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On global food security in the context of unilateral coercive measures

01.11.2021

Ensuring food security, eradicating hunger, promoting sustainable agricultural development and enhancing its productive capacity are becoming particularly relevant today.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that hunger affects about 690 million people, or 8,9 percent of the world's population, an increase of 10 million in one year and nearly 60 million in five years.

A similar upward trend is observed in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity rate, which also reflects the scale of hunger. Three billion people, nearly 40% of the world's population, do not have access to adequate nutrition.

The economic impact of COVID-19 has exacerbated an already difficult food situation, with an additional 140 million people facing food shortages.

This threatens the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 (the Sustainable Development Goal 2). If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would surpass 840 million by 2030.

According to FAO, the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 130,0 points in September 2021, up 32,8 percent from the same month last year. The latest rise of the FFPI was largely driven by higher prices of most cereals and vegetable oils. According to FAO's forecast, despite reaching a historic high, the volume of cereal production in the world in 2021 will be below the level of consumption.

According to UN agencies' estimates released on October 4, 2021, the world is now facing an unprecedentedly catastrophic level of food insecurity, and an estimated 6.6 billion US dollars is urgently required to support 41 million people at risk of hunger.

Belarus has always made a significant contribution to ensuring global food security. Our country exports agricultural and food products to more than 100 countries around the world. However, the thoughtless sanctions pressure of Western countries on Belarus endangers not even our country, but global food security. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, results of the sanctions policy acquire far from bright prospects in the field of development and the fight against hunger in the world.

There is a direct interconnection between the sectoral sanctions of the European Union and other countries against the potash industry in Belarus with an increase in food risks around the world and the threat of a food crisis. Obviously, taking into account the share of Belarus in the world market of potash fertilizers (20%), a ban on their export will lead (and is already leading) to an increase in the cost of both fertilizers and food products, which contributes to an increase in the number of hungry people on the planet. And these are not only our assessments. Similar conclusions are made by the UN, FAO and a number of international companies and associations in the field of potash fertilizers and foodstuffs trade. In this regard, the question arises: do the countries imposing sanctions against the potash industry in Belarus realize the real threat to the whole world, or prefer to ignore this threat in order to achieve some ephemeral goals by increasing the sanctions pressure on Belarus?

The UN Secretary General convened the Food Systems Summit on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in September this year, following which states pledged to continue efforts to eradicate hunger and make healthy food more affordable. At the same time, it was noted that the solution to the problem of hunger is impossible without providing farmers with access to the required quantity of fertilizers and at an affordable price.

In the spirit of the World Food Security Summit Declaration, Belarus calls for abandoning the use of sanctions that not only contradict international obligations, including within the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, but also to the provisions of the UN Charter and UN General Assembly resolutions on unilateral coercive measures.

 

 

 

 

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