São Paulo – This Tuesday (3rd), in Rome, the director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, said he will attend the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and then travel to the Horn of Africa. Graziano said the continent will be a priority during his term in office, which began last Sunday (1st).
“Africa will be a priority during my mandate. I will travel to the continent at the end of January to participate in the African Union Summit and visit the Horn of Africa to see the situation and the work being done first hand,” said Graziano.
He praised hunger relief programs underway in Latin America and said he will concentrate his efforts in Africa because some of the countries in the continent are unable to feed their population.
“The FAO is needed at places that are unable to manage the challenge of eradicating hunger by themselves. Because I have limited resources, I am going to prioritize the needier countries, which are in Africa right now, especially North Africa,” he said.
Graziano, who was extraordinary minister of Food Security and Hunger Relief and coordinator of the Zero Hunger Program during former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first term in office, said he should use some of the knowledge gained while heading Zero Hunger at the FAO. According to him, however, every place has its idiosyncrasies and requires an individual solution.
The director promised that the FAO’s actions will be more effective and less centralized, with greater participation of individual countries. He also said finding local solutions and products helps reduce dependency on commodity-derived products.
“We must start with the consumption standards and give due value to local products. We are experiencing a commodity crisis. There is a vast amount of local products that can be used [in eradicating hunger], much more than these products (commodities) whose prices are so volatile,” said Graziano.
The FAO director-general said volatility in commodities prices is caused by variations in the dollar exchange rates, low food inventories, and natural disasters which affect production. He also said biofuels influence food prices as well.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
