Almost 5% of Moroccans Live on Less Than $1.25 a Day

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrates World Food Day on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945, FAO sources said adding each year it is celebrated by more than 150 countries worldwide.

This year, the theme of the World Food Day is “Social Protection and Agriculture:Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty”, which aims to sensitize the people about eradicating rural poverty and ensuring food protection for all.

“Social protection programs allow households to access more food – often by increasing what they grow themselves – and also make their diets more diverse and healthier. These programmes can have positive impacts on infant and maternal nutrition, reduce child labour and raise school attendance, all of which increase productivity”, he said.

“With recent estimates from the World Bank indicating that more than 2.2 billion people world-wide are living below the poverty line, it is clear that poverty is still a global issue”, CropLife Australia CEO Matthew Cossey said.

While big advances in the fight against extreme poverty have been made in East Asia, the Pacific and South Asia, nearly no headway has been recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half the population is extremely poor.

Most countries, even the poorest, could afford a few kind of social protection program.

Still, the report underlines how social protection alone can not sustainably eradicate hunger and rural poverty.

In Zambia for example, a pilot cash-grants programme led recipient households to greatly increase livestock ownership as well as land under cultivation, input use and ownership of tools such as hoes, sickles and axes, leading to a 50 per cent jump in the overall value of locally produced agricultural commodities.

Other speakers included UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Hilal Elver, who stressed the humanitarian aspects of climate change mitigation and adaption, and Lapodini Atouga, Commissioner of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources of the Economic Community of West African States who underscored the regional body’s commitment to address the challenges of food security and climate change. For instance, institutional procurement programmes can create a market for small-scale family farmers by purchasing their produce, which can be used for social protection programmes, such as school feeding.

The report argues strongly that measures to give the rural poor great financial assistance do not reduce work effort or foster a dependency culture.

Mr Bukar Tijani, Assistant Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has said public investment in social protection must be combined and coordinated towards strengthening the productive sectors of agriculture and rural development.

It is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of innovations in modern agriculture in assisting rural communities in the developing world break free of poverty and farmers in the developed world become more profitable and internationally competitive.