Press release no. 18 from 21.01.12"Even more resolute in our fight against hunger": Federal Minister of Agriculture Aigner meets the new Director-General of the World Food Organisation FAO

At these talks on the fringes of the Green Week, Aigner pledged her support to the new head of the FAO. "We need a global strategy in order to ensure global food security and must be even more resolute in our fight against hunger. There is still sufficient land and thus sufficient potential to produce enough food to feed everybody. The international community must ensure that people in developing and emerging countries also get their share." More than half of the world's population lives in cities today and the figure is anticipated to rise to 70 percent by 2050. The growth of cities and of so-called megacities is irreversible, stressed Aigner. "The supply of these conurbations with food can only be ensured with the help of rural food production. To this end, it must be ensured that small-scale farmers and, above all, women have access to land. They are the most important food producers on the ground", said the Minister. The international Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are therefore a key instrument in this endeavour.

Experience in recent years has also shown that: "We will only be able to effectively combat hunger in the long run by having a regionally adapted farming sector and by using the scarce resources carefully. Both must take centre stage in our political efforts to ensure global food security," said Aigner. In this respect, the Rio+20 summit has already mapped out the path forward towards a sustainable Green Economy and has made it clear that: "Not every road leads to Rome. We must focus all our potential on finding the best agricultural model available that combines traditional farming methods with innovative methods in individual regions. I am in complete agreement with José Graziano in this regard."

On 1 January 2012, Dr. José Graziano da Silva took over the FAO leadership from his predecessor Jacques Diouf. In his home country, the Brazilian agricultural economist has already rendered outstanding services as "Minister for social development and the fight against hunger". With the help of regionally adapted relief efforts, he succeeded in substantially reducing the number of citizens living in poverty. At his meeting with Minister Aigner in Berlin, Graziano emphasised that “In order to eradicate hunger, it is necessary for us to attach a long-term development policy dimension to our emergency relief measures and pursue more sustainable approaches in food production and consumption. This requires joint efforts on the part of industrial and developing countries, governments, civil society and the private sector. I welcome Germany’s continued commitment in this respect."

The world will have a population of around nine billion people by mid-century. The demand for food will increase massively, above all in developing and emerging countries. Natural resources, in contrast, are running low. Arable land is limited and progressive climate change is rendering more and more land infertile, especially in the poorest regions of the world. There is already a lack of water resources in sufficient quality and quantity in many countries. "First and foremost, we need a sustainable increase in production in developing countries, and we must significantly reduce losses," said Aigner. These losses include both harvesting losses and land that becomes unusable through sealing, erosion, salinisation, pollution, contamination or over-exploitation. "We can no longer afford to have a large proportion of the harvest lost during storage or transport," added Aigner. She said that what was needed were investments in infrastructure and in the processing and supply chain, and knowledge transfer to the people on the ground. She stated, however, that people in industrialised countries, too, had to change their attitude towards food. "Every single consumer bears a great responsibility in respect of food because food wastage brings additional pressure to bear on resources such as energy, soil and water."