Threats of food scarcity in Cameroon: FAO allocates 250m FCFA to boost food production

900 million people in developing countries are faced with food shortage

The very idea that the modern world could run out of food seems ludicrous, but that is the flip side, or cause, of the tremendous recent increase in the cost of raw wheat, corn, rice, oats and soybeans. Food prices are not escalating because speculators have run them up for sport and profit, but because accelerating demand in developing nations, biofuel production and poor harvests in some areas have made basic foodstuffs truly scarce.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the main United Nations agency specializing in all aspects of food quality and safety, and in all the the different stages of food production, harvest, post-harvest handling, storage, transport, processing and distribution.

FAO adheres to the food chain approach in managing food safety and quality as a recognition of the responsibility of all actors in the food chain for the supply of food that is safe, healthy and nutritious.

FAO's Food Quality and Standards Service (AGNS) is committed to the enhancement of food safety and quality along the food chain at all levels, with the aim of preventing food-borne diseases, protecting consumers and promoting fair practices in the food trade.

It is within this backdrop that the organisation has made available the sum of 250m to the republic of Cameroon to scale up food production in the country and check impending threats of food scarcity

The organisation's regional representative here made the revelation at a ceremony to celebrate the organisation’s 30^th anniversary in Yaounde – Cameroon. Adding that some towns in the country like Bertoua and Ebolowa have already benefited from the 250 million FCFA package given that they have already received farm tools and inputs.
While emphasising the fact that his organisation was leaving no stone unturned to solve the problem of food shortage and the consequent increase in prices within the shortest possible time Ousman Quindo, said the general director of FAO had alerted in December 2007 that the world was facing a food crisis that would stimulate a sudden increase in the price of food items. Reason why FAO organised a high level conference in Rome that assembled over 181 governments, and attended by many heads of State, to try to find solutions to the impending crisis from 3 to 5 June 2008.
Participants at the conference unanimously agreed to get up from slumber and take the necessary measures to fight against hunger and its related consequences.
Jean Kwete, Cameroon's minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,urged the organisation not to end at that but to intensify the war against hunger. That FAO must act very fast in order to ameliorate the food problem that is already causing untold damage in some parts of the world.
Meanwhile, a recent report has disclosed that 900 million people in developing countries are faced with food shortage due to an increase in the prices of wheat and other foodstuffs.