One billion people in the world were chronically hungry and malnourished in late 2009, more than at any time in history. This flies in the face of the target of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

Fortunately the world leaders recognize the problem and are giving the issue the priority that it deserves. At all the recent major international conferences, the leaders have been making pledges to take practical steps to meet the challenge. At the July 2009 G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, for instance, they agreed to formulate a comprehensive strategy for sustainable agricultural development and decided to mobilize US$20 billion over a three-year period. This is a significant step, even though the amount committed falls far short of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s estimates of US$30 billion required per year for investments in rural infrastructure and other needs such as providing access to modern inputs for food production, guaranteeing food safety and quality and food safety nets.

Any strategy to reach these goals must start where the prevalence of hunger and poverty is the highest; in rural areas in general and agriculture in particular. The ultimate goals of these strategies must be to raise agricultural productivity and output so that agriculture incomes will become comparable to those attained in other sectors.