Leading the way on food security

Tackling the critical global food security situation was a key focus of last night’s Joint G20 Finance and Agriculture Ministers’ meeting.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Murray Watt represented Australia at the virtual meeting with Ministers from the largest world economies and supported calls for the G20 to strengthen cooperation to deal with a range of issues causing global food insecurity.

Minister Watt said high commodity prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, extreme weather events such as drought reducing global supplies of staple food commodities, and global supply chain disruptions were all impacting food supply.

“The best global response to curtail food price increases is maintaining open, transparent and predictable agricultural trade,” Minister Watt said.

“Along with open trade, agricultural innovation is a key element to improve food security.

“To achieve our zero hunger goal, average global agricultural productivity needs to increase by 28% over the next decade.

“This is triple the increase achieved over the past decade.

“We need to collectively increase sustainable agriculture productivity to meet these targets and global food security needs.”

Minister Watt said Australia was committed to playing its part in addressing global food security needs.

“Diversification of food supply through open markets and adhering to rules-based trade are key to helping countries absorb shocks and remain resilient.

“Avoiding trade barriers, such as restrictions on the exports of food and fertilisers will also help improve food security.

“In 2021-22, Australia provided more than $157 million to the World Food Programme (WFP), which includes $10 million to support its response to Ukraine’s crisis,” Minister Watt said.

“Australia continues to fund humanitarian organisations, including the WFP which is central to our capability to respond to ongoing food security challenges.”