| |
Rome, June 11, IRNA -- Iran believes the world will not succeed in its war against poverty and hunger if it keeps on moving on the present track and at the same pace, even for the future generations.
Iran's Minister of Agriculture Mahmoud Hojjati who is the head of the country's delegation to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sponsored International Conference on Campaign Against Hunger, was among the first lecturers at the said conference, that was inaugurated in Rome, Italy, on Monday.
Hojjati asked the audience: "How can we logically expect to succeed in our international campaign to uproot hunger among the 800 strong hungry population around the globe when we are decreasing only six million of them each year?"
Speaking for over 4,000 representatives of 182 different nations present at the gathering, the Iranian agriculture minister said: "The time machine will not halt for us to wake up from our catnap and rush to launch a real campaign to uproot hunger with which a large group of human beings are currently entangled."
He added: "under such sorrowful conditions that the world is entangled with such a grave hunger crisis, certain governments pay subsidies to their farmers not to raise crops, since they are worried lest the prices of their agricultural products would drop at international stock markets."
Hojjati added: "based on latest statistics, even if the currently produced agricultural products would be distributed fairly among the world population, both the hunger crisis, and the malnutrition problem in underdeveloped and developing countries would be fully solved."
He said that over 30 percent of the agricultural products in the above mentioned two groups of countries are wasted today, due to lack of access to modern technology.
The Iranian minister said that the assistance of the advanced countries in introducing up-to-date agricultural techniques can stop that waste, and decrease the number of hungry human beings in such countries.
He added: "The necessity to take full and best advantage of technology and wealth in order to eliminate inequality, poverty and hunger around the globe is felt today more than ever before in the history of man's life on the earth.
"That is because otherwise, the owners of of the earth's wealth, sciences and technology will have to lead well-off lives, but full of feelings of guilt, anxiety and horror, and in order to eliminate such feelings, they will have to use all their resources in order to oppress those who are deprived of them," he concluded.
The Iranian culture minister said that in the countries belonging to the south block, not only there is political enthusiasm aimed at uprooting poverty and hunger, but also there is devotion in that respect, and let it not be forgotten that solving those problems, is meanwhile the key to lasting development.
Referring to the point that agricultural development is the major priority in Iran's comprehensive development plan, Hojjati said that keeping in mind the climatic and natural habitat diversity of Iran, we hope not only to become self-sufficient in providing food for our own nation in near future, but also to play a fair share in providing agricultural products for the people in need of them in our region and around the globe.
On the top of agenda of the objectives of the ongoing FAO conference in Rome that will wrap up its activities on Thursday there is to draft a work plan and draw a road map for decreasing the number of the hungry human beings from the current 800 million, down to 400 million by the year 2015.
Home
|
|