AUSTRIA - AUTRICHE

Ms. Hedwig Wögerbauer, Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Austria

I have the honour to convey cordially the greetings of Mr. Molterer, the Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and to present his address to the World Food Summit.

First of all I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to this responsible function. My congratulations are also offered to the Vice-Presidents of the World Food Summit. At the same time I wish this conference much success, as it is so important for FAO.

Austria, in the Plenary Session of the 28th FAO Conference, advocated in its policy statement the organization of the World Food Summit, since the supreme target of development policy has to be to contribute to the improvement of the economic and social situation of mankind, in particular in the least developed and the poorest developing countries. The priority of course is to mitigate hunger and poverty and give relief to the some 800 million malnourished people in urban and rural areas. This objective was already set at the 1974 World Food Conference, but could not be reached to this day, more than 20 years later.

However, there are four major obstacles to an effective food supply:

· Civil wars, social unrest, and ethnic or religious as well as regional conflicts impair the production of food and its shipment to the consumers;

· Poverty, in particular where it is due to an unequal access to land, credit and education, or to the lack of productive occupation, prevents people from producing the required food or from procuring it from available sources;

· The equal access for women, who do much of the work of in agriculture, to production resources, such as ownership of land, credit and education, is not sufficiently guaranteed;

· Environmental damage, caused by inadequate production methods, threatens long-term food supply, in particular in areas where poverty is predominant. This is either due to the lack of scientific or technical knowledge or of the required tools and equipment; also an inappropriate agricultural policy may be the reason.

Solutions to these problems have to be sought in various fields. In principle it is the task of each individual country to solve its problems, the international community of states can only support those individual approaches.

The governments of all countries are responsible for the establishment of the political and economic outline conditions to achieve an economically efficient, socially-equitable and ecologically-sustainable agriculture and rural development, both on a national and international level. The indispensable preconditions for sustainable development are human rights, democracy and the possibility for people from all classes participating in economic activities.

Governmental action has to be clearly oriented to development. A socially balanced population policy, adequate medical care and education policy have to be mentioned here as cornerstones. Good governance, concentrating on the creation of employment, avoiding unproductive expenses and fighting corruption, is essential to establish a stable framework for food security.

Legal security, in particular secured land property and long-term land utilization rights, are an important prerequisite for the economic development of a country. In this connection, particular consideration has to be given to the purchase of land and land utilization on the basis of equal rights. International and regional cooperation has to support primarily strategies of sustainable development in those countries which actually pursue such strategies, and should be concentrated on the least developed countries.

Sustainable development can only be discussed and planned in connection with the geographical and demographic conditions. Since the individual countries vary widely in this respect, detailed action plans can only apply to regions or nations. Proposals of international organizations - based on previous experience - might be a valuable assistance.

To achieve food security it will therefore be necessary in the long term to elaborate international action plans for individual countries, with the objective to achieve self-support within national borders.

These may also be based upon the results of the Conferences in Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing and Istanbul and mainly on the stipulations of Agenda 21 passed in Rio in 1992. All national states are obliged to document the implementation of Agenda 21. This obligation seems to be a good starting point to enable food security in the individual countries.

In national programmes due account has to be given to site-specific conditions, to close cycles, to the minimization of material use and to the integration of all economic sectors. Biodiversity and the preservation and protection of species, as well as integrated plant protection, should have precedence over the uncontrolled application of genetic technologies and products.

To preserve soil fertility, ecologically and technologically adapted farming methods on a biological basis should be applied as soon as possible. Small-scale farming to secure the subsistence of the majority of the population should be preferred to industrialized farming. The traditional knowledge of the local population (which is familiar with site-specific production methods) as well as the experience gathered in the industrialized countries should be used.

Population growth, rural exodus and the concentration of the population in cities are one crucial problem. A further expansion of land utilization or its intensification - also by means of irrigation or uprooting - has, in view of the sustainability, to be considered as problematic.

Excessive utilization, in particular, may lead to the disappearance of valuable habitats, may endanger biodiversity and deteriorate water quality. It may also cause climatic and ecological changes, which will aggravate the food situation. Sustainable management therefore does not only refer to farmland, but also to forests, which are an important source of fuelwood and vegetable and animal food, especially in developing countries.

With a view to the long-term preservation of agricultural and forest resources, approaches should be sought based on an interdisciplinary and integrated way of proceeding.

Emergency food aid continues to be a priority issue. Austria continues to take part in the International Food Aid Convention and aims at providing food as far as possible for developing countries. Most important is that food aid promotes agricultural production in the respective countries and does not hamper it.

A major task of the countries, particularly of the industrialized countries, is to adjust their own agricultural production to the requirements of environmental protection. This means, above all, the protection of the natural resources and landscape. Technological research and innovations, especially in the field of scientific cooperation with developing countries help considerably to extend the limits of sustainable food production worldwide.

The limited financial means available should be used efficiently and purposefully. For Austria, it is therefore of the utmost importance that the implementation of the Summit's Plan of Action will come within the competence of ECOSOC.

The Austrian Government expresses its wishes that this Summit, convened by FAO, may, on the basis of the Policy Declaration and the Plan of Action, contribute to combat hunger and malnutrition.