More urbanization will lead to more poverty
Regional, Agriculture, 8/13/1997

Lebanese minister of Agriculture Shawki Fakhoury on August 12 warned that gaps in urban food distribution systems and continued urbanization threaten social stability and directly affect the welfare of people in the region.

In the opening address at a regional seminar on urban food distribution systems in the Near East, Fakhoury stressed the importance of monitoring food quality to remove the risk of health problems and warned that a rapid increase in urban population will threaten social and economic services.

As a Minister, Fakhoury has been a proponent of supporting agriculture to prevent rural populations from migrating to the city in search of better job opportunities.

The seminar was organized by the United Nations' food and agriculture organisation (FAO) in cooperation with the agricultural food marketing association for the near East and North Africa and the ministry of agriculture.

Representatives from Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Jordan and Cyprus are taking part in three days of discussions on increasing awareness of the effects of urbanization on the food situation and reaching practical solutions.

"I hope we do not deal only with theories but take up the problem and come up with operable solutions ready to be implemented, because the food issue is critical and treatment cannot wait," Fakhoury told participants.

FAO representative Omar Bin Ramadan said that the absence of comprehensive planning and control of urbanization have outweighed the positive aspects of advances in education, productivity, and modernization.

"The most striking negative consequences of urbanization are poverty of large segments of the population, overcrowding, congestion, a worsening environmental situation and rapid deterioration of social and economic services," Bin Ramadan said.

He said the Near East has continued to witness rapid population growth and urbanization rates, which average approximately 45 percent of the total population, compared to 38 percent for all developing countries.

Bin Ramadan said the seminar will attempt to present a comprehensive review of the present food distribution system and an analysis of population projections beyond the year 2000.

He called on municipalities, governorates and ministries as well as the private sector to cooperate in order to come up with a plan of action for improvements in line with population growth and future needs.

The Agricultural Food Marketing Association for the Near East and North Africa's secretary general Mahmoud Hiyari said the seminar's timing is important because countries in the region are facing poor economic conditions, future projections of widening food deficits and insufficient local production resulting from growing dependence on food imports.

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