FAO raises alarm over food security

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Near East governments need to spend more on agricultural production to ease dependency on imports, a U.N. official said in Sudan.

Jacques Diouf, director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, told delegates in Khartoum that food production in the Near East was falling behind the rest of the world.

"On average, cereal yields in the Near East are currently about half the world average, and the gap is widening," he said in a statement.

Diouf said food deficits in the region could double in the next 20 years, meaning governments could be susceptible to "shocks" in international markets.

Meanwhile, available water resources in the region are about 10 percent of what the rest of the world averages per person and the long-term forecast is dire, the FAO said.

Increased trade and investments, said Diouf, were needed to stave off a food crisis in the Near East.

"While the share of agriculture in gross domestic product is about 12 percent for the region, its share in national public expenditure does not exceed 5 percent," he stressed.