Spensy Pimentel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Porto Alegre - The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says it hopes to join the Brazilian government in partnership efforts that will alleviate problems with drought and boost local economies at the same time. The idea is to use local family farms to combat hunger and poverty in Africa and Latin America.

According to Jacques Diouf, the FAO director general, Brazil has experience in dealing with the long-term effects of drought in its semi-arid Northeastern region which can and should be shared with other nations. Brazil can teach other countries things like cistern construction and the use of public works to ease the impact of drought with subterranean dams, for example, said Diouf, in conversations with president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the new FAO representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jose Graziano da Silva, who was formerly a presidential aide to Lula.

Diouf went on to explain that 80% of the world's serious cases of hunger are directly related to climatic problems: flooding or drought. "Brazil is one of the few countries in the world with experience in irrigation projects in semi-arid areas," he declared.

Another Brazilian action plan implemented in the semi-arid Northeast region that Diouf cited was the use of local family farm produce to alleviate hunger. "Frequently surplus food from the US or Europe is distributed to the hungry in disaster areas. But that does not solve the problem. It can make things worse by eliminating jobs and the market for local produce," explains Diouf, adding that the idea is an action plan that supports and bolsters local development. He said the UN could assist in the distribution of local produce to the needy

Translation: Allen Bennett