This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
More than one-hundred countries celebrated World Food Day onOctober sixteenth. The event observed the establishment of theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organization innineteen-forty-five. The main message of this year’s World Food Daywas “Water: Source of Food Security.”
Officials want people to understand how a lack of water can helpcause a lack of food. Officials say the world’s fresh water supplymust be supervised more carefully in order to increase the world’sfood supply.
Water covers about seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface.Yet, only a small amount is fresh water that can be used for crops.Experts say food production will decrease as the ability to usethese fresh water sources becomes restricted. U-N officials estimateabout seventy percent of the total amount of fresh water is used byfarmers for their crops.
Officials say the need for food increases as the world’spopulation grows. The U-N estimates that by the yeartwo-thousand-thirty, the world will need sixty percent more food.Most of that increase in food will come from intensified agriculturesupported by water irrigation. However, fresh water is already inshort supply in many countries.
Jacques Diouf is the director of the U-N Food and AgricultureOrganization. He says that twenty countries do not have enough waterto produce the food their populations need. Ten nations withdrawmore than forty percent of their total fresh water resource foragriculture.
Mister Diouf fears that the problem will only worsen as the needfor water by people and industry grows. Mister Diouf warns that ittakes one-thousand times more water to feed the human populationthan it does to satisfy its thirst for drinking water. Because ofthis, water is one of the most important issues in the world today.
This year’s World Food Day attempted to increase public knowledgeabout Earth’s growing fresh water problem. Countries around theworld marked the day with special events. Organizers urgedpolicymakers to approve new measures to control water use foragriculture.
The Food and Agriculture Organization will take part in theInternational Year of Freshwater next year. It will also be presentat the third World Water Forum in Japan next year.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by JillMoss.