UN food agency joins forces with Brazil to plan global meeting on agrarian reform
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced plans to join forces with the Government of
Brazil in organizing an international conference to review agrarian reform and rural development issues worldwide next
March.
Focusing on sustainable rural development options that can contribute to cutting rural poverty and hunger, the four-day
meeting will be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Three out of every four people suffering from hunger live in rural areas and depend on natural resources such as land
and water for their survival, according to FAO. But most of them – especially women and indigenous populations – do not
have secure and continued access to either.
“If we want to reduce hunger and poverty in the world, we must go to the root causes of the problem” said Parviz
Koohafkan, who will serve as Executive Secretary of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development. “And in the poor rural zones, one of the main problems is the lack of secure access to factors of
production, particularly land and water.”