The threat of a new and this time global food crisis first hit the headlines when people took to the streets in African and Asian cities to protest against soaring food prices. But even under normal circumstances hunger and poverty still plague the world. The approximately 800 million rural poor, however, have no voice.
 
The hunger riots early this year also attracted the attention of the IMF and World Bank. They see greater support for agriculture as the solution. Do the agricultural policymakers recall that the way to tackle hunger is to improve agricultural production and infrastructure? The groundwork must now be laid for sustainable agricultural development, so that the rural poor can not only feed themselves at last, but also the ever-growing number of city dwellers.

Dr. Renée Ernst
Representative of the UN Millennium Campaign in Germany
United Nations, UN Campus
Bonn, Germany
ernst@un-kampagne.de