 Hello and welcome to this edition of  Reports from Developing Countries on China Radio International. I'm Qi Zhi in Beijing.
In today's program, we'll look at the challenges brought on by the food crisis in the realization of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.
Please stay tuned.
Report:
One of the UN Millennium Development Goals or MDGs is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and poverty by 2015 from the 1990 level. Now eight years have passed since the adoption of the MDGs, and the number of the world's starving population has increased instead; a fact that poses great challenges to the commitment made by the world community to eliminate hunger.
This situation was aggravated by the soaring food prices during the first half of this year that once led to street protests and even bloodshed in countries like Haiti, Mozambique, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
According to UN statistics, a food crisis in 2007 deteriorated the world food situation and increased the number of undernourished by 75 million. The number now stands at 923 million, a great concern to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
To ease hunger problems in some parts of the world, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (or FAO) held a high-level conference in June, setting specific guidelines including a 20-billion U.S. dollar donation from wealthy nations to help poor countries. However, the efforts were hampered by the emerging world financial crisis. Abdolreza Abbassian is Secretary of FAO's Intergovernmental Group for Grains. He said this year's financial crisis would trigger even more severe problems in tackling the food crisis.
"The financial crisis will negatively impact both food production and consumption. On one hand, it will be difficult for food producers to borrow money needed for production. On the other hand, the financial crisis will force consumers to abandon more expensive products like meat for cheaper food."
The FAO official also noted the difficulty in fully delivering the 20 billion dollar donation made in June, saying they have collected less than 200 million dollars so far.
As the world's largest developing country in the world, China has been actively assisting poor nations in improving their agricultural production. During a high-level meeting on the MDGs in New York in September, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a series of measures in this regard.
"In the coming five years, China will double the number of agricultural technology demonstration centers we build for developing countries to 30, increase the number of agricultural experts and technicians we send overseas by 1,000 to double the original figure, and provide agricultural training opportunities in China for 3,000 people from developing countries. China will also contribute 30 million U.S. dollars to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to establish a trust fund for projects and activities designed to help developing countries enhance agricultural productivity, and will increase exports and aid to countries facing food shortages."
Abdolreza Abbassian from the FAO appreciated China's assistance. He added that feeding 1.3 billion people with enough food is the most important contribution China has made to world food security.
"China's food situation is much better than that of many other countries feeling the food pressure. The Chinese government has adopted a series of agricultural policies which may not be one hundred percent correct, but accord with the good for its people. These policies, including many precautionary measures, have protected its agricultural industry from the heavy hit of last year's food price surge."
The UN official said China currently can feed itself and export a certain amount of food which will help stabilize the world food market.
That's it for this edition of Reports from Development Countries brought to you by China Radio International. For more news and in-depth reports please visit us online at www.crienglish.com. This is Qi Zhi in Beijing, thanks for listening.
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