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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAQ) has declared the 16th October - the anniversary of its founding - World Food Day. The objectives of World Food Day are:
- to increase public awareness of the problems of food in the world and to reinforce the feeling of national and international solidarity in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
- to encourage greater agricultural output and food production throughout the world and foster national and international efforts to this end by governments and other organizations
- to encourage the participation of farmers in deciding on the steps to be taken to develop agriculture and raise their living standards.
- to encourage technical and economic cooperation between developing countries in the spheres of agriculture, nutrition and rural development.
- to encourage free trade and the lifting of barriers in the international trading of food and agricultural products.
The World Food Council which met in 1974 declared as its principal aim "no man, woman or child should go to bed hungry nor should their physical or spiritual growth be stunted by malnutrition".
According to estimates, there are today some 500 million people living in conditions of malnutrition or perpetual famine and each day tens of thousands die of hunger in Africa, Asia and South America.
The FAQ, whose seat is in Rome, draws up and publishes food programmes with special emphasis on the cultivation of basic foods such as wheat and grains, rice, potatoes, pulses and livestock. In practice, the FAQ deals with all aspects of agricultural production including plant protection, proper storage practices, nutrition, research and development, assistance to farmers, the preparation of national agricultural development plans for the needy countries and emergency aid for countries suffering from food and famine crises.
Israel plays an active part in this work of the FAQ to the extent that her limited resources and the international political climate permit. Several hundred agricultural experts from Israel have worked with the FAQ and with the governments of developing countries all over the world in helping them increase the efficiency of their agriculture, utilising the experience gained in Israel.
Israel's agriculture is considered to be one of the most advanced and efficient in the world. This can be measured by the proportion of the working population engaged in agriculture and food production - a mere 6.5%. In the short space of 25 years, Israel's agricultural output grew 12 fold in spite of the fact that the greater part of its land is desert or semi-desert, while in the past 10 years agricultural production expanded an average of 4.4% a year. Israel's principal agricultural products are wheat, fruit and vegetables (particularly citrus), dairy products, eggs, etc. In the production of food products, Israel specialises in citrus juices; fruit, vegetable, meat and fish canning; flour and tobacco.
The successful development of Israel's agriculture is the result of the close cooperation between its farmer-pioneers and its scientists who developed new strains, mechanized farming, cloud-seeding to increase the quantity of rain, improved methods of irrigation, etc.
Israel has always been ready to lend a hand to help farmers in the developing countries of the world and will continue to aid them as part of the world effort to ensure that "no man, woman or child should ever go to bed hungry".
