Malawi, 2008

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

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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.