Xinhua, Milan :
European Union (EU) agriculture ministers Tuesday agreed to make further efforts to improve food security and combat hunger, as failure to do so would boost migration flows and stoke conflicts.
“Agriculture is both a critical part of efforts to improve malnutrition and a fundamental driver of sustainable development on a global level,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos told a press conference at the end of a three-day informal summit held in Milan.
“Food security has become a priority of the international agenda,” he added, underlining the close relation between food security and healthy economic growth.
Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina hosted the meeting on behalf of Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. He stressed “the increasing model and leadership role” the EU will have to play on international food issues.
Martina announced that a forum against counterfeiting, a crucial theme of EU agricultural policies, will be held in Milan before the opening of the world exposition from May 1 to Oct. 31, 2015.
He also said the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will host at the FAO headquarters in Rome from Nov. 19 to 21.
“Food insecurity and conflict go hand-in-hand,” FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva told the press conference.
In a globalized world, he said, extreme climatic events, troubles in Africa and the Near East and now the Ebola outbreak in West Africa tend to spill into other regions, often through forced migration.
“It is our common responsibility to help build alternatives. Sustainable agricultural and rural development in the countries of origin needs to be one of them,” da Silva stressed.
He said hunger is the most deplorable face of malnutrition, but “it is not the only face,” as five percent of global economic activity is lost annually while more than two billion people suffer from undernourishment, micro-nutrient deficiencies or hidden hunger.
