World Food Council (Hansard, 3 July 1975)

§ Mr. John Grant

The bodies to be set up under the World Food Conference resolutions and whose activities will be very much the concern of the World Food Council are still in the process of being established. The first meeting of the council was therefore largely a preparatory one and for general discussion of the world food situation. The council laid stress on the need to give particular attention to the food needs of the most seriously affected countries; to the importance of achieving the 10 million tons food aid target; the importance of a system of world food security as one of the main pillars of a world food policy; the need to ensure that the most seriously affected countries are able to obtain their fertiliser requirements; and that the proposed International Fund for Agricultural Development should be established as soon as adequate funds are assured and preferably by early 1976.

I was able to announce that Her Majesty's Government would provide further fertiliser aid of 100,000 tons on a grant basis, at an estimated cost to the aid programme of about £15 million, to those developing countries most seriously affected by current high prices, and that Her Majesty's Government would make a contribution to the International Fund for Agricultural Development if it seemed likely to add usefully to international efforts for agricultural development.