The Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations celebrates World
Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the
Organization was founded in 1945. The World Food Day and TeleFood
theme for 2005, "Agriculture and intercultural dialogue",
recalls the contribution of different cultures to world agriculture
and argues that sincere intercultural dialogue is a precondition
for progress against hunger and environmental degradation.
Although the substitution of farming and livestock raising
for hunting and gathering as the main mode of food production
- the birth of agriculture - occurred independently in many
parts of the world around 10 000 years ago, the history of
agriculture is full of examples of important intercultural
exchanges. The first archeological record of farming in Europe
shows advanced tool technology but provides no evidence of
simpler tools. One theory is that peoples from the Middle
East brought their tools and technologies to Europe. Similar
movements of farming peoples are thought to have occurred
in Africa, Central and South America, China, India and Southeast
Asia. Why did they move? Agriculture provided a more dependable
source of food, causing populations to increase; eventually
excess population migrated to new lands.
The World Food Prize emphasizes the importance
of a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people.
By honoring those who have worked successfully toward this
goal, The Prize calls attention to what has been done to improve
the world food supply and to what can be accomplished in the
future.
Lobato and Paolinelli are the first World
Food Prize Laureates from Brazil, while McClung is the eleventh
Laureate from the United States. Quinn added that the 2006
recipients each played a vital role in transforming the Cerrado
– a region of vast, once infertile tropical high plains
stretching across Brazil – into highly productive cropland.
Though they worked independently of one another, in different
decades and in different fields, their collective efforts
over the past 50 years have unlocked Brazil’s tremendous
potential for food production. Their advancements in soil
science and policy leadership made agricultural development
possible in the Cerrado, a region named from Portuguese words
meaning “closed, inaccessible land.”
“This increased agricultural production has helped
improve economic and social conditions in Brazil, while their
research continues to promote agricultural development and
poverty alleviation in other tropical and sub-tropical countries
throughout the world,” said World Food Prize Foundation
President Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn. He noted that from
1970 to 2000 Brazil’s agricultural production more than
tripled while its area of cultivated land grew less than 1.5
times.
Pictured clockwise from upper right:
World Food Prize ceremony held annually in Iowa State
Capitol building, Des Moines, Iowa, USA;
World Food Prize sculpture by Saul
Bass;
2005
Laureate: Dr.
Modadugu Vijay Gupta;
Combating
overfishing and returning coastal fisheries to sustainability
in Asia;
World Fish Center;
Dr. Gupta
Fish-farming pioneer
wins 'Nobel’ prize of food
13 October, 2005 - INDIAN scientist DR Modadugu
Gupta, who spent 30 years creating a cheap and environmentally
sustainable system of small-scale fish farming using abandoned
ditches and seasonally flooded fields and water holes, was
formally presented with the the prestigious $250,000 World
Food Prize this week, Usatoday.com reported.
The prize is considered by many to be the Nobel Prize of
food and agriculture. The scientist is credited with having
launched a "blue revolution" (a rapid increase
in fish production) in the developing world. He received
the World Food Prize for his work to enhance nutrition for
over one million people, mostly very poor women, through
the expansion of aquaculture and fish farming in South and
Southeast Asia and Africa. Dr Gupta developed unique methods
of fish farming, requiring little cost while causing no
environmental damage. As a result, landless farmers and
poor women have turned a million abandoned pools, roadside
ditches, seasonally flooded fields and other bodies of water
into mini-factories churning out fish for food and income.
Keen to duplicate the success achieved in Asia, Dr. Gupta
is working with a growing number of African countries to
implement similar measures. He received the award in a Des
Moines ceremony that's part of the World Food Prize International
Symposium.
www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications.
Special Publications also publish European Fish Trader,
Fishing Monthly, Fish Farming Today, Fish Farmer, the Fish
Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation
Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
Fish-farming pioneer wins 'Nobel
of food' By Elizabeth Weise, USA
TODAY
The $250,000 World Food Prize, considered by many the Nobel
Prize of food and agriculture, was awarded today to an Indian
scientist credited with launching a "blue revolution"
(a rapid increase in fish production) in the developing
world.
Modadugu Gupta has spent 30 years creating a cheap and ecologically
sustainable system of small-scale fish-farming using abandoned
ditches and seasonally flooded fields and water holes smaller
than the average swimming pool.
The small ponds become tiny food factories,
churning out protein and income for more than 1 million
families in Southern and Southeast Asia and Africa. Gupta's
work has multiplied freshwater fish production in those
countries by three to five times, says Kenneth Quinn, president
of the World Food Prize Foundation.
In wet, low-lying countries such as Bangladesh
and Laos, farmers routinely excavate soil to raise the level
of their houses. This creates small ponds that fill with
water in the rainy season. Roads also are built up with
nearby soil, creating long, narrow ponds along roadways
that can be used as fish farms.
The farmers, most of them poor women and landless
farmers, typically raise as few as 200 fish, feeding the
carp and tilapia farm waste such as rice and wheat bran.
This creates high-protein food for their families and a
cash crop for their financial needs.
Gupta recently retired from the WorldFish
Center, a Malaysia-based research organization whose mission
is to reduce poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and
aquaculture. He will receive the award today in a Des Moines
ceremony that's part of the World Food Prize International
Symposium.
World
Food Program
"I am
12 years old and in 7th grade. I have a lot of imagination
and love the countryside as well as teamwork."
Yandy Sanabria Roque, a student at the Argelio
Zamora Torriente School in Matanzas province, Cuba.
Copyright:
2004 © WFP
THE WFP MISSION STATEMENT
In 1994, WFP became the first United Nations organisation
to adopt a mission statement. It is the foundation on which
we build our policy, defining the who, what, where and how
of our 'mission' to eradicate global hunger and poverty.
What is WFP's Mission?
As the food aid arm of the UN, WFP uses its
food to:
meet emergency needs
support economic & social development
The Agency also provides the logistics support
necessary to get food aid to the right people at the right
time and in the right place.
WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the
international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and
operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry.
Who do we help?
Victims of natural disasters like the tsunami
disaster in 2004, Bangladesh floods in 2004, the Iran earthquake
in 2003 or Hurricane Mitch, which affected one million people
in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatamala in October
1998.
Displaced People - both refugees and internally
displaced persons to leave towns and villages in places
like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.
The world's hungry poor, trapped in a twilight
zone between poverty and malnutrition.
WFP also believes that women are the first
solution to hunger and poverty. Women not only cook food.
They sow, reap and harvest it. Yet, in many developing countries,
they eat last and least.
Where?
WFP is the world's largest international food
aid organisation combating hunger in underdeveloped nations
with severe food shortages. The frontline stretches from
sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Latin America
and Asia & the Pacific.
How do we fight hunger?
Rescue: WFP stands on a permanent state of
alert, ready to mobilise food aid for delivery to natural
and man-made disaster areas.
Rapid Reaction: WFP's rapid response team
draws-up contingency plans designed to move food and humanitarian
aid fast into disaster areas.
WFP works closely with the other members of the UN family,
governments and NGOs, offering its logistics expertise to
guarantee the delivery of all kinds of humanitarian aid.
Rehabilitation: WFP food aid also serves as
a means to get disaster-affected regions back on their feet.
Deterrence: Malnutrition gnaws away at the
most valuable asset in any country's development: its children
and its workers. Food aid is one of the most effective deterrents
against long-term poverty. WFP kick-starts development by
paying workers with rations to build vital infrastructure
and offering children food aid as a reward for going to
school.
The
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR)
The CGIAR Mission
To achieve sustainable food security and reduce
poverty in developing countries through scientific research
and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture,
forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment.
Introduction
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) is a strategic alliance of countries, international
and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting
15 international agricultural Centers, that work with national
agricultural research systems and civil society organizations
including the private sector. The alliance mobilizes agricultural
science to reduce poverty, foster human well being, promote
agricultural growth and protect the environment. The CGIAR
generates global public goods that are available to all.
Agriculture, the key to development
In a world where 75 percent of poor people
depend on agriculture to survive, poverty cannot be reduced
without investment in agriculture. Many of the countries
with the strongest agricultural sectors have a record of
sustained investment in agricultural science and technology.
The evidence is clear, research for development generates
agricultural growth and reduces poverty.
Agricultural research benefits people
and the planet
Agricultural research for development has
a record of delivering results. The science that made possible
the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was largely
the work of CGIAR Centers and their national agricultural
research partners. The scientists' work not only increased
incomes for small farmers, it enabled the preservation of
millions of hectares of forest and grasslands, conserving
biodiversity and reducing carbon releases into the atmosphere.
CGIAR's research agenda is dynamic, flexible, and responsive
to emerging development challenges. The research portfolio
has evolved from the original focus on increasing productivity
in individual critical food crops. Today's approach recognizes
that biodiversity and environment research are also key
components in the drive to enhance sustainable agricultural
productivity. Our belief in the fundamentals remains as
strong as ever: agricultural growth and increased farm productivity
in developing countries creates wealth, reduces poverty
and hunger and protects the environment.
FOOD
AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both
developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral
forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements
and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and
information. We help developing countries and countries
in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry
and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all.
Since our founding in 1945, we have focused special attention
on developing rural areas, home to 70 percent of the world's
poor and hungry people. FAO's activities comprise four main
areas:
Putting information within reach.
Sharing policy expertise.
Providing a meeting place for nations.
Bringing knowledge to the field.
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