AUSTRALIA - AUSTRALIE

The Honourable John Anderson, Minister for Primary Industries and Energy of Australia

It is an honour for me to address this historic Summit on behalf of the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable John Howard, who has asked me to pass on his every wish for success in the Summit's task of ensuring a commitment by all to providing a secure food supply for all.

It is an international tragedy, indeed I would say a cause for shame, that each night hundreds of millions of fellow human beings go to sleep hungry or malnourished. Australia, as a member of the international community, stands ready to accept its responsibility in concert with all other nations to overcome their plight.

Our gathering here this week is given added poignancy by the terrible events currently unfolding in Zaire. Australia welcomes initiatives in the United Nations Security Council, and on the part of countries in Central Africa, to provide relief to those caught up in this conflict and to restore peace and security in the region. Australia has made clear its willingness to provide humanitarian assistance to those at risk, and this morning my Government announced it would provide initial assistance of Australian dollars 2.6 million to engage experienced personnel to supervise the distribution of supplies, provide necessary medical attention and coordinate relief efforts in Zaire. But let me ask, how many times over is the deprivation being experienced by the people in Zaire repeated around our globe in many and varying circumstances because of poverty, political conflict and natural disaster?

Australia has been closely involved in the extensive negotiations associated with the Declaration and Plan of Action for this Summit. May I congratulate the Director-General for this initiative and also the participants on having been able to achieve consensus on these documents in advance of the Summit itself. Now that we have agreement, the challenge for each country is to take heed of the messages contained in the documents and implement appropriate policies which will give life to our words.

We live in a world that produces sufficient food to meet the needs of the world's growing population and, with the benefits of new technology and better resource management, will continue to do so even if the world's population grows, as forecast, by an additional 3 000 million within one-and-a-half generations. It is unacceptable, that despite adequate global food production, people go hungry. Inadequate food availability stems primarily from problems of distribution and access to food, not the ability of the world to produce it in adequate quantities. Fundamentally, food insecurity is a problem that arises from poverty. To eliminate poverty we need the right policies and mechanisms both to stimulate economic growth and to allow access by all to the safe and nutritious food that they need to be healthy and fully productive.

I would like to concentrate my remarks on the key factors that are essential to poverty-alleviation and to enhanced food security. Trade plays a vital role in encouraging economic growth in both developing and developed countries. Improving living standards and raising incomes thereby enhancing food security. It is most appropriate that there is clear recognition of the critical role of trade in the documents we have adopted. It enhances self-reliance by enabling countries to exploit their comparative advantages and boost national income. Thus, the most important determinant of adequate and secure food supplies is an open trading system with prices, production and consumption determined by competitive market forces.

The real lesson derived from international grain markets over the last twelve months is that production will rise rapidly in response to higher prices. In other words, the efficient operation of markets is an essential element in ensuring that production responds to increasing food demand.

In today's interdependent global economy, food self-sufficiency is an outdated approach to food security. Australia is strongly committed to further liberalization of agricultural trade and the full implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements.

The benefits are substantial. According to the modelling results in a study by Australia's Centre for International Economics the estimated gains from trade liberalization of cereals is equivalent to the resources needed to feed 340 million people. Given the global benefits of a fair and open trading system, it is indefensible that some OECD members continue to distort international markets and undermine the agricultural advancement of developing countries by providing massive assistance to their agricultural sectors to the tune, in fact, of some US$ 325 billion per year.

If we are really serious, we must eliminate the market distortions that for far too long have prevented developing countries from sensibly planning their domestic agricultural strategies and achieving their full potential in agricultural production. It is not just an economic price they are paying, it is a human price.

When we meet next month in Singapore for the First Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, we would do well to recognize the contribution that further trade liberalization must make if we are to succeed in our task of ensuring sustainable food security. It is, I believe, inevitable that the pursuit of food security through inward-looking policies based on the notion of self-sufficiency, will result in costly failure.

Australia has long given considerable practical support to improving security in developing countries, principally through assisting them to adopt sustainable land management and agricultural production practices.

Research of course also plays a crucial role. Agricultural research is making, and must continue to make, a major contribution to food security. Global food security will be enhanced with an increased international agricultural research effort combined with the necessary education and appropriate technology transfer. The significance of the benefits of agricultural research is evidenced by the cultivation of improved varieties of wheat and rice, which now make up a significant majority of wheat and rice production in both the developing and developed world. The development of these varieties should be clearly recognized as being responsible for the enormous increase in yields over the past 20 years.

Australia contributes around Australian dollars 40 million a year to agricultural research for projects in developing countries through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. ACIAR is involved in many projects in the Asia Pacific region which are having excellent results in helping partner countries improve their agricultural productivity, thus increasing their ability to achieve food security and alleviate poverty. Australia will continue to play a constructive role in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the International Agricultural Research Centres. The international effort has achieved some remarkable results for agricultural productivity in the developing world, but let us not forget that developed nations also benefit from agricultural research.

We must also recognize the enormous pressures that an expanding human population is placing on the environment and, in so doing, renew our commitment to ecologically-sustainable development. We are, after all, simply stewards over the lands and seas from which we reap our harvest and we have an obligation to future generations to ensure our vital natural resources are capable of meeting future production demands. Sustainability, in short, is fundamental to food security.

Australia's great climatic and geographic variability have led us to develop considerable expertise in a wide range of agricultural production systems. This expertise has been, and remains, available to improve world food production and is readily applicable to many developing countries, including those in Africa. Through our Aid Programme, Australia is transferring some of this expertise to help developing countries promote sustainable land management and agricultural production, and we are also involved in many other activities aimed at increasing food security. These include providing agricultural marketing infrastructure and policy advice, ensuring that water resources are used properly, and investing in the provision of basic education and health services for the rural poor and, in particular, women and girls who constitute over half the world's farmers.

Australia is very pleased with the acknowledgement given to the need to assist women through the Plan of Action. Continued emphasis must be placed on their central role in food production.

Food aid continues to be an important element of Australia's Aid Programme. We are signatory to the Food Aid Convention and are committed to providing 300 000 tons of food aid per year in wheat or wheat equivalent. About three-quarters of our food aid is used as development food aid targeted at the poor and hungry through activities such as food-for-work and school feeding programmes. The rest is available to assist in humanitarian emergencies. Through our Aid Programme we are also helping developing countries adapt to the new trading regime by providing funding for technical assistance and high-level trade policy training courses. This will help a number of developing countries build a pool of people with trade policy skills and thus adjust to the post-Uruguay Round Trading Environment from which they stand to gain so much.

Agricultural policy and trade reform is essential for enhancing food security. We must all make our contribution. Markets must be allowed to operate unencumbered and producers and consumers must be allowed to respond freely to market signals. Only through the right incentives together with employing innovation through research and development will the world's production capacity be harnessed effectively to provide for our increased food needs. I appreciate this opportunity to participate in this important Summit. Australia is committed to continuing to work towards the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition in the world. We cannot allow a situation where so many of the world's people are not able to lead fully active lives because of the scourge of hunger and poverty. Let us all heed the Rome Declaration and World Food Summit Plan of Action and take the action that can achieve a global solution to food insecurity and reach the goal of Food for All.