Mr. Chairman,

1. I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. The global crisis, reinforced by the ongoing global financial and economic crisis, constitutes a real challenge for development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It has emerged in a situation of significant mal-distribution of the world food supply and lack of coherence in international policies, as well as unfavorable environment towards development, including rural development, agriculture and food production.

3. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 re-established the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, acknowledged that food security and nutrition has become a pressing global challenge and reaffirmed the commitment to enhancing food security and access to adequate, safe and nutritious food for present and future generations in line with the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security adopted in 2009, including for children under two, and through, as appropriate, national, regional and global food security and nutrition strategies. The Group welcomes the Zero Hunger Challenge launched by the Secretary-general at the Rio+20 Conference as a vision for a future free from hunger.

4. The Group of 77 and China emphasizes the urgent need to increase efforts at the national, regional and international level to address food security and agriculture development as an integral part of the international development agenda. We stress on the need for sustained funding and increased targeted investment to enhance world food production and call for new and additional financial resources from all sources to achieve sustainable agriculture development and food security.

5. The G77 and China emphasizes also that achieving food security would require strengthening and revitalizing the agriculture sector in developing countries, including through the empowerment of indigenous peoples, rural communities, small and medium scale farmers, providing technical and financial assistance, access to and transfer of technology, capacity building and exchange of knowledge and experience.

6. The Group shares the concerns raised in the Secretary general report A/67/294 that although women comprise around 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, ranging from 20% in Latin America to 50% in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, women smallholders across all regions continue to have less access than men to productive resources and opportunities. The gender gap persists for many assets, inputs and services, including land, livestock, labour, education, extension and financial services and technology, and it imposes costs on agriculture sector in terms of lower productivity, the broader economy and society, as well as on women themselves.

7. Closing the gender gap in access to productive resources in agriculture should be a high priority; in this regard the Group of 77 and China stresses, once again, the importance of empowerment of rural women as critical agents for enhancing agricultural and rural development and food security and nutrition.

Mr. Chairman,

8. It has to be noted that without rapid progress in reducing hunger, achieving all of the other MDGs will be difficult, if not impossible. While hunger and food security issues impact urban and rural populations differently, the fight to eliminate hunger and reaching the other MDGs will be won or lost in the rural areas where the vast majority of the world's hungry people live."

9. Our response to food security crises and food insecurity should and must go beyond short-term actions in order to protect and promote people's livelihoods over the longer term. To better address the challenges we face and fight hunger at the long term, some measures need to be taken to revitalize the agricultural and rural development sectors in developing countries, in sustainable manner, such as, enhancing access by agricultural producers, in particular small producers, women, indigenous peoples and people living in vulnerable situations to credit and other financial services, markets, secure land tenure, health care, social services, education, training, knowledge and appropriate and affordable technologies, including for efficient irrigation, reuse of treated wastewater and water harvesting and storage.

10. It is also important to stress that, agricultural subsidies and other trade distortions by developed countries have severely harmed the agricultural sector in developing countries, limiting the ability of this key sector to contribute meaningfully to poverty eradication, rural development and sustainable, sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth. Therefore, we urge the developed countries to demonstrate the necessary flexibility and political will to address meaningfully these key concerns of developing countries at the Doha Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations.

Mr. Chairman,

11. In conclusion, the Group of 77 and China reiterates the importance for developing countries to determinate their own food security strategies, that food security is a national policy responsibility and that any plans for addressing food security challenges and the eradication of poverty in relation to food security must be nationally articulated, designed, owned, led and built in consultation with all key stakeholders at the national, regional and international level.

I thank you.