High food prices may persist for the next 10 years in Ghana and other countries of the world, a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said.
The report stated that over the next decade, real prices for cereals would be 20 per cent higher, while that of meat would also increase by 30 per cent compared to what was obtained in 2001-2010.
It said that the projections are well below the peak price levels experienced from 2007 to 2008 and this year.
The report, published by the FAO, revealed that agricultural outlook for 2011-2020 predicts good harvest in the coming months, which should normally push commodity prices down from the extreme levels seen earlier this year.
It explained that higher prices for commodities are being passed through the food chain, leading to rising consumer price inflation in most countries. This raises concerns for economic stability and food security in some developing countries, with poor consumers most at risk of malnutrition, the report said.
The OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurria said: �While higher prices are generally good news for farmers, the impact on the poor in developing countries who spend a high proportion of their income on food can be devastating.�
She called on governments to improve information and transparency of both physical and financial markets, encourage investments that increase productivity in developing countries, remove production and trade distorting policies and assist the vulnerable to better manage risk and uncertainty.
FAO Director-General, Jacques Diouf said in the current market context, price volatility could remain a feature of agricultural markets and coherent policies are required to both reduce volatility and limit its negative impacts.
He mentioned that the key solution to the problem will be boosting investment in agriculture and reinforcing rural development in developing countries, where 98 percent of the hungry people live today and where population is expected to increase by 47 percent over the next decades.
He urged governments to focus in particular on smallholders in low-income food-deficit countries.
To mitigate price volatility in food and agriculture markets, the report suggested that among other things, G20 countries take steps to boost agricultural productivity in developing countries, reduce or eliminate trade-disorting policies and establish a new mechanism to improve information and transparency on agricultural production, consumption, stocks and trade.
OECD report, which covers fisheries for the first time sees global agricultural production growing more slowly over the next decade than in the past 10 years.
Farm output is expected to rise by 1.7 per cent yearly, compared to the 2.6 per cent growth rate of the past decade. Despite this slow growth, production per capita is still projected to rise by 0.7 per cent yearly.
Per-capita food consumption will expand most rapidly in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, where incomes are rising and population growth is slowing.
Meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar should experience the high increase in demand, according to the report.
Global production in the fisheries sector is projected to increase by 1.3 percent annually to 2020. This is slower than growth over the previous decade, due to reduced or stagnant capture of wild fish stocks and lower growth rates in aquaculture, which underwent a rapid expansion over the 2001-2010 period.
By 2015, aquaculture is projected to surpass capture fisheries as the most important source of fish for human consumption, and by 2020 should represent about 45 per cent of total fishery production, including non-food uses.
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