VOA标准英语2009年-UN Calls for More Spending on Agriculture

By Selah Hennessy
London
08 October 2009
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says major investment needs to be made in developing world agriculture. The FAO says that with rapid population growth and changing diets, agricultural production will need to grow by 70 percent before 2050.

The latest United Nations predictions on future world population say that by 2050 the world may be filled by 9.1 billion people. That's up over 30 percent from our current population of 6.8 billion.

Now, the FAO says if we're going to be able to feed that many people we're going to need to invest more in agriculture.

Kostas Stamoulis is from the Food and Agriculture Organization. He says population growth is not going to be the only strain. He says diets are changing and people are starting to eat more meat, fish, milk, and high value protein based foods.

"As the developing countries grow, their demand for food would change, but what it also would change is their patterns of the food they eat, i.e. if they are going to be eating more meat and high value products and less cereals directly," he said.

The FAO says in order to meet new food demands, over $80 billion needs to be invested in agriculture annually¹. This is an increase of about 50 percent on what's currently being invested.

Stamoulis says this money should come mainly from the private sector².

"Most of this money, probably 75 percent, will be put by farmers themselves and by the private sector. It's not a matter of going out and finding the money. People will invest in agriculture as demand increases and they will try to satisfy this demand through the market," he said.

But he says the public sector needs to make sure that the infrastructure³ is in place to make a bigger agricultural drive possible.

"The public sector has a very important role to play here because unless we provide farmers and food producers and agricultural producers with infrastructure like roads, development and info and institutions they will not invest," said Stamoulis.

Stamoulis says meeting increased food demands is only one part of the problem. Proper distribution, he says, is crucial.

"So there are two challenges. One is to make sure that we increase the productivity of agriculture to meet all demand for agricultural products, bio-fuels, food, feed, livestock⁴, etc. But also the other challenge is to make sure that everybody by 2050 and possibly earlier should be able to access the food to eat that is produced," he said.

FAO delegates will meet at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome next month where Stamoulis says they will hammer out a consensus⁵ on the importance of feeding the world in the next 40 years.

1 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

2 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

5 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？