In 1996, more than 180 countries from around the world gathered in Rome for the World Food Summit and set for themselves an ambitious goal of reducing global hunger by half by 2015.

In June 2002 at the World Food Summit: Five Years Later, these same countries reviewed their progress and concluded their efforts fell far short of those needed to achieve the goal. Only one-third of developing countries had seen a reduction in the number of hungry. Other countries either showed no improvement or their situations had actually worsened. Some 800 million people, mostly in rural areas, still suffer from hunger and malnutrition and the number will grow as the world’s population increases.

In Rome, the U.S. Government urged that the international community focus on three priorities:

• reducing hunger by increasing agricultural productivity,
  
  
• ending famine, and 
  
  
• improving nutrition

As part of that effort, Secretary Veneman announced the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology.

The conference includes plenary meetings, technical breakout sessions, and field tours. Both low- and high-cost technologies will be addressed, as will state-of-the-art and more traditional methods. Participants will see the benefits of technology to both small-scale and large-scale farmers.

Conferees also will examine the relationship between regulatory practices and innovation, and the policy and institutional frameworks needed to facilitate technology transfer and indigenous research and development. In addition, they will explore the creation of partnerships to help developing countries obtain new technologies to increase agricultural productivity.

The participants include ministers of agriculture, science and technology, and environment from developing countries, economies in transition, and developed countries. More than 150 ministers will gather, representing more than 100 countries.

This is one of the largest Ministerial meetings ever organized. It is co-sponsored by USDA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of State.

Secretary Veneman will be joined by Dr. John H. Marburger III, Science Adviser to President Bush and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Dr. Norman Neureiter, Science and Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State.

The Ministerial will feature more than 80 speakers and panelists from around the world, who were selected by an inter-agency program committee. They include leaders and technical experts from developing and developed country governments, international organizations, research institutes and universities, foundations, and private industry.

The speakers will discuss agriculture and food technologies that are making a difference, best practices, technology transfers, communicating with producers and consumers, and creating a supportive policy, regulatory, and institutional framework.

The keynote luncheon speakers are Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation, and Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution.

Running concurrently with the Ministerial is a Technology Expo showcasing an array of exhibits and product demonstrations -- from conventional to cutting-edge technologies -- geared to small-scale and large-scale enterprises, with applications throughout the food chain.

Field tours will demonstrate how companies, universities, and organizations in the surrounding area are using new agricultural technologies, as well as their relevance to developing countries. The tours will feature dairy production and processing, rice breeding and processing, vineyard management, food and nutrition technologies, and food safety.

FAST FACTS ON WORLD HUNGER AND POVERTY – WHAT IS OUR CHALLENGE?

• More than 800 million people -- nearly one in seven -- face chronic hunger or malnutrition.
  
  
• Among the world’s children, one in three is undernourished.
  
  
• Every 5 seconds, a child is lost to hunger.
  
  
• Half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day.
  
  
• The wide and growing gulf between developed and developing nations is unacceptable.

In discussions of efforts to reduce global poverty, improve economic performance, and raise living standards around the world, President Bush often stresses that we must lead by example.

• The U.S. has pledged millions of dollars in funding for international poverty reduction efforts and economic development.
  
  
• The Millennium Challenge Account provides for a $5-billion (50%) increase in U.S. development assistance over 3 years, the largest increase in our foreign assistance in 40 years.
  
  
• The new U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will direct $15 billion over the next 5 years to battle HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean.
  
  
• The President has asked Congress for $200 million for a new Famine Fund, and $100 million for a new Emergency Fund for Complex Foreign Crises.
  
  
• With more than a billion people lacking access to safe drinking water and with an estimated 6,000 children dying each day from unsafe water, the U.S. has committed to a nearly $1-billion initiative to provide clean drinking water to 50 million people in the developing world.

At both the World Food Summit and World Summit on Sustainable Development, country representatives discussed the role of trade as a tool for driving development. An open trading system can provide greater market access for developing countries, attract investment, stimulate growth, and improve world food security.

This includes efforts in capacity building, working with the developing world not only to increase productivity, but to build the institutions that will help them participate in global trade negotiations and to develop the resources that will allow countries to be more active in the international trade arena.

Trade can – and must – play a central role in addressing the world’s food security needs. In today’s global economy, open markets are crucial to increasing food security. We must work closely together to ensure that all countries can participate in the world market and that our global trading system works to facilitate greater food security for all people.

