Rome, Italy
June 12, 2009

The G8 Development Ministers meeting in Rome convened an outreach session during which representatives of African countries and UN agencies, along with Bioversity International, discussed the problems of development against a background of the current financial crisis.

Top of the list of concrete suggestions that Bioversity International offered to the G8 was investment in agriculture.

"In these times of economic crisis everyone is looking for value for money, and research into agriculture offers a better return on investment than other forms of aid," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International. "We need to invest in different solutions to deliver food security," he added.

Frison supported the very strong call from Stefano Manservisi, Director General for Development of the European Commission, to put agriculture at the centre of development. In May the EC, with the World Bank and the African Development Bank, pledged to increase spending on development.

Several speakers offered additional support. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, urged donors to invest more in agriculture. And Kanayo Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the UN’s rural poverty agency, stressed the importance of directing aid at Africa’s small farmers and support to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which supports Bioversity International and other centres seeking to improve agriculture in the developing world.

The final statement of the meeting, which will go forward to the full G8 in July, did recognise the importance of agriculture. It calls for "coherent and science-based policies aimed at fostering inclusive and environmentally sound agricultural growth managed through an enhanced cooperation at the international, regional and local levels".

"This is very good news," said Frison. "Those of us who work on the ground know what is needed," Frison said, "and this support from donors and our partners is most welcome."

Bioversity International told the meeting of several studies that showed the value of investment in agriculture. "Growth in agricultural productivity directly and indirectly contributed 83% of growth in GDP in a sample of 62 developing countries," Frison pointed out. Doubling investment over the next five years from its current level of US$5 billion a year would massively increase production and lift 282 million people in Africa out of abject poverty.

Support to agriculture has plunged from 17% of total aid spending in 1980 to less than 3% in 2006.

Frison further pointed out that there was no single solution to improving food security. "Food security requires many different approaches," he said. "In addition to larger harvests we need to use all the resources at our disposal to help farmers adapt their agriculture to the stresses of climate change and we need to make full use of agricultural biodiversity to deliver better nutrition and health."

Bioversity International, with its Headquarters in Rome, Italy, has worked for more than 35 years to support the improved use and conservation of agricultural diversity. Through international research, in collaboration with partners throughout the world, Bioversity strives to build the knowledge base needed to ensure effective use of diversity to increase sustainable agricultural production, improve livelihoods and meet the challenge of climate change.

Website: http://www.bioversityinternational.org

Published: June 12, 2009