Between 17 and 19 January 2013 Global Forum for Food and Agriculture was held in Berlin. A key topic discussed during this forum was how to make sustainable investments in agriculture.
“Against the backdrop of the right to food, the panel “Investments for Human Beings in Agriculture” focused on the insufficient implementation of international guidelines on reducing poverty and hunger. The key issues in this context were how vitally needed investment in agriculture had to be designed to contribute to the achievement of the right to food and to poverty reduction and which role the private sector could assume here, what scientific in-sights were available regarding this topic and what the implementation of guidelines looked like from the perspective of the developing countries.”
Agricultural ministers from over 80 countries were represented and attended the Agriculture Minister Summit which is held in conjunction with the GFFA. Attention was given to the samllholder farmer and the ministers agreed that farmers skills and abilities need to be strenghtened and transfer of technology and information should thus be improved.
“They called on investors to give priority to business models which include farmers, particularly smallholders, in value chains, to respect legitimate tenure rights for both women and men, to promote transparency and accountability in investments and to take into account both national sovereignty over natural resources and environmental sustainability and the well-being of local communities.”