PM addresses Rome world food summit

Eddie Fenech Adami yesterday said that concerted action should be taken by all nations to free future generations from the spectre of hunger.

Speaking at the World Food Summit organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the prime minister said serious efforts had been made five years ago at the World Food Summit as well as at the more recent Millennium Summit to analyse the problems associated with food supply and set targets for their solution.

The summit is being attended by 185 heads of state.

He said the commitment by member states of the United Nations and the FAO to halve the number of people suffering from chronic hunger by 2015 did not need renewed emphasis.

"It is significant, however, that this is the first time in the history of mankind that such targets have been set," he said.

Malta was determined to conserve and develop its natural resources not only because they constituted assets irrespective of their value in monetary terms, but also because they sustained a healthy environment and a better quality of life.

Moreover, agricultural activities had an important role to play in conserving and improving rural areas by counterbalancing the effects of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation as well as in providing nutritious food at reasonable prices.

Malta supported the FAO in its vital role of fisheries management, including its efforts to prevent the over-exploitation of marine resources and deter illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

Malta, he said, played its part in the FAO's fisheries activities and had been cooperating closely with its Mediterranean friends and neighbours, particularly within the framework of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

Dr Fenech Adami referred to Malta's exclusive fishing zone, which, through an ecosystem approach was being managed as a conservation area. The area served as a refuge for several species within the highly exploited central Mediterranean.

Food shortages were often the cause or effect of internal or international conflict. It would, therefore, be appropriate for the UN to increase its conflict prevention and peace promotion capacities, in order to prevent or at least bring to an early conclusion the conflicts that crop up from time to time in various parts of the world.

"These strategies must be backed by remedial action to prevent famine in post-conflict periods and help areas affected by conflict to regain their normal food production capacity," the prime minister said.

The prime minister was accompanied by Malta's permanent representative for the FAO, Francis Montanaro Mifsud.

He is expected back tomorrow.