Minister Väyrynen: Agriculture pivotal in reducing poverty and hunger

Press Release 283/2010
29 September 2010
 

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen stresses each country’s own responsibility for its food security and agricultural development. The Minister believes that agriculture and agricultural policy play a key role in reducing poverty and hunger, and development policy must invest considerably more in them.

“The right to food is part of the right to a life worth living. The obligation of every state – in both industrialized and developing countries – is to ensure food security for its own citizens. Not all countries can do this on their own, however, and so industrialized countries must help developing countries in their efforts,” Väyrynen emphasized.

Minister Väyrynen stated that the international community has realized the importance of agriculture too late, in practice only as a result of the food crisis. Finland, for her part, has worked with determination to strengthen the role of agriculture in the country’s development policy and development cooperation during the last few years. Since 2007, Finland’s development cooperation appropriations for agriculture and food security have risen from six million to 34 million euros.

The Minister pointed out that agricultural development is long-term work and achieving sustainable results calls for investment in comprehensive rural development and interaction between urban and rural areas. This also requires investments in infrastructure, legislation, health, education and preparedness for natural disasters.