Developing countries must do their part by increasing investment in agriculture to ensure food security, the president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Kanayo Nwanze said on Tuesday.
Nwanze, speaking on the sidelines of the World Summit on Food Security, said he was satisfied by the extent to which world governments had placed high priority on food security, adding, however, that a greater effort was required from developing countries.
The plight of world hunger and food shortage could only be overcome if both rich and poor countries do their part in facing the challenge, he warned.
Stressing the fact that countries from the Group of Eight (G8) had already committed themselves at the L'Aquila summit to 22 billion U.S. dollars for agriculture investments, the IFAD's chief said that "official development assistance (ODA) for the rural sector in the long term must be matched by appropriate national funds coming from developing countries' governments."
The UN food agencies have repeatedly urged rich countries to provide an aid of 44 billion dollars a year to help developing countries increase their agricultural investment, but "we cannot expect that this money is found overnight," he added.
At the summit, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world leaders failed to make any new financial commitments.
Nwanze said IFAD's mission was as well to "drive the message home to developing countries that they must move forward in their commitments and invest in the political will to support agricultural progress."
