INDIA - INDE

His Excellency H.D. Deve Gowda, Prime Minister of the Republic of India

Prior to our Independence in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation, said: "To the hungry, God is bread; it is the fundamental duty of free nations to ensure that every citizen is enabled to earn his or her daily bread and lead a productive and healthy life". In this context, I convey our warm appreciation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and his colleagues for their initiative and hard work in organizing the World Food Summit in Rome. I would like to express my gratitude to the people and the Government of Italy for their warmth and indulgent hospitality.

A hungry man is also a poor man. Poverty cannot be understood without knowing what hunger means and what it does to someone who is poor. While governments all over the world claim that they are aware of issues concerning hunger and poverty, political will that is so essential to tackle hunger seems to be lacking or else, hunger would not be spreading at the pace at which it has been in the past decade, particularly in some parts of the world. It is alarming that this is true of some of the developed countries of the world as well.

It is clear that the world community needs to do more in its fight against hunger. If there is one issue around which all of us can forge a "global coalition", that issue certainly is the issue of hunger. What is required of all of us is to generate the necessary political will to eradicate hunger within a short time, taking measures at global, regional and national levels.

It is distressing that, even now, over 800 million people suffer the pangs of hunger on this planet. These women, children and men do not have the energy to live meaningfully, they are also deprived of essential nutrients like iron, zinc, iodine and Vitamin A. They are thus exposed to disease, blindness, anaemia and worse. Hunger and poverty also bar access to education without which the world's dream of empowering the poor, especially women, would never become a reality.

Economic growth in itself cannot fulfil the minimum needs of all people, especially the poor. In India, we have all agreed to make an all-out effort for a full provision of basic minimum services, including safe drinking water, health and education, provision of nutrition and mid-day meals to children, and a streamlined public distribution system focused upon the poor. These essential services, which are integrally related to food and nutrition security are at the heart of our social sector and minimum needs programme. We are determined to achieve these results in our country by AD 2000.

There have been periodical predictions of shortfalls in the world's food production and often major disasters are predicted by agricultural pundits. I am a grassroots farmer and may I assure you that as a grower of food grains on my own land, I do not believe the prophets of doom. The farmers of the world can meet all the food needs of mankind. The problem, however, is the absence of commitment and clear-cut strategies for achieving "Food for All".

Every country would need to go in for an integrated natural resource conservation strategy. We should promote an agricultural development based on technologies which are eco-friendly.

There is a need for taking the benefits of modern post-harvest technology and agri-business to poor farm families. We need more money to flow to rural areas to help establish the techno-infrastructure required for increasing farm and off-farm incomes.

All this will become possible only if industrialized countries give up their restrictive policies on agricultural trade. Industrialized countries today enjoy the benefit of technology and capital in industry and the subsidy-driven advantages in agriculture. The developing nations have no level playing field in agricultural trade. Prices of primary agricultural commodities in developing countries are unduly depressed. This dampens the enthusiasm of farmers. The peasants in developing countries need to be encouraged to produce more through appropriate incentives. Discouraging these incentives will endanger food security.

The policies of developed countries on agricultural incentives have unfortunately not been helpful. Policies like those relating to subsidies and input pricing in particular, should have a global consistency if hunger has to be banished from our midst.

It is now accepted that further intensification of agriculture in industrialized nations will be environmentally disastrous. Neglecting agriculture in countries like mine, however, will be socially disastrous since this can lead to a further rise in unemployment and poverty. Food and nutrition security for all cannot be ensured unless, we, the world leaders assembled here in Rome, summon the political will required to ensure that there is no hunger on the face of this earth on the first day of the twenty-first century.

Many important commitments have been made at the previous summits and world conferences. However, the key to the fulfilment of these commitments is the centrality of people. This is why India, at Copenhagen, promoted the concept that the people should be central to any strategy for social development.

We in India are trying to ensure this, admittedly with limited success, through programmes of direct intervention such as the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme, the subsidized Public Distribution System, the massive Rural Employment Assurance Programme and a large-scale Mid-Day Meal Scheme for school children. All these programmes are aimed at the poor and use food grains on a large scale. These food grains come from India's own successful Green Revolution, a revolution which we are deepening and broadening across the country so that food and nutrition security at the individual and household levels are guaranteed. We have seen in India a direct correlation between food and nutrition security at the household level on the one hand, and better Human Development Indices and poverty reduction on the other.

There can be no peace in the world if hunger is not eradicated. Like peace, hunger also is indivisible. Hunger anywhere is a threat to peace. The need of the hour is joint action on the part of all of us to ensure food security. For this and to generate the political will required, I propose here in Rome, as a follow-up to this Summit, that we set up agencies at three levels - the global, regional and national levels - charged with the specific responsibility to implement this Summit's Programme of Action.

In sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia, hunger levels have unfortunately remained very high during the past two decades. Between them the two regions account for nearly 60 percent of the incidence of world hunger. The rich countries of the world represented by the G-7, and regional associations like SAARC, have been meeting separately to discuss issues concerning them. It is my belief that a joint G-7, sub-Saharan and South Asian initiative for ending hunger on our planet is an idea whose time has come. I therefore suggest that the G-7, the sub-Saharan and the SAARC countries establish jointly an agency for follow-up of the recommendations of this Summit. The involvement of the concerned United Nations agencies, other international lending institutions and major donors would also help.

Regional cooperation for combatting hunger and poverty is also an effective option. As current Chairperson of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, I commend for consideration of this assembly the Resolution adopted by SAARC. While national governments carry the primary responsibility for ensuring food security, the SAARC Resolution reflects the belief that the international community has an obligation to supplement national efforts to ensure food security.

At the national level, where the real action lies, the anti-hunger agency should be headed by the highest political executive. On behalf of the people and the Government of India, I pledge our total support to the fight against hunger at the global, regional and national levels. In India, I will lead the anti-hunger drive myself.