MALTA - MALTE

The Right Honourable Alfred Sant, Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta

The challenge of securing Food for All is a challenge that will need our full commitment and immediate action. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action, which we solemnly adopted two days ago, must become the blueprint for the new millennium in the search for practical measures to secure access to food for all our societies but in particular to the poor and those less fortunate. Malta is proud to participate in this Summit, convened to mobilize public support, political support and the involvement of governments and individuals in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. Indeed, Malta sincerely hopes and trusts that all governments represented at this gathering will act, both individually in the exercise of their primary responsibility towards their own people, and collectively in the spirit of solidarity to ensure that the scandal of want in the midst of plenty becomes a thing of the past.

We should build on the three-pronged and successful mission of the World Food Programme: food for saving lives; food for human growth; and food for facilitating self-reliance.

We will thus be responding to millions of victims of emergencies, refugees, displaced people and victims of drought and other natural disasters. Malta is not facing any problems of food security, whether in availability, stability or access to food supplies. Notwithstanding this, the Maltese Government is ready to continue to contribute its fair share in ensuring that within one generation all people have, at all times, secure access to the food they need for an active and healthy life with dignity.

My country is the most densely populated non-urbanised area in Europe, which means severe pressure on its natural and arable landscapes. The agriculture and fisheries sector is very small in Malta and its contribution to GDP is one of the lowest in the Mediterranean region. Fishing has shrunk in importance, principally due to over-fishing in the Mediterranean Sea and pollution of that sea. Malta is also a heavy importer of cereals both for human and animal consumption. The recent increase in cereal prices has had a negative effect on our livestock production. As world cereal stocks are expected to remain below their historical levels and the possibility exists of increased price volatility in the medium term, there is the risk of future price instability in the developing and the net cereal importing countries like Malta.

In the face of these constraints and handicaps, and cognizant of its responsibility to tackle the problem of food insecurity, the new Government which I have the honour to lead, will be putting in place in the next five years a new agricultural and fisheries policy that has the primary objective of giving the Maltese farmer and fisherman, as well as the Maltese consumer, a better future. It is a policy that will lead Malta into the new millennium, a policy that will centre around the human being where the citizen must come first.

As clearly indicated in our electoral programme, the Government will embark on a sustainable agricultural and fisheries policy based on five fundamental goals, namely that of ensuring:

· Adequate income for farmers and fishermen alike;

· A choice of food products of high nutritional quality at prices affordable to every citizen;

· The protection of our natural environment;

· The improvement in the processing and marketing of agricultural and fishing produce both locally and abroad; and

· The full commitment of the Government to act positively in extending direct and indirect market-oriented assistance to farmers and fishermen in the search for efficiency through innovative methods and access to new technologies that will advance their own wellbeing.

Under the banner of farm support, reform and development, the future agricultural and fisheries policy of the Government will be sustained by a national economic plan that will take into account the specific technical, political, social and economic conditions that affect these two important sectors. Based on this premise, the new Government of Malta would first and foremost safeguard and protect arable land which has seen in these few years a continuous threat and shrinkage. Through the improvement of basic educational standards, the Government will encourage young farmers to engage themselves in agricultural disciplines that will ensure and sustain Malta's arable land.

The challenges lying ahead of us are considerable. Together we must identify the root causes of food insecurity and we must target policy action towards the most vulnerable groups of our population. We all recognise that Governments have a fundamental role in overseeing that their country's wealth is being distributed equitably and that there are equal opportunities in the workplace. The problems ensuing from market failure have been well documented. Whilst encouraging the private sector towards the strengthening of the infrastructure, marketing and education system, the role of NGOs should also be acknowledged and supported.

At the regional and international level, Malta intends to work hand-in-hand towards the resolution of conflicts and consensus-building particularly in the utilization of shared natural resources, thus providing much-needed support for social and economic development both internally and at a regional level.

It is only through a unified approach involving the citizens of our countries that we can achieve the goals and objectives contained in the documents of this World Food Summit, thus resolving the main problems of humanity and of our societies in ensuring food supplies.