UN expert: rise in production not enough

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, has warned that boosting food production to alleviate world hunger would not work on its own.

Increased investment in agriculture was essential, he said, particularly in Africa, but he added that such investment had to benefit those who were food insecure.

Mr De Schutter noted that increased harvests resulting in a return to low food prices would further discourage and marginalise small-scale farmers.

“Increasing agricultural production must go hand in hand with increasing the incomes of the poorest, particularly small-scale farmers, and switching to modes of production which do not contribute to climate change,” he said.

He called for a form of sustainable development that was “more about how to help the world feed itself” than “how to feed the world.”