With the Strait of Hormuz blocked, some of the poorest countries may not be able to access fertilizer, says a U.N. agency.Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
An international expert in global food security is visiting Canada this week to urge officials to continue investing in agriculture, warning that the continued Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has upended supply chains in the middle of planting season in many countries.
Ismahane Elouafi, the executive managing director of the world’s largest publicly funded agricultural research network, CGIAR, said the closing of the strait is driving up the prices of oil and fertilizer, which means less productivity, higher costs for farmers and rising food prices − economic pain that will be felt a few weeks from now.
Before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, ships would carry about 20 to 30 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied petroleum gas through the strait, as well as about 16 million tonnes of fertilizer a year, according to the United Nations Trade and Development agency. With that crucial waterway blocked, it warned, some of the poorest countries may not be able to access fertilizer.
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“The connection between food security and national security is huge. And the connection between food security and global security, it’s clear,” Dr. Elouafi said in an interview.
“Yes, investment in defence is increasing all over the world, but the reality of things is that if people don’t have food to eat in their own land, in their own communities, it’s very easy to have displaced people, to have civil wars.”
Dr. Elouafi, a Moroccan-Canadian based at CGIAR’s headquarters in Montpellier, in southern France, is travelling to Ottawa and Montreal this week. Canada is a founding member of CGIAR, and Dr. Elouafi said it is among the top 10 donors, having invested about $182-million in the network since 2011.
She said the money over the years has supported low-income countries but has also benefited Canada by improving practices in its agricultural system, including an additional 1.17 million tonnes of annual wheat production.
“So the numbers are very consistent, but given the changes in the world, particularly climate change, there is a need to continue that investment, continue that innovation, continue those partnerships to make sure that Canada continues to both increase its own productivity, which is part and parcel of the economic growth of Canada and the food trade coming from Canada, but also help the lowest-income countries and be part of global food security.”
At a time when the federal government’s focus is on increasing defence spending, as many countries are doing, Dr. Elouafi said she will emphasize that food security is crucial to national and international security.
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“Some of the commodities already have shown really that they are going back to the highest [prices] that we have historically, and that’s mostly due to higher energy costs and higher input costs like fertilizers. So definitely those both … will reignite global food inflation.”
Soaring prices will affect vulnerable communities and countries the most, she said, because they rely on those commodities and don’t have the resources to increase their input. In addition, their purchasing capacity will be further limited as prices shoot up.
“That’s also going to impact their livelihood, their capacity to buy, and their nutrition as well,” she said. “There will be more malnourished people, more people who are not capable of feeding their kids.”