Global food production must grow by 50 per cent by 2030 to meet increasing demand, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders Tuesday.
"The world needs to produce more food,'' said Ban.
Ban spoke Tuesday at a summit in Rome hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN agency.
"Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when it is man-made," he said. "It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill-health and economic decline."
The summit is attempting to address how to deal with hunger and civil unrest caused by food price hikes. Officials at the summit are expected to begin drawing up a plan Wednesday to mobilize aid and investment for affected regions.
Peter O'Driscoll, the executive director of ActionAid International USA, told CTV Newsnet that unless the world takes action now, the situation will only grow worse. He said in the coming decades global warming will dramatically reduce overall food production.
"This is going to get worse and we have to think of radically new ways to produce foods and feed people," O'Driscoll said Tuesday night.
O'Driscoll also noted that Western nations have forced developing countries to liberalize trade barriers -- and created a situation where they have stopped growing much of their own food. Instead, countries have been importing cheaper imports from overseas and are not investing fully in their own agricultural production.
"And now, when international crises rise, as they have recently, this volatility leaves poor countries unable to afford the food we have told them they should be buying in international markets. This really is a crisis of the system," O'Driscoll said.
Leaders at the summit say they want to implement strategies to help poor countries grow enough food to feed their own people.
"Hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which, in reality, has sufficient production levels, the resources, and the know-how to put an end to these tragedies and their consequences," Pope Benedict said in a message read to the delegates.
The Pope said millions of people living in unstable countries are looking to the world for solution.
A UN task force set up to deal with the crisis recommends countries "improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities,'' said Ban.
To achieve that, the short-term recommendations include supplying small farmers with seed and fertilizer in time for this year's planting seasons and increasing food aid.
The task force also suggests reducing trade restrictions to help open up the flow of agricultural goods.
"Some countries have taken action by limiting exports or by imposing price controls,'' said Ban. "They only distort markets and force prices even higher.''
Meanwhile, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said Tuesday that the world only needs US$30 billion dollars annually to "eradicate the scourge of hunger."
Diouf said the money would help re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.
He noted that in 2006, the world spent US$1.2 trillion on arms while food wasted in a single country could cost US$100 billion. He also said excess consumption by the world's obese amounted to US$20 billion.
"Against that backdrop, how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food and thus the right to life," asked Diouf.
He said the structural solution to the problem of food security lies in increasing production and productivity in low-income, food-deficit countries.
With files from The Associated Press
