B.P.P.A.L.P School Permude

World Food Day

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme and theInternational Fund for Agricultural Development.

Themes

Since 1981, World Food Day has adopted a different theme each year in order to highlight areas needed for action and provide a common focus.

Most of the themes revolve around agriculture because only investment in agriculture – together with support for education and health – will turn this situation around. The bulk of that investment will have to come from the private sector, with public investment playing a crucial role, especially in view of its facilitating and stimulating effect on private investment.

In spite of the importance of agriculture as the driving force in the economies of many developing countries, this vital sector is frequently starved of investment. In particular, foreign aid to agriculture has shown marked declines over the past 20 years.

• 1981: Food comes first
• 1982: Food comes first
• 1983: Food security
• 1984: Women in agriculture
• 1985: Rural poverty
• 1986: Fishermen and fishing communities
• 1987: Small farmers
• 1988: Rural youth
• 1989: Food and the environment
• 1990: Food for the future
• 1991: Trees for life
• 1992: Food and nutrition
• 1993: Harvesting nature's diversity
• 1994: Water for life
• 1995: Food for all
• 1996: Fighting hunger and malnutrition
• 1997: Investing in food security
• 1998: Women feed the world
• 1999: Youth against hunger
• 2000: A millennium free from hunger
• 2001: Fight hunger to reduce poverty
• 2002: Water: source of food security
• 2003: Working together for an international alliance against hunger
• 2004: Biodiversity for food security
• 2005: Agriculture and intercultural dialogue
• 2006: Investing in agriculture for food security
• 2007: The right to food
• 2008: World food security: the challenges of climate change and bioenergy
• 2009: Achieving food security in times of crisis
• 2010: United against hunger
• 2011: Food prices - from crisis to stability
• 2012: Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world
• 2013: Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition
• 2014: Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth”
• 2015:Social protection and Agriculture

   As in the case every year, the World Food Day will take place on October 16th , whose main goal is to raise public awareness about hunger challenges and encourage people worldwide to take action in the fight against hunger.  

  The topic for 2015 will be “Social protection and Agriculture”, which aims to underline the role social protection plays in reducing chronic food insecurity and poverty by ensuring direct access to food or the means to buy food.  Social protection is, moreover, a viable alternative for stimulating agricultural production and local economic activity. 

  WFO is particularly pleased with the choice of topic, which reflects a clear intention to highlight important agriculture- related issues, drawing attention to achievements in rural development and encouraging agricultural food production.

  In this context, the role played by the farmers is crucial. Farmers are of the key actors in the process of fighting hunger and finding concrete remedies that address issues affecting food security and nutrition. 

  The next WFO General Assembly will have a specific session dedicated to how to provided the growing world population with sustainable, equitable and inclusive solutions in the agricultural sector. Farmers, in fact, have the task of producing quality safe food in order to achieve the goal of food security for everyone. As FAO has stated, agricultural production must increase by 60% globally to meet the food demand that will be required to feed the 9.2 billion people who will inhabit our planet in 2050. 

  In order to guarantee this result and face this challenge, it is crucial to ensure that farmers have access to infrastructures, credit and functioning markets. Farmers also need to have access to science, innovation and knowledge, which are essential for the development of the agricultural sector.

  “As a farmer, I must know what food provide proper nutrition to human beings and women should be aware of what we produce and what are the specific characteristics thereof”, WFO Acting President Evelyn Nguleka stated in a recent interview. “I think technology and innovation should work together to produce the quality food that we need to survive.”

  WFO is looking forward to the next World Food Day as another great chance to highlight the vital role of farmers in feeding the planet and producing energy for life. In light of the fact that  the next World Food Day will be celebrated by the UN at the Milan EXPO 2015, its slogan is definitely the clearest way of defining  the global role that farmers, leaving aside October 16th, play on every other day of the year.