The growing role and influence of developing countries in the trade policy agenda is a positive sign. It is no coincidence that the current WTO trade round is named the Doha Development Agenda.

As the United States works with other countries for ambitious global trade reform in WTO, we are also negotiating free trade agreements, most of them with developing countries (FTAA, CAFTA, Morocco, Chile, and the Southern African Customs Union). The President recently proposed a future Middle East free trade area and, as a first step, has announced U.S. intentions to negotiate a free trade agreement with Bahrain.

Coupled with liberalized trade, productivity gains in developing countries bring increased opportunities for export income and economic growth.

The Ministerial meeting is an opportunity for participants to work together to understand the benefits and opportunities that technology presents. Achieving needed gains in global agricultural productivity, improved nutrition, and better food distribution can be realized by dissemination and adoption of existing and new technologies. The biggest cost of not taking advantage of safe, accessible productivity-enhancing technologies are borne not by the world’s affluent, but by the world’s poorest.

• Current and emerging technologies have the potential to increase farm yields, improve the nutrient content of foods, deliver inexpensive and edible vaccines, and improve distribution.
  
  
• Improving agricultural productivity can have the most immediate impact on reducing hunger.
  
  
• To fight hunger is to fight poverty. Increased agricultural productivity will drive economic growth, especially in rural areas.
  
  
• Increasing agricultural productivity is a way to boost both food availability and access in developing countries.
  
  
• In the 20th century, science and technology contributed to substantial gains in global agricultural productivity. For example:
  
  
  • During 1960-2000, populations of developing countries grew 125%, but production of cereal grains tripled, with only a 25% increase in land for farming.
    
    
  • During the Green Revolution of the 1960’s, the spread of high-yielding varieties, combined with the increased use of fertilizer and irrigation, significantly reduced the incidence in famine in parts of Asia, helping millions to escape hunger and malnutrition.
    
    
  • Science and technology can help increase crop yields with less water, improve water use efficiency in agriculture, offer better tools for conservation, and provide early warnings of drought.

Technology can help address both productivity and resource issues; partnerships with international organizations, private partnerships, etc. will leverage resources and encourage technology-flows. Countries that want to encourage technology investments and dissemination need to make sure that they have the appropriate policies and infrastructure to succeed. Access alone will not fulfill technology’s promise.

Experience shows that when agricultural productivity increases:

• Farm and rural incomes rise.
  
  
• More food is available to the population, improving nutrition and food security.
  
  
• More food is available for export, increasing export earnings.
  
  
• Food costs drop, giving consumers more money to spend on other products and services. In many developing countries, more than half of household income is spent on food.
  
  
• As productivity continues to increase, more farm labor and other resources are freed up for productive uses in other parts of economy, stimulating economic growth and higher incomes.
  
  
• An increase of 3-4% per year in African crop and livestock yields could raise per capita incomes almost three times, while reducing the number of malnourished children 40% (IFPRI).

The answers are not always the latest, biggest, and most expensive technologies. Many conventional technologies and systems that have been widely used for decades can be adapted to bring significant productivity gains to the world’s poorest countries. This may include a good system of extension services, better nutrient management, contour plowing, readily available higher yielding seed varieties, or efficient irrigation. Less than 5% of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is currently irrigated.

The goal is not technologies that make developing countries more dependent on the developed world, but more independently able to feed their own people. Today, many technologies, including new biotech varieties, are coming from scientists in the developing world for producers in the developing world.

Examples of the benefits of agricultural technology in developing countries:

• Small farmers in Uganda increased maize yields 46% from 1996-2001 through improved agricultural technologies.
  
  
• In Tunisia, crop losses to the potato tuber moth dropped 16% through the use of integrated pest management practices.
  
  
• Contour terraces in Peru boosted potato yields 70% compared with traditional planting on sloping fields.
  
  
• In Guinea, new techniques are being used to preserve vitamin-rich mangoes.
  
  
• Researchers at the World Fish Center in Malaysia developed a strain of tilapia that can grow 60% faster and yield three fish crops a year.
  
  
• In Malawi, farmers are benefiting from a high-yielding, pest-resistant variety of cassava.

The United States is sharing a wide variety of agricultural technologies, both cutting edge and traditional, with developing countries.

In many countries, agriculture accounts for a large share of employment and export earnings. Increased agricultural productivity must be part of a growth strategy to reach the rural poor. For developing countries, a more productive agriculture can be a springboard not only to greater food security but also to a more productive economy.