October 16 - On World Food Day, we turn our attention to the millions of people around the world who don't have enough food to eat. Often referred to as a "silent killer," hunger affects the most vulnerable people: women, children and men with the fewest options to make better lives for themselves and their families. Although global hunger has steadily declined in recent years, 805 million—or one in nine—people are still considered food insecure.
Increasing food security is one of Canada's top development priorities. We know that without adequate supplies of nutritious food, development is impossible. That is why our Government supports initiatives that address the immediate need for food and nutrition, that help smallholder farmers produce more nutritious food and increase their incomes, and promote agricultural research and technology to address equitable growth, changing climates and environmental degradation.
Access to food assistance can be a key concern during humanitarian crises. In these emergency situations, Canada relies on two key partners: the United Nations World Food Programme and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Our contributions helped them reach 82.2 million people in 75 countries with food assistance last year.
We place a special focus on nutrition because millions of the world’s most vulnerable don't get enough iron, iodine, vitamin A, folic acid and zinc in their diets, leading to illness, blindness, mental disorders and increased risk of death. In fact, Canada has made nutrition a pillar of our ongoing efforts to reduce the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children under the age of five. A shining example of this is our annual support to the Micronutrient Initiative, a Canadian organization that reaches approximately 180 million children under the age of five with two doses of vitamin A and nearly two million pregnant women with iron and folic acid supplements for healthier pregnancies each year.
This year's theme for World Food Day is "Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth." It highlights the important contribution family farming and smallholder farmers make to achieving sustainable food security and economic growth in developing countries. Sustainable agricultural development, with a focus on smallholder farmers, is an important aspect of Canada’s food security strategy.
This is best demonstrated through our membership in the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which is committed to lifting 50 million people out of poverty over the next ten years through sustained and inclusive agricultural growth. As part of this effort, Canada supports food security programming in Ghana, Ethiopia and Senegal to help smallholder farmers increase their productivity and profitability. For example, in Senegal, Canada helped 102,000 farmers, more than half of them women, increase rice production in targeted areas from 25,000 tons in 2008 to 56,917 tons in 2013. This improved food security for more than 500,000 Senegalese.
Canada is also putting a special emphasis on research and innovation in food security so poor farmers can have access to new technologies and specialized expertise. With our support, the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund has launched 21 research projects to date, ranging from revitalizing crops to developing vaccines for livestock diseases. So far, more than 97,000 farmers have benefited.
On World Food Day, we reaffirm our commitment to increasing food security around the world and acknowledge the critical role smallholder farmers play in solving this global issue.
Christian Paradis
Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
