FAO Regional Conference, 23rd session, Nicosia, Cyprus, 29 – 31 May 2002

Statement by Mr Leif Helge Kongshaug, State Secretary for Agriculture in Norway
Agenda item 5 World Food Summit follow-up

Honourable Ministers,
Mr Director General,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen!

Poverty reduction is of vital importance in this period of globalisation as large parts of the world’s population live in poverty. The material prepared by the FAO Secretariat shows that this is also the case in our own region. Regrettably, we have not been able to comply with the commitment at the World Food Summit to halve the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. We must therefore make the best of the opportunities presented to us by the World Food Summit: five years later.

Mr Chairman,

Norway is strongly committed to fulfilling the obligations laid down in the World Food Summit Plan of Action. Food security both now and in the future is an important aim that Norway actively will pursue. To achieve this objective, it is crucial to have a strong agricultural sector, a stable and predictable international trade system and good systems to secure safe food. It is equally important that the food is produced in an ecologically and economically sustainable way.

Mr Chairman,

Policies for food and agriculture in Norway are mainly based upon a White Paper on food and agriculture from 1999. It underscores the important role played by agriculture in modern society. The White Paper underlines the need for a more consumer oriented agricultural policy. The food chain is regarded as a whole and consumer aspects are to be considered at all stages of the production chain.

Only 3% of the total land in Norway is cultivated, and 1% of total land is used for cereal production. Access to productive areas is essential to ensure food security and soil protection is thus an instrument used to secure the possibilities for production on a long-term basis under changing national and regional conditions.

Fishing and fishfarming are important industries for the Norwegian economy as a whole. Internationally, Norway participates actively in the implementation of the principles in the Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries.

Mr Chairman,

Norway has emphasized that Non-trade-concerns, such as food security, must be an integral part of the negotiations on agriculture in WTO. The NTCs of agriculture are important to a large number of both developing and developed countries. To this end, Norway underlines the need for flexibility in the multilateral trading system to sustain domestic agriculture required to address these concerns. A certain degree of domestic production is needed to safeguard non-trade concerns and the wide diversity of production conditions in different countries needs to be recognised. Norway also recognizes that improved market access for agricultural products is of vital importance to many developing countries as a vehicle for economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Mr Chairman,

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the FAO have worked closely since the WFS in 1996 to follow up on Commitment 7.4 in the WFS Plan of Action regarding the right to adequate food. We commend them for their work and believe that the time has come to take the next step and start to develop a Code of Conduct. Norway wishes to take this opportunity to reiterate our support of an international Code of Conduct on the right to adequate food.

Mr Chairman,

At the FAO Conference last November, a historical agreement was adopted; The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It must be seen as an important instrument to achieve food security and thus part of the follow-up after the WFS. The Treaty will secure access to the vast genetic resources upon which global food security is largely dependent. We should all take steps to sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible.

Mr Chairman,

The WFS Plan of Action underlines the need for involving the entire civil society in order to combat hunger and malnutrition. The co-operation with civil society organisations has been one of the most important results of the WFS follow-up thus far in Norway. This has been a rewarding and fruitful cooperation. In the past few years, we have concentrated mainly on the right to adequate food and the efforts to develop a Code of Conduct. I believe that this form of cooperation will also be essential in the future and may ensure the successful outcome of the Rome Summit in June.

Thank you for your attention!