INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND FOOD SECURITY

Food, Water and War

The Hon Tim Fischer

Mr Fischer is former Australian Deputy Prime Minister and former Chair of the Board of Governors, ATSE Crawford Fund

Fighting for food can be an even stronger driver than allegiances and politics. And hungry people are more likely to become embroiled in conflict because they become discontented and disaffected and are easy prey for groups who see them as a means to selfish or political ends.

So could ‘peace’ be one the more tangible returns from agricultural research and rural development, alongside reductions in poverty and hunger, growth in trade, goodwill between nations, greater cultural, educational and scientific cooperation, and technological gains? I certainly believe so. Improvements to agriculture, secure food supplies and access to natural resources like water play key roles in development for poor nations and the avoidance of conflict. Australia can be proud of its tremendous contributions through international agricultural research to improve food security, drive economic growth, and ultimately maintain peace.

• Developing countries need access to improved crops and simple, effective technologies that will ensure their farmers can produce enough food to feed their nation and, in the process, provide the work and livelihoods needed to keep their society functioning properly.
• Australian organisations such as AusAID and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) have undertaken excellent work to help nations regain stability through agricultural research and development.
• For more than a decade through the 1990s AusAID funded the Cambodia-IRRI-Australia-Project (CIAP), which helped that previously war-torn, troubled nation return to stable, peaceful life.
• ACIAR is also working with a range of international agricultural research centres, including the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in East Timor.

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