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YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS: Ms. Fernanda Guerrieri, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN gave interview to “Armenpress” news agency.
Ms. Guerrieri, the organization is led by the slogan “Helping to build a world without hunger”. How do you assess the efforts of the organization to reduce the poverty in the world?
More than one billion people are undernourished worldwide. FAO estimates show a significant deterioration of an already disappointing trend witnessed over the past ten years. The large increase in the number of undernourished people in 2009 underline the urgency of tackling the root causes of hunger swiftly and effectively. To the date efforts to coherently address the multiple and interrelated risks to food security at the international, regional and national levels emanating from the food and financial crises have been insufficient. FAO, in collaboration with diverse partners, has challenged regional bodies, governments, communities and households to urgently meet basic food and social needs while working to ensure sustainable access to food in the medium term. Beyond its dramatic immediate impact, the current food crisis has revealed a structure imbalance, which has to be addressed urgently by an effective combination of short and medium term actions within a broad socio-economic framework However, emphasis on supporting short-term responses has limited attention and the resources required to invest in agriculture and other social areas in order to tackle the underlying causes of food insecurity are not available. Nevertheless the Organization continues to advocate for and to give attention to agriculture. Agriculture can make substantial contribution to economic development and poverty alleviation in the least developed countries. Even though this role is reduced substantially in the middle income countries, agriculture continues to play a crucial role in alleviating poverty which remains disproportionately rural in spite of the falling relative importance of agriculture in national economies. To fulfill its role as an engine of growth, however, agriculture itself needs to grow. FAO supports this growth, advocating for investment and providing the tools adapted to the challenges agriculture faces at present.
How do the programs fulfilled by the organization promote the reduction of the poverty and the increase of the agricultural productivity?
We must always be careful of advocating a one size fits all approach to addressing rural poverty and food insecurity in the world. Technical assistance that works well in Southeast Asia may not be appropriate for Armenia, and what works in Armenia may be quite irrelevant for a country with different resource endowments. Nevertheless, in poorer countries with large rural populations, small farms and where poverty is largely rural, agriculture can be an important driver of poverty reduction and an important means of raising food security. This reasoning applies to large areas of the developing world as well as the countries of Central Asia, the south Caucasus, Moldova and Southeastern Europe, because in these countries agriculture is the main livelihood of the poor and an important part of GDP.
Yet agriculture requires investment both in physical and human capital in order to fulfill its role as an engine of growth for understandable reasons. Where land is scarce agricultural growth can be achieved only through increased use of labour and technology. In such countries good agricultural practices, soil and land management, green revolution technologies and adequate chemical inputs are the keys to agricultural growth. Growing agriculture also requires access to markets, which means good roads, a market price information system, grades, standards and food safety systems that satisfy the demands of export markets.
Most of the investment for agricultural growth is made by farmers, processors and traders themselves. However, there are a limited number of public goods that in whole or part fall under the responsibility of governments, such as soil and land management, agricultural advisory services, transportation infrastructure, provision of grades, standards and food safety. A vital public good in countries where farms are small is to support growth in farm sizes through land lease, land sales and formation of marketing and service cooperatives.
As I said before, we need only look to recent history to show us that investing in agriculture in this way can be an efficient engine to eradicate food insecurity and poverty in this region. Moreover, this region could even help to resolve hunger problems in other parts of the world. It is estimated that with sufficient investment nearly 10 million hectares in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine could be brought back into cultivation of grains and oilseeds.
In this context FAO and FAO partners can be an important part of the solution of the malnutrition and hunger problem by:
• increasing collaboration with the international community to create an enabling environment to promote peace, eradicate poverty, hunger and undernourishment and empower women, indigenous people and other vulnerable groups;
• advocating for increased investments in sustainable food production systems and rural development in developing countries with people as the focus, farmers not farms, fishers rather than fish, etc.;
• advocating for increased support to local food systems to reduce over reliance on global food supply systems, which are highly dependent on energy prices and add to food security vulnerability;
• providing financial assistance to developing countries to implement policies to improve physical and economic access by all to sufficient, nutritionally adequate, wholesome and safe food and its effective utilization, including actions to improve food quality and safety, prevent, control and manage micronutrient deficiencies, promote appropriate diets, and introduce productive safety nets;
• continuing to support improved access to markets, private-public partnerships for innovation development, development of agribusiness and entrepreneurial capacity and
• improvement of post-harvest infrastructure to reduce food losses,
• while ensuring a balance in private sector development between increasing local food supplies and production of high value non-traditional products for export to OECD countries;
• and promoting dialogue to build anti-hunger alliances.
Armenia is a member of the organization since 1993. How do you assess the bilateral collaboration?
