G-20 nations to work towards food and nutritional security for all

Leaders commit to support research in climate-resilient and nutritious grains such as millets; grouping to facilitate fair food-fertilizer trade and not impose export ban

From left, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President of the European Comission Ursula von der Leyen, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Joe Biden, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and French President Emmanuel Macron attend Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment event on the day of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. | Photo Credit: AP

The leaders’ declaration adopted at the G-20 meeting here on Saturday laid emphasis on ensuring global food and nutritional security for all in line with the G-20 Deccan High-Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition 2023. 

The leaders said in the declaration that they will encourage efforts to strengthen research cooperation in climate-resilient and nutritious grains such as millets, quinoa, sorghum, and other traditional crops, including rice, wheat and maize. Welcoming the outcomes from the G-20 members’s engagement in the 12th G-20 Meeting of Agriculture Chief Scientists (MACS), they emphasised the importance of increasing access to, availability, and efficient use of fertilizer and agricultural inputs, including through strengthening local fertilizer production, and to improve soil health. 

The leaders committed to accelerating innovations and investment focused on increasing agricultural productivity, reducing food loss and waste across the value chain, and improving marketing and storage, to build more sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture and food systems. “Commit to support developing countries’ efforts and capacities to address their food security challenges, and work together to enable access to affordable, safe, nutritious and healthy diets, and to foster the progressive realisation of the right to adequate food,” the declaration said.

It added that G-20 will also facilitate open, fair, predictable, and rules-based agriculture, food and fertilizer trade, not impose export prohibitions or restrictions and reduce market distortions, in accordance with relevant WTO rules. The leaders said they are committed to strengthen the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM), for greater transparency to avoid food price volatility, supporting AMIS’s work on fertilizers, its expansion to include vegetable oils, and for enhancing collaboration with early warning systems.