Reply to the 8th biennial report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 22 January 1975 (17th Sitting) (see Doc. 3540, report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1975 (17th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having taken note of the 8th biennial report presented to the Council of Europe by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) (
Doc. 3510) ;
2. Welcoming the proposal by the Director General of FAO concerning an international undertaking on world food security ;
3. Expressing its satisfaction with the inclusion of information on the growth of FAO's budget in the 8th biennial report of that organisation ;
4. Deploring the fact that 75% of the expenditure increase of FAO's budget over the last decade was accounted for by inflation, a development which cannot but have a limiting effect on the organisation's activities ;
5. Considering that the increase from 9 to 24 million dollars in development assistance provided by the members of the Development Assistance Committee of OECD over the period 1961 to 1973 was considerably stunted by inflation, currency changes and, more recently, by the increases in the oil import bills of both recipient and donor countries ;
6. Considering that during the last two years the world total food supplies were insufficient to meet increasing demand, thus causing the world reserve stocks of essential commodities to fall lower and lower, and food prices to rise higher and higher ;
7. Considering that world population, and hence world food demand, is likely to grow considerably faster in the forthcoming years than world food production ;
8. Recalling the need to speed up structural improvements in agriculture to meet the needs of the expected demographic development ;
9. Welcoming FAO's continuing efforts to improve the quality of food by setting higher food standards ;
10. Noting with satisfaction the positive results FAO had in Europe in its fight against foot and mouth disease ;
11. Recalling the problems raised at the World Food Conference held in Rome in November 1974,
12. Calls on all its members to urge national parliaments and their governments to take all necessary steps :
a to ease the activities of FAO, in particular with respect to :
the promotion of agricultural research and development in general, and in particular for the benefit of developing countries ;
the promotion of agricultural training and education at all levels, and the transfer of know-how and technology from Europe to developing countries ;
b to co-ordinate efforts and developments in the field of structural policies, in order to establish flexible production programmes and management in agriculture, providing possibilities for upward and downward adjustments in the interest of a better balance between world supply and demand of agricultural products ;
c to adopt the standards drawn up by the joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, the Codex Alimentarius ;
d to help increase FAO's real resources ;
13. Suggests that FAO ;
a promote research in the field of non-chemical methods of phytosanitary protection, including biological methods and organic pesticides such as pyrethreum, in order to give farmers in developing countries as much as possible independence from imported fertilisers and pesticides ;
b promote new techniques for the conservation of food, such as freezing and lyophilisation, in order to reduce all unnecessary waste of food stocks ;
c promote the breeding of livestock resistant to infectious diseases and with a high food conversion ratio ;
d promote the production of crops resistant to diseases and with a high yield potential.
