Food riddle worries JK

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete delivers his speech during a ceremony to mark the World Food Day held at the Food And Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) headquarters in Rome Italy this morning.Seated on the left front row is the President of the Federal Republic of Germany ,Horst Kohler.

President Jakaya Kikwete has said that while millions of people in Africa and developing world live in conditions of Under-nourishment, evidence shows there is plenty of food in the world.

He was speaking on World Food Day in Rome yesterday.
The President said this year alone, total world cereal production was estimated to be 2,114 million tones, while total cereal demand was projected at around 1007 million tones, less than half of the cereal production.

�Ideally, no one should starve or die of hunger in the world we live. Strangely and sadly enough, they do.

This is not fair. This is not right,� he said Kikwete said although the world was half way through the time span set by Millennium Summit of 2000 to attain Millennium Development Goals, including halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015, there were little signs of the scourge of hunger receding.

President Kikwete said at the current trends, the 2015 target seemed unlikely to be achieved, unless countries redoubled their efforts both at national and international level.

Estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) show that more than 850 million people in the world still live in a state of serious and permanent under-nourishment, 206 million of whom are in Sub Saharan Africa.

He said for Africa and the rest of developing countries, the ultimate solution to the seemingly chronic problem of hunger did not lie in food aid, however reliable the source might be.

�The ultimate solution lies in the improvement of our agriculture. I believe if we succeed in fixing African agriculture, there will be no more hunger in the continent,� he said, adding, �Africa should be given fishing rods instead of fish so that they can catch their own fish.�

He said there was a need to reduce predominance of rain-fed agriculture and increase the proportion of irrigation agriculture
Speaking at the occasion, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hosrt Kohler, said hunger was not an inescapable destiny, but could be eliminated by wise policies.

He challenged governments of the developing world to make food security for their populace a priority goal.

Kohler said fight against hunger must also encompass measures to prevent wars and conflicts, saying that as a general rule, �any war undoes several decades of development.``

Oxfarm estimates that war costs the African countries of some 18billion US dollars each year and an average of 15percent of economic growth.

FAO Director General Jacques Diouf challenged poor countries to feed themselves rather than wait for food handouts from the developing world.

``The right to food should not mean the right to food handouts. Every individual should strive to feed himself, only when the situation does not permit food handouts can be resorted,� he said.
The World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 each year. This year�s theme is Right to Food.