Message to the leaders of the world on the occasion of

World Food Day 2007

Jack Wilkinson, IFAP President (1)

 The farmers are ready to meet the challenge!

The “right to food “, theme selected to celebrate this 2007 World Food Day, is clearly a universal right.  Food means agriculture.  Governments must give agriculture the priority it deserves in order to respect the right to food of the world’s more than six billion people and most likely more than nine billion by the year 2050.

This is a challenge that farmers throughout world are ready to meet. However, governments must commit to provide a stable and favourable economic environment and an advantageous farm policy framework in which farmers have a fair and equitable opportunity to earn reasonable incomes for their families.

Every person in the world must be able to access at any time sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food so as to meet his/her needs, either by producing it themselves or by having the means to purchase it.

IFAP urges that the following measures be taken by national governments to assure the right to food:

• Provide farmers with secure access to natural, economic and productive resources on a long-term basis.

• Put in place, appropriate legislation or professional frameworks to ensure that farmers are equitable partners in the food chain, so as to ensure a better marketing of their food products and profitable selling prices.

• Promote a balanced development of rural communities, allowing farm families access to basic services that are no less that those provided to urban centres (roads, schools, services, small businesses, basic administrative infrastructure).

• Ensure an adequate pricing of food products that allows farmers to pursue their professional activities and to invest in the developments required to ensure sustainability.

The fight against hunger and poverty should be a basic objective of all nations in order to ensure the right to food of their peoples. It is time to act!

PDF version

(1) The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) is the world farmers’ organisation representing over 600 million farm families grouped in 115 national organisations in 80 countries. It is a global network in which farmers from industrialised and developing countries exchange concerns and set common priorities. IFAP advocates farmers’ interests at the international level since 1946 and has General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.