BANGKOK, 17 July 2008 (IRIN) - "Self-sufficiency is our objective and our main goal," Alam Dipo, secretary-general of the so-called D-8, or Developing Eight Countries for Economic Cooperation, told IRIN on 15 July from Istanbul, where the group's secretariat is based.

The D-8 was formed in 1997 and is made up of the Muslim nations of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.   He said member nations wanted to develop their agricultural sectors - neglected in favour of industrialisation in recent decades - by boosting capacity and investment in food production.

"In the next two years, we are looking at how we can solve the food crisis problem and relate it to opportunities," he said. The D-8 has just endorsed a 10-year development roadmap that includes more cooperation in areas such as agriculture, and a preferential trade agreement.

"All of these related agricultural products - fertilisers, pesticides and animal feed - will be in the frame of the preferential trade agreement, so exporting and importing will be facilitated by this cooperation," Alam Dipo told IRIN.

Summit in Kuala Lumpur

On 8 July, at a summit in Kuala Lumpur, the D-8 talked about revitalising the agricultural sector in a bid for self-sufficiency in response to rising food and fuel prices.

At the summit, a number of leaders said the price rises posed serious challenges to achieving national development plans.

"To delay concerted action on this great challenge of our time is to court disaster," said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"The least we can do in our respective countries is to strive for national food self-reliance that will support the domestic economy and meet the food requirements of the peoples," he said. The countries also pledged to deepen cooperation to boost food production in the short, medium and long-term by easing supply constraints for agricultural inputs. Initiatives, which include support from the private sector, will create a seed bank, and increase the production of fertilizer and animal feed.

Biofuel

The leaders also touched on the impact of rising oil prices, with Malaysia and Indonesia calling for restraint in the use of arable land for biofuel crops, which have been partly blamed for boosting food prices.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) welcomed the D-8's statements.

"In the longer run, food production increases country by country are clearly in the best interests of all populations," WFP spokesman for Asia Paul Risley told IRIN.

"Self-sufficiency and assuring national food supplies are now recognised by the World Bank and other international organisations as very critical steps for national development," he added.

ActionAid calls for more help for small farmers

Anti-poverty group ActionAid commended the first-time appearance of food security on the D-8's agenda as a "good sign".

But the organisation called on D-8 nations to formulate agricultural policies which prioritise food production and include impoverished small-scale farmers who are scarcely able to afford inputs such as seed and fertilizer.

"In many of the countries, small-hold farming is being discouraged in the name of big farms and corporate agriculture," said ActionAid's head of communications in Asia, Shafqat Munir.

"The D-8 countries should agree on policy that promotes agriculture right from the small farm to the broader level production of food crops," he told IRIN.

While the D-8 has earned some praise for trying to tackle food security, the challenge lies in translating political intentions into workable domestic policies in member countries such as Indonesia.

Dilemma

There, food production is mainly by small-scale subsistence farmers, said Benyamin Lakitan, secretary to Indonesia's State Ministry for Research and Technology and a former government food affairs adviser.

"They are not enthusiastic about increasing food production, especially at the expense of high production costs, since prices of food commodities are not attractive," Lakitan told IRIN.

An "increase in food production does not directly translate into an increase in a farmer's welfare," he said, adding that D-8 countries needed regulations to ensure reasonable incomes for farmers.

The liberalisation of Indonesia's food market, including the axing of subsidies for farmers, has also undermined domestic food production, said Don Marut, executive director of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development.

"If they change the policy by providing subsidies for farmers, the government will risk making the state budget vulnerable... It will be a dilemma for the government," he told IRIN.

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