By P. Vijian, Bernama,
New Delhi : India’s vice-president M. Hamid Ansari has called on Asian policy makers to focus on constructive agrarian reforms to deal with the current food shortage and rising prices, which impacts food security for the poor and vulnerable.
“Agrarian reforms and rural development issues are inherently political in nature. While economic and social interventions are necessary, they are not enough to bring about the desired outcomes.
“It is therefore, the duty of policy makers to ensure that the interaction of politics with policy is constructive and synergetic,” Ansari told delegates attending the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) conference in Delhi today.
Some 14-member countries, including Malaysia, are attending the three-day conference which would focus on “Creation of Sustainable Livelihoods for the Rural Poor”.
Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Tans Sri Joseph Kurup would lead the Malaysian delegation.
Ansari said since the 70s, the same issues and concerns continued to reverberate even today, such as re-distribution of economic and political power, inclusion of rural areas and the rural poor in development and enhancing access to resources and employment.
“Even as we meet (today), the world is facing an unprecedented global hike in the prices of agricultural commodities, with simultaneous impact on food security for the poor and vulnerable.
“While macro-economic and globalisation issues have been debated, these (issues) remain the penumbra of the shadow of this agrarian crisis,” he pointed out.
The member countries have a total population of 2.03 billion and around 58 per cent of them live in rural areas.