KUALA LUMPUR: International funding for developing countries to develop their agriculture production and improve their food security and nutrition situation should be significantly increased, said Malaysia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Datuk Hussein Haniff.
He said efforts to increase investment in the agricultural sector cannot be seen as the main responsibility of the governments alone as private investments was necessary to invigorate the sector.
“By emphasising that agriculture is core to building a sustainable future, especially to ensure food security and nutrition for the ever growing world population, it is therefore imperative that sustainable agriculture and food security and nutrition be part of the new sustainable development agenda beyond 2015,” he said at the Second Committee of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday.
His speech text on Agenda Item 25: Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition was made available to Bernama here yesterday.
Hussein said Malaysia also welcomed the Zero Hunger Challenge which was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon last year.
He said the programme expressed a vision of a world without hunger and malnutrition, especially child stunting, and where agriculture and food systems were sustainable and contribute to eradicating rural poverty through the inclusion of smallholders, rural workers and the landless.
Recognising the vital importance of food security and nutrition in meeting the nation’s needs, he said Malaysia had made it a point to ensure that sustainable agriculture and food security and nutrition were high on its national agenda.
“In this regard, specific strategies to expand the agriculture sector are adopted under the on-going 10th Malaysia Plan.
“This include setting up agriculture consortiums and cooperatives, encourage adoption of accredited practices by farmers, fishermen and agropreneurs and strengthen marketing through contract farming and strategic alliances,” he said.
Under Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), he said agriculture had been identified as a National Key Result Area where the agriculture sector was targeted to increase the Gross National Income by US$9.1 billion (RM28.9 billion) to reach US$15.4 billion (RM49.1 billion) by 2020.
“The agriculture sector is also targeted to create 109,335 job opportunites by 2020, primarily in the rural areas and increase the income of farmers participating in our initiatives by two to four times,” he said.
Hussein said Malaysia had been actively involved in regional cooperation in food security namely Asean Food Security Information System (AFSIS) to facilitate food security planning and implementation among Asean Member States through systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of agriculture information.
At the international level, he said Malaysia underscored the importance of freer trade in ensuring food security.
“We view that food production and trade in agricultural products could be further enhanced through the dismantling of market distorting measures in global agriculture trade.
“Hence, we call on developed countries to refrain from adopting protectionist and export restrictive measures that can create imbalances in international agriculture production and supply in order to avoid volatility in food prices,” he said. — Bernama