UN chief: Food production must rise 50 percent by 2030


United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives at a U.N. crisissummit
on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome
June 3, 2008.(Xinhua)

（CCTV 06-04-2008 08:35）World food production must rise by 50 percent by 2030 to meet increasing demand. UN chief Ban Ki-moon made the comment at a summit in Rome that's grappling with hunger and civil unrest caused by food price hikes.

The UN secretary-general told the Rome summit that nations must minimize export restrictions and import tariffs during the food price crisis and quickly resolve world trade talks.

Ban Ki-moon said, "The world needs to produce more food. Food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet the rising demand. We have an historic opportunity to revitalize agriculture, especially in countries where productivity gains have been low in recent years."

The Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the three-day summit to try to solve the short-term emergency of increased hunger and to help poor countries grow enough food to feed their own.

Some 40 heads of state or government are attending.

Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian President, said, "Our views and opinions may diverge regarding the causes behind this crisis and the needs necessary to overcome it, but we are all convinced that we are all faced with a world wide phenomenon that does demand international action in order to curtail the consequences."

A UN task force set up to deal with the crisis recommends that nations improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities.

The World Bank calculates that there has been an 83 percent increase in prices in the last three years.

Experts cite price speculation, the increasing diversion of food and animal feed to produce biofuel, and sharply higher fuel costs as factors that have helped shoot prices upward.