Delegates,

My name is Jack Wilkinson. I am a farmer and President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP). IFAP is a federation of 115 national farmers’ organisations which represents 600 million farm families throughout the world, two thirds of which are from developing countries.

Chairperson, I do not share the FAO’s view that we will achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015. The facts show that poverty is not decreasing anything like as fast as it should in order to be halved by 2015. And hunger and malnutrition in the world has actually increased since 1996. We now have 854 million citizens of the world that do not have access to enough food to sustain their life and work.

I am returning from Mexico City where IFAP had a meeting with 55 small farmers groups. This meeting concentrated on what national governments must do to improve the life of farmers and their families. It was clear from these discussions that there must have a different approach if we are going to make progress. FAO also must have a different approach for progress to occur.

It is time to make farmers and their organisations the focus of agricultural development. The farmer focus approach is the only approach that will work.

Those countries that have made progress and improved the situation of the poor have developed a partnership with farmers and their organisations. If farmers are given access to the resources they require to produce crops they excel. When producers organise themselves in the market, they are able to improve the incomes of their families.

Two pillars, sustainable production and sustainable income, are required to make progress. The facts speak for themselves: when farmers work together, we have progress, when they do not we do not have progress.

FAO can play a much stronger role to influence this outcome. FAO must work more closely with farmers’ organisations and they must insist that they be involved in agricultural and rural development. It must influence its national government members to build these partnerships for success.

FAO has seen its revenue decrease over the last 12 years. It is my belief if FAO changed direction and moved to a farmer- centred approach to development, their donors would respond more positively to FAO.

We need farmers not only to produce more food, but also to play a pivotal role in sustainable development. Farmers in arid areas can make the changes required to halt desertification; they can make the changes required in farm practices to get more crop per drop, to meet the global objectives in climate change, preserve biodiversity and assist in the production of renewable energy.

The future can and must be brighter than the present. IFAP is convinced that a farmer-centred strategy will produce a healthier future; a future that creates a world without hunger.

Thank you.