Food security and poverty reduction is still a challenge, Premier says
(KPL) The food security and poverty reduction is a challenge and a main key for national stability maintenance and a decisive factor for leading the country out of the least developed status, said Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, at the celebration of the International Day-National Week for the Poverty Eradication, last Friday.
“Seeing this key as very important, the Party and Government laid out a striving target by reducing poverty basically and slash-and-burn cultivation practice in 2010. And the country will be listed out of the UN list of least developed countries by 2020,” continued the Premier.
To fulfill the target set by the Party and Government for the period of 2009-10, more than 120 billion kip has been approved, all sectors and localities have to work hard to overcome the figure target for each sector, he added.
The agriculture and forestry sector is to concentrate on materialising a priority of food stuff production, which sets a plan to produce 3.3 tonnes of paddy rice, 150,000 tonnes of meat and 110,000 tonnes of fish, along with goods production, the supply of raw materials and products to industrial and service sectors.
Not only the agriculture production, but infrastructure and health and other sectors relating to the development have also improved, particularly the poverty eradication for at least 7,200 families. In the 2008-09 period, the Government invested almost 300 billion kip in strategy development, action plans, poverty reduction programme and food security.
Ms SonamYangchen Rana, UN President Coordinator said that, this year on the World Food Day we are internationally highlighting the challenge of achieving food security in times of crisis. We have heard so much about the global financial crisis. But it is not the only crisis, whether man-made or natural, that is affecting people around the world.
We see this, ourselves with the effects of the tropical storm Ketsana in the southern provinces of Laos, where so many way people have lost both their current food stocks as well as their next harvest.
Due to climate change we are likely to see an increase in the number of natural disasters affecting us, such as these two storms. These emergencies highlight the importance of a solid agricultural base to achieve food security for all and have better preparedness for emergencies.
Agricultural activities are the main source of livelihoods of the households living in rural areas and give primary employment to about 80% of the country’s labour force.
At the same time, the rural populations are hardest hit by malnutrition. Since Lao PDR’s poverty is concentrated in rural areas, improving agriculture, maintaining biodiversity and increasing knowledge about health and nutrition will be the most effective ways to achieve the Millennium Development Goal, to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.
KPL Lao News Agency
October 19, 2009
