For the eighth consecutive year, China’s total grain pro- duction increased, reaching 571 million tons last year and exceeding 550 metric tons for the first time in half a century. Tis helped China fight domestic consumer- price inflation and stabilize world food prices. Also, a study group headed by Yuan Longping, China’s father of hybrid rice, announced that the yield of hybrid rice per Mu exceeds 900 kilogram in one of its trial sites. Tis would contribute greatly to Chinese and world food security.
—Keming Qian, Director General, Department of Development and Planning, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing
In 2011 Oxfam launched its most ambitious campaign: GROW. Food prices, flatening yields, climate change, unfair trade, failing markets, inequality between men and women and land grabs are all connected and contributing to a global food system that is dominated by a few powerful governments and companies, while failing the majority of people. GROW will push policy and practice changes from the global to local levels to grow more food more fairly and sustainably.
—Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International, Oxford, England
Te destabilizing effects and uncertainties created by the recent price hikes of major staple foods and the food crises and famine in the Horn of Africa, have raised food security concerns to a higher political level, receiving more aten- tion and priority consideration than in the past in the agen- das of decisionmakers in governments. Tis is an important step forward, since food security is a highly political issue that requires political solutions, rather than a humanitar- ian issue that needs technical solutions as it was oſten seen in the past.
—Carlos Pérez del Castillo, Chair, CGIAR Consortium Board, Montpellier, France
Te importance of an integrated approach to food security that IFPRI has helped prioritize is vital in today’s world. Te year 2011 and the famine in the Horn of Africa rein- forced the role of social safety net programs in providing a broad package of support for the most vulnerable—from specialized nutrition products to protect the minds and bodies of young children, to investments in sustainable land management to help communities’ build resiliency to drought.
—Josete Sheeran, Executive Director, World Food Programme, Rome
WHAT INFLUENCED FOOD POLICY IN 2011? 13
In Canada, the most important food policy event was influ- enced by ideology rather than market or resource policy shiſts: the government’s decision to abolish the Canadian Wheat Board which for decades has sold all Western Cana- dian wheat. Tis will open up new market opportunities for the international wheat majors. On water issues, there were interesting indications that the Indian national government is looking for the political and financial space to assume a larger role, for example, by including major irrigation canal investments in its next five-year plan.
—Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair, Crop Diversity Trust, Rome, and Patron, Global Water Partnership, Stockholm
In our 2011 World Disasters Report, the IFRC addressed one of the most persistent critical issues facing our word today: hunger. As an Ethiopian, I saw first-hand my country’s ter- rible famine and I know what it means for people to starve. Globally, an estimated 925 million people do not have enough to eat, and as the population grows between now and 2050, global food supplies will come under even greater pres- sure. Governments must acknowledge the right to food and implement comprehensive, community-centered hunger pre- vention programs now and increase equitable and sustain- able investments in food security.
—Bekele Geleta, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva
Te G20 focused on food security and price volatility and led to international research initiatives to secure an ade- quate level of production. Te Wheat Initiative was decided to promote highly productive wheat systems adapted to climate change. Te GEO-GLAM project aims to moni- tor cultivated areas in order to predict harvests, as beter anticipation prevents the formation of “bubbles” in agricul- tural markets. In 2011, G20 decisions represented a major step forward in coordinating efforts to improve World Food Security.
—Marion Guillou, Chief Executive Officer,
French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Paris
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