Chamber Summit takes on food security issues

Food security equals the availability of food and one’s access to it. Recent data show that the number of people without enough food to eat on a regular basis remains stubbornly high, at over 800 million. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) observes that in general, the countries that succeeded in reducing hunger were characterized by more rapid growth in their agricultural sectors. As such, addressing agriculture growth is vital to achieving food security. Underlying trends show that global agricultural production cannot keep up with rising demand without support and investment.

The worldwide financial crisis has resulted in credit for farmers becoming expensive and difficult to find, potentially causing fewer crops to be planted and exacerbating food shortages. In addition, commodity market prices have declined more rapidly than production costs, yielding tight margins for producers.

The session on Issues on Food Security and Opportunities in Innovative Agriculture/Plantation at the 24th Confederation of Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) Conference and Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2010 will examine major issues that impact on global food security. The session aims to generate recommendations for long-term policy planning, identify priority areas for investments, research and capacity required to increase agricultural production.

The Chairman/Moderator for this session is Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines Vice President for International Affairs Dr. Mehdi Fakheri.

Among the resource persons for this session are, USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn, India Institute of Development Studies Honorary Professor Prof. Shabd. S. Acharya, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dr. Anura Ekanayake and Ten Ren Tea Co. Ltd. Board Director Darren Lee.

The 24th CACCI Conference and Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2010 will take place from July 5-7 at the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo.