Sustainable Agiculture for Poverty Alleviation
Sustainable agriculture is a very important instrument to be implemented in many parts of the world to eradicate global poverty. Said Regional Adviser on Poverty Reduction and Food Security, The Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture United Nations (Capsa-UN), Dr.Upali Wickramasinghe, in Seminar ‘United Nations for You (UN4U)’, Thursday, 20 October 2011.
According Dr. Upali there are three aspects that correspond to sustainable agriculture, namely social, economic and environment. "Environmental issues which affect sustainable agriculture are land degradation, water crisis, loss of habitat due to the expansion of cultivated plants, as well as the widespread and excessive use of pesticides. These environmental degradation must be controlled, at least they should be reduced, "said Dr. Upali.
While for the economic aspects, according to Dr.Upali that food productivity improvement programs with the agricultural intensification or green revolution, as well as or government policies have greatly affected the food security of the nation. "The high food productivity doesn’t guarantee the attainment of food security of a nation, if the government doesn’t support the right political policies. For example biofuel subsidy policies that reduce the allocation of subsidy for foods. Similarly, the policy to ban of food for export to meet the domestic demands will affect hunger for the less food productivity areas, "said Dr. Upali.
The implementation of sustainable agriculture required the cooperation of all parties to prevent poverty which is getting higher and higher. With current birth rate it is predicted that in the year 2050, there will be 925 million living in poverty line in developing countries. During which the demand of global food would increase into 70 percent, specifically the demand of developing countries would increase into 100 percent. "Thus, additional 1 billion tons of cereals and 200 million tons of meat will be needed," said Dr. Upali.
Dr. Elviyanti Martini the National Programme Officer, of World Food Programme (WFP) delivered introductory profile of WFP the international institution that distributes food to all parts of the world. Elvi also described the general condition of the Indonesian population. "The highest number of malnourished children in Indonesia are from East Nusa Tenggara Province, South Kalimantan, Aceh, West Sulawesi and Gorontalo. Approximately 35.6 percent of the Indonesian children suffer chronic malnutrition, "said Elvi. Under these conditions the WFP seeks to help the Indonesian government to overcome hunger and poverty. (Wied).
