FORUM: Economic and Financial Committee (General Assembly 2)
ISSUE: Implementation of sustainable agriculture to strengthen global food security.
SUBMITTED BY: The delegate of Ukraine
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1. Calls upon Member States, especially those in a position to do so, and relevant United Nations organizations to make greater efforts to promote sustainable agriculture in order to substantiate and fortify global food security. A measure that can be taken to sort this is:
a) educating illiterate farmers and smallholding owners, which would inevitably bring about positive changes in terms of modernization and controlled mechanization;
2. Urges the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) as well as governments and banks of countries to:
a) disburse loans to smallholding owners to improve their farms and agricultural methods, thereby strengthening food security and empowering smallholding owners
b) allow the smallholding owners to repay the loan in easy instalments to put less pressure on the owners and maximise profits;
3. Takes note of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development’s agreement to de-industrialize farming and further builds upon it to:
a) control the amount of monocultured land, as this leads to loss in fertility of soil
b) practice different farming methods on these monocultured lands to increase produce and soil fertility, such as:
i. crop rotation by leaving parts of the land fallow to revitalize soil as well as grow different types of crops, and then growing a different crop on the same part of the land the next harvesting season
ii. the enclosure system, to cultivate different types of crops, prevent disease etc.
iii. strip farming, to grow different varieties of crops and improve overall soil quality;
4. Recommends that cultivation of absolutely non-essential cash crops for example, rapeseed and tobacco be put to a standstill after the next harvest, and they would be replaced by food crops that can be grown in that region to further build up food security in the world, which is arguably more important than growing crops for profit alone;
5. Encourages Member States and related Organizations, particularly those in a position to do so, to practice and develop the field of hydroponics as this could be an excellent substitute for soil itself, and could be beneficial to us in a variety of ways:
a) to maximise output to a new level
b) to be used when the fertility of soil eventually diminishes
c) this is a sustainable form of agriculture and we can practice sustainable intensification on this;
6. Further takes note of (A/RES/62/190), passed on 11th February 2008 under the topic “Agricultural technology for development”, in particular clause nine, and pushes countries to increasingly use Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to increase the yield and to produce more ecologically friendly and nutritious crops;
7. Draws the attention of the Member States to the international economic framework of the WB and the IMF which puts pressure on the LEDC’s by reducing subsidies, and should be altered accordingly in such a way that this reduces pressure on the LEDC’s, allows them to get out of trade liberalization, and also to increase the food security index by proper and fair trade throughout the country with competitively priced goods (eco-efficiency);
8. Further encourages countries heavily relying on China, USA and other major exporters of food to:
a) not rely on other countries as much as these countries do as self-dependence of all countries on the basis of food is the key to establishing global food security
b) community schemes and sustainable intensification are vital for this to occur so they should also be made use of efficiently
9. Calls for a convention of agronomists and scientists from the 10 countries with the highest food security index and the 10 countries to discuss more possible solutions as well as alternative, more eco-friendly ways to introduce micro-nutrients and macro-nutrients into GMOs and High Yielding Varieties.
