UN agency to hold conference on food security needs of small island States

The United Nations agricultural agency will hold a special meeting later this year in Rome to address the priorities that the small island developing States (SIDS) will set to expand their agriculture, forestry and fisheries “in light of the importance of nutrition and food security needs.”

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) Nadia Scialabba said the November meeting of SIDS agricultural ministers would “revolve around increasing the efficiency and the diversification of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, with a particular focus on impacts related to trade and national food security; nutrition and household food security; and environmental resilience.”

During last week’s SIDS meeting in Mauritius FAO pointed out the problems of small island nations’ trade, especially the threats to earnings from their major agricultural commodities, sugar and bananas.

A reform proposal could reduce the sugar price to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) exporting countries by as much as 37 per cent and the move to a tariff-only regime for bananas could potentially erode the market for Caribbean banana producers, FAO senior economist Deep Ford said.

In addition, the strategy document that emerged from Mauritius said SIDS management of ocean resources should cover “mapping of their exclusive economic zones, monitoring and surveillance of fishing efforts, including appropriate enforcement measures to minimize illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and over-harvesting,” according to the FAO’s codes and agreements on national and international fishing.

The SIDS also should create “synergistic linkages between tourism and the agricultural sector by promoting island foods and beverage supply chains, rural hospitality and agro-tourism.”

Assistance from the international community was needed to establish fair trade and food security for SIDS and to improve the infrastructure of public and agricultural sanitation, the document said.