World Food Day riddle

In his message on World Food Day, President Zardari stressed the need for ensuring food security in the country and initiating interventions to overcome the challenges of climate change and neglect of bio-energy for a progressive and sustainable agriculture sector.
Referring to this year's theme: "World food security: the challenges of climate change and bio-energy," he rightly noted its special significance for Pakistan, pointing to the contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product (GDP) at 21 percent and employment of 44 percent of its workforce in this sector.
Referring to the changed scene of soaring food prices and shifts and alterations in the factors of supply and demand, the President viewed the emerging situation as upsetting, as among other things the world-wide growth in bio-energy has been transforming huge quantities of food grain into bio-fuel production.
This was why, he lamented, food grain and livestock products have experienced unprecedented price hike to the disadvantage of food-importing countries. Again, dwelling upon the impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security, he apprehended that without addressing climate change issues, sustainability of agricultural production and ensuring food security would remain a far cry.
It will be recalled that World Food Day (WFD) was established by Food and Agricultural Organisation's Member Countries at its 20th General Conference in 1979. Observed every year in more than 150 countries, thereafter, it has been raising awareness of the issues behind poverty and hunger.
Two years later, it started adopting a different focused theme each year, so as to call attention to areas needing action and providing a common centre of attention. Significantly, the theme for 2006 - "Invest in agriculture for food security" - marked the beginning of the emphasis on investment in agriculture, together with support for education and health, to turn the situation around.
For, notwithstanding widely acknowledged importance of agriculture as the driving force in the economies of many a developing country, this vital sector has remained too frequently starved of investment, more so in the form of foreign assistance.
Notably, since then both investment and food security have come to serve as a common denominator in so far as food related anxieties are concerned. It is, however, unfortunate that while agreeing on the need for boosting farming in potentially rich agriculture dominated economies, the advanced nations remain reluctant to make any needed amendment in their own programmes.
Obstinacy, in this context, will be noted exactly among the major factors causing deadlock in the Doha round WTO talks. The sooner the urgency of removal of this impediment is realised the more satisfying will become the pace of progress toward globalisation of the world economies. Needless to point out, until then lofty declarations and resolutions will remain merely a riddle.