monitor international food prices, facilitate coordinated responses by countries and avoid unilateral action.

The latest OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook showed global food prices are expected to continue their recent fall in the next two years, but they should stabilise above those before 2008. This has led net food importing countries to look for ways to increase domestic production.

Singapore has made efforts in this direction, particularly in maximising productivity from limited land resources. This requires creativity and innovation.

It has been approaching this challenge head on. Commercial indoor and rooftop vegetable farms are opening , while other urban and peri-urban agricultural schemes are taking shape.

The world can learn from the Republic’s success stories. Globally and particularly for the Asia-Pacific region, a variety of solutions is needed as new challenges arise in promoting food security and ensuring sustainable development.

As we approach 2015, we need a final push to meet the Millennium Development Goals and, at the same time, define sustainable development goals that will follow.

While Singapore has not faced the spectre of hunger for a long time, it must be part of the global effort to reduce and, ultimately, end hunger.

ERADICATING HUNGER

Since the early 1990s, the proportion of hungry people in the world has declined significantly from roughly one in five to fewer than one in eight.

Yet, the Asia-Pacific region still has nearly two-thirds of the world’s undernourished people and more than 100 million stunted children.

About 12 per cent of the global population, or one in eight, are undernourished, unable to meet their dietary energy needs. An estimated 162 million children below five are stunted or chronically malnourished, 51 million wasted or acutely malnourished, while two billion people suffer one or more micronutrient deficiencies.

However, at the same time, 500 million people are obese. Countries across the region are stepping up to face this situation. Last year, governments reaffirmed a commitment to support the realisation of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Zero Hunger Challenge by 2025 and many countries are implementing their national Zero Hunger plans.

The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) is also being jointly organised by the FAO and World Health Organization and will be held in Rome from Nov 19 to 21.

Global problems need global solutions and it is time to get nutrition back on the global development agenda. That is part of the rationale behind holding high-level intergovernmental global conferences such as ICN2, which recognises that, along with solving problems of hunger, nutrition is a public issue, not a private one.

Some people believe it is up to families or individuals to make decisions on what they like to eat. But nutrition has a big impact in many other areas, especially on food safety, health and food security. No matter where we live, rich or poor, this affects us all.

Singapore joined the FAO in June last year and is its newest member state. By joining the body, the nation has expressed a willingness to be at the forefront of the global dialogue on food security and developments in agriculture, fisheries and food production.

Everyone has a lot to gain with this commitment and the FAO stands ready to work with Singapore to reach the vision that unites us all: A hunger-free and sustainable world.

Jose Graziano da Silva is director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.