New York: Three quarters of the world's 852 million men and women suffer from hunger, depend on farming for survival.
Acknowledging the "essential role" of agrarian (relating to agricultural or rural matters) reforms in promoting sustainable development, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) has emphasised on the need to strengthen such reforms as well as rural development policies to help reduce poverty.
At a conference, which just concluded in Porto Alegre, Brazil, more than 350 representatives of 96 member States of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have stressed on strengthening of agricultural reforms to reduce poverty.
"We emphasise that agrarian reform and rural development policies, laws and institutions must respond to the needs and aspirations of rural people, and therefore must involve relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process," the declaration said.
Signatory governments committed themselves to developing mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation to reinforce processes of agrarian reform and rural development at national and international levels
The governments’ commitment also lied in establishing mechanisms for periodic evaluation of progress in these areas.
"When FAO agreed to organize this Conference, we were under no illusion that dialogue would be easy on a subject such as agrarian reform," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a message at the closing ceremony.
"However, one of the great results of this Conference has been the level of dialogue reached between government representatives and members of peasants' and civil society organisations, laid out in a common vision about the importance of introducing urgent and needed changes to eradicate hunger and poverty," he added.
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