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UN's Annan urges "green revolution" in Africa

ITALY: February 21, 2003


ROME - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the
international community this week to help Africa stage an agricultural
revolution to drag the continent out of poverty.


He also said new farming techniques were needed to counter the
devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on farm workers and on food production
in Africa.

Annan told a U.N. conference the only way to achieve a goal of halving
hunger and poverty by 2015 was to reach out to rural communities where
three-quarters of the world's poorest people live.

"The target of halving the number of people living in extreme
poverty... will require us to work towards a green revolution in
Africa's agricultural sector, so that Africa may move towards the
self-sufficiency that we have seen achieved elsewhere," Annan said in
a keynote speech.

A so-called "green revolution" using innovative farm technologies
boosted food supplies in Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, reducing poverty
levels.

Annan did not give details of how a green revolution would be achieved
and he did not specifically mention the controversial question of
genetically-modified crops.

Some African countries facing food shortages, including Zambia, are so
wary of gene-altered crops that they have refused such food aid or
have insisted that it be milled to prevent planting.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation declined comment on Annan's
remarks. FAO said on Tuesday that biotechnology research is failing to
help the poor and needs to focus on boosting food supplies and
quality.

Rodney Cooke, a senior official with the U.N. International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), told Reuters that a "green
revolution" in Africa could mean increased use of chemical fertilisers
and high-yielding crop varieties that can survive in harsh terrains
that are subject to recurrent drought.

Cooke, a biochemist with expertise in farming systems and foods, said
biotechnology could help boost food production in Africa in the longer
term, by reducing reliance on costly chemicals that the poorest
farmers cannot afford, as long as the varieties used had received
regulatory approval.

"The challenge in Africa is to achieve increased agricultural
productivity in harsh or risk-prone environments," he said, referring
to the need for crop varieties that can cope with less rainfall,
poorer soils and a high level of pest attacks.

"That is a very considerable challenge to plant breeders."

AIDS ON THE FARM

Annan told the governing council of IFAD, one of three Rome-based U.N.
food agencies, that new farming techniques were vital in the war on
HIV/AIDS, which has devastated farming communities in sub-Saharan
Africa.

"Because of AIDS, farming skills are being lost, agricultural
development efforts are declining, rural livelihoods are
disintegrating," Annan said.

He said household earnings were shrinking while the cost of caring for
the ill was rising exponentially.

"We must combine food assistance and new approaches to farming with
treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS," Annan said. "It means
developing new agricultural techniques, appropriate to a depleted
workforce."

Cooke said less labour-intensive farm techniques would include use of
seeds that require less tillage, and pest-resistant varieties.

Annan called for a reversal of the recent trend for declining official
aid to rural development and agriculture, and urged investments and
policies that increase rural productivity.

IFAD finances small-scale, long-term farm projects in poor areas
around the world, using donations from its 162 member states as well
as income from its investments and loans.


Story by David Brough


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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