By Jessica Cheam
Environment Correspondent
jcheam@sph.com.sg

 

IN ROME

WHEN I left Singapore last week to attend a conference on food security in Rome, world food prices made Page 1 headlines. World Bank chief Robert Zoellick had warned that global food prices have reached "dangerous levels", adding that the impact will complicate fragile political and social conditions in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Fresh World Bank data showed higher food prices – mainly for wheat, maize, sugars and edible oils - have pushed 44 million more people in developing countries into extreme poverty since June 2010. Climate-related disasters and commodity speculation have been fingered as key reasons why food prices are soaring.

In Singapore, this has translated to higher food prices in recent months. Coffee prices, for example, went up during the Chinese New Year period and stayed there. Pork and fish prices also soared 20 per cent, with supply being disrupted by recent events.

Inflation - partly fuelled by rising food prices - was the top concern for Singaporeans for this year's Budget, going by a snap ST poll of 400 readers which ranked it as the top priority. It's not surprising, then, that Budget 2011 focused on helping lower- to middle-income households grapple with inflation.

Set against this context, the conference I was attending in Rome by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was timely. I have to admit I did not know much about the organisation before I was invited by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to attend the IFAD's two-day governing council meeting which took place this weekend.

The IFAD is arguably the least well-known of United Nations organisations, but its work - to tackle rural poverty and ensure food security - is of utmost importance.

In Singapore, where average income of households per capita ranks among the top in the world, rural poverty is not something we often think about. Food is abundant even though we do not produce much food locally, thanks to our policies on diversified sourcing and a deep enough pocket that can pay for any food we want in the world to be imported.

So why should Singaporeans even think twice about these topics?

Here's why:  We are price takers. And if we do not take steps to ensure food security, we will be victims of any price volatilities that may be yet to come given the unpredictability of events, especially those related to weather.

Our food prices are highly dependent on global supply and demand, even though we do have safeguards such as stockpiles of essentials such as grain and sugar. Soaring food prices will only further fuel inflation - adding to the rising costs of living.
 
High and/or volatile food prices also lead to political instability and Singapore's geographical position in the centre of a turbulent region makes us particularly vulnerable to such events.

It is therefore in our interest to begin to understand the issues that will ultimately affect our quality of life. For a start, Singapore is not even a member of the IFAD, which has 164 member states that includes many of our neighbours such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Perhaps it is time for us to join the organisation.

The IFAD's director of the asia and the pacific division, Mr Thomas Elhaut, said it was understandable that Singapore, being a small country with limited resources, could not devote resources to join this organisation. But things are changing - when food prices were cheap in the past, strengthening the agricultural sectors that surround the country was not a priority.

Now, it should be.

The IFAD's theme for this year's conference is to empower the rural youth and create vibrant rural communities.

I'd like to point out that although these communities seem far removed from our reality - tucked away in remote areas of our neighbours' countrysides - it is also in our interest to support the IFAD's objective because if these communities succeed, it could also ease or stem the increasing flow of migration of people from rural areas into cities such as Singapore.

The influx of foreigners - from countries in the region such as China, India, Myanmar and Vietnam, to name a few - into Singapore in recent years has placed stress on our infrastructure and depressed wages particularly for the lower-income households, making immigration a hot topic of discussion in the past year.

If we could help to ease the flow of migration to cities in the region, it could also be in our interest. Not to mention, a healthy agricultural sector in our periphery can only be good for our food security.

Singapore, having developed expertise in financial services and made a name for itself in public policy, could also find itself a useful investor and consultant in implementing programmes across South-east Asia.

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of another related movement - urban agriculture -  which is growing in Singapore in the many agro-tech parks that we are building, and also in the more grassroots form of community gardens that have started to blossom in many spots across the island.

I'm heartened to see that to some extent, some people have started to think about the benefits of growing and consuming local food.

I will be exploring these themes in upcoming stories on food security and Singapore - look out for it.