Speaking to reporters in Maputo on Thursday shortly after an audience granted by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Silva said the new alliance would target eight African countries and had been proposed by the G8.
“We are now beginning to draw up this project in detail so that we can receive the resources”, he said. The work began this month and is also supported by FAO’s own resources.
He did not reveal how much money was involved in the food security alliance – that would depend on the work now under way aimed at determining the necessary areas for investment.
Silva said that in his meeting with Guebuza the two men had discussed the conflicts in the Sahel and in the Horn of Africa and their impact on food security.
“We’ve learnt a hard lesson, which is that you can’t have food security in a single country”, he stressed. “When a country is surrounded by others where there is hunger, people migrate in search of better conditions. We have seen this, with people migrating massively from north Africa to the central regions, putting at risk the stability of governments”.
“We’ve reached a very simple conclusion”, Silva said, “which is that where you have food security, you have peace, and that it is much cheaper to prevent than to remedy. It is much cheaper to produce food and develop agriculture than to face situations of conflict”.
Post published in: Africa News