A report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development was released yesterday, it calls for a real change in farming rules if the global community wants to effectively address such issues as the food crisis and climate change. The changes proposed by the report has the backing of 64 countries, as well as the World Bank and WHO. 

 

 

Professor Robert Watson Director of IAASTD said those on the margins are ill-served by the present system: “The incentives for science to address the issues that matter to the poor are weak… the poorest developing countries are net losers under most trade liberalization scenarios.”    The report examined mechanisms that could assist in the reduction of hunger and poverty, improve rural livelihoods, as well as working towards achieving the UN’s millennium development goals.  The report highlights that if we were to continue with current trends, we  would exhaust our resources and put our children’s future in jeopardy.     Read more