The cooperation with Armenia is excellent. The Government has been always very responsible and committed. Since the start of the cooperation, FAO has supported the country in animal health, mainly to control transboundary diseases such as Brucellosis, Foot and Mouth Disease, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and African Swine Fever. Some of these diseases have zero tolerance in international trade in addition to be a threat for people health and animal production. FAO continues to support the national seed breeding sector to equip the country with high quality seeds for higher productivity and increased resistance to extreme weather conditions. As one of the major obstacles to a sustainable production and access of farm product to the market is the excessive fragmentation of land, FAO has provided assistance to the Government to formulate land consolidation schemes. Since food safety is a serious concern in the country, FAO has responded to a Government request for assistance in improving the country control capacity on the quality of the food through pesticide quality control and residues monitoring. In this context, capacities of national laboratories have been strengthened within the framework of various FAO assistance programmes. Recently the Organization has supported the Government to mitigate the impact caused by the financial crisis through programmes dedicated to the most vulnerable farmers.
What kind of programmes is the organization going to fulfill in Armenia in the near future for the reduction of poverty and the increase of agricultural productivity in the country?
To make FAO and Armenia cooperation more effective, FAO and the Government are closely working in the preparation of a strategic document aimed at identifying strategic areas for FAO assistance to achieving Armenia’ s development objectives. This strategic document, called National Medium Term Priority Framework (NMTPF). is also an operational and results based management programming tool fully integrated with the results hierarchy, monitoring and accountability of the corporate FAO Strategic Framework endorsed by the FAO Governing bodies. Currently the Organization is providing support to the Government to improve the meat production chain. In particular FAO assistance focuses on the quality and safety of the meat production chain. FAO is supporting the Government to establish slaughterhouses that would meet international standards. Training is provided to Government officials, farmers involved in livestock activities and small investors. One of the objectives of the initiative is to promote Public Private Partnership in the meat production sector and in the future in the food product value chain. As the country has no enough high quality vegetative material, FAO continues to support Armenia in improving its seed production sector. Particular emphasis is given to wheat seed production. Activities range from the support to seed selection stations to the supply of high quality wheat seeds. Natural resources management is a major concern in Armenia. FAO provides assistance to strengthen forest management capacity. In the near future the Organization will support the Government in the management of obsolete pesticides stocks. A particular critical situation in Nubarashen, an area close to Yerevan where there are large quantities of obsolete pesticides, is currently receiving attention from the Government and FAO for its possible high environmental risks. All FAO activities include capacity and awareness building at all levels. Particular attention will continue to be given to strengthening the collection of updated and reliable food security information for decision making.
How do you assess the steps and efforts taken by the Government of Armenia for the increase of the agricultural productivity of the country, the development of the sphere and for the support of the development of the rural industries?
Armenia is a mountainous landlocked country with a population of 3.2 million people, 36 percent of whom live in rural areas. The size of the agricultural area showed a stable level during the last decade, although the share of the arable land decreased significantly. Even if between 1992 and 2007 the agricultural employment was halved (517 000 in 1992 and 315 000 in 2007), still a large part of the population is employed in the agricultural sector. Despite many difficulties, Armenia has successfully switched to a market economy over the past decade, with double-digit growth rates between 2000 and 2007. From 1992 to 2007 the agricultural production has increased by 159 %. Wheat is the main staple, supplying 48 percent of calories intake. Wheat productivity has increased from 1,8 tons per hectare to 2.24 tons in 2007. This limited increase is mainly related to poor planting material, lack of proper fertilization, water scarcity and inadequate pest management. The Government is conscious of the constraints that hamper the development of the agricultural sector. To overcome these constraints, the Government has recently reviewed its Sustainable Agriculture Development Strategy which identifies the sub-sectoral priorities. Although this is a useful guidance for the identification of the needs of the sector and the most urgent actions, the Plan appears not to be backed by sufficient resources. This implies that the Government would still need substantial international assistance and investments to effectively support the modernization of agriculture and promote its sustainability.
The 27th regional conference of the organization is held in Armenia. Which is the aim of organizing it here and what expectations do you have?
This is the first Regional Conference for Europe to be held in a country that is an important recipient of FAO technical assistance. The holding of the conference in Yerevan illustrates the major progress that has been made since 1993 to integrate the relatively new Member countries of this region into the technical work and governance of the Organization.
I want to draw your attention to an important issue that distinguishes this regional conference from previous ones. The Independent External Evaluation called for an enhanced role for the Regional Conference in programming matters. In order to fulfill this role the Regional Conference will become a Committee of the FAO Conference and be tasked with developing issues for regional policy coherence and developing a regional perspective on global issues. This will allow the Regional Conference to advise on the FAO programme for the Region and on the overall programme as it affects the Region. Item 9 of the Agenda should be considered in view of this new enhanced role for the Regional Conference.
What perspectives do you see in the further collaboration of the organization and Armenia?
FAO will continue its cooperation with the Government of Armenia within the framework of the FAO-Government of Armenia strategy that is being formulated. (National Medium Term Priority Framework – NMTPF). The strategy is based on Government priorities and FAO strategic objectives. The Conference in Yerevan will provide further guidance to the Organization on main areas to focus its assistance. This will reflect on the formulation and agreement of the future FAO-Armenia country programme.