IFAD President will meet government agriculture minister in Seoul

Rome, 21 July 2011 – Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) highlighted the important example the Republic of Korea has set overcoming poverty and hunger through the successful implementation of their national development plan that focussed on rural development.

On the eve of his departure for Seoul, Nwanze said: “As a country that went from hunger to economic stability, the Republic of Korea is an example that history plays out again and again for us to take lessons from. Their experience gives shape to what IFAD has been emphasising: agriculture is a proven engine of economic growth and wealth generation.”

Nwanze is expected to hold meetings with the Ministers of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Administrator of Rural Development Administration. The President of IFAD will address a press conference on 22 July at the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Republic of Korea was one of the world's most impoverished countries in the 1960s, but last year it announced a 22.2 per cent increase in its contribution to the United Nations. It is the first country to make the transition from a recipient of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) to a donor and it currently co-chairs the food security committee in the G20.

Nwanze, visiting the country on the heels of the first G20 Agricultural Ministers meeting held in Paris last month, is seeking new opportunities for partnership with the government and will discuss how the country has a key role in global hunger elimination beyond being a good development model.

“Global economic cooperation is a two-way street and we must make sure that this cooperation responds to the profound changes taking place in agriculture and food markets, which are linked with the international economy as a whole,” Nwanze said.

Current forecasts estimate that the world’s population will increase by 34 per cent over the next forty years, growing to 9.1 billion people by 2050. Hunger remains widespread in the Asia Pacific region, which is predominately rural. It is home to the largest number of undernourished people in the world —578 million people or 62 per cent of the global total. Very large segments of population in south Asia are still vulnerable to dramatic spikes in food prices, which indicate that there are deep structural problems in the region’s food supply chain. The recent crisis has underscored the long-run inadequacy of investment in agriculture.

“It is imperative that we come together to invest in long-term solutions to enable rural poor people to get better access to land and other natural resources, financial services, markets and technology,” Nwanze said. “They need support to become more productive and build profitable business ventures. At IFAD we believe that recognising smallholder farms as businesses is a first important step toward viable and sustainable rural livelihoods — and to feeding our world for the long haul.”

---

Press release No.: IFAD/51/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.9 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).