Farmers need incentive to invest

MORE than half of the 860 million hungry in the world are farmers, said the organisations representing European farmers and their co-ops this week, as world leaders met to discuss how to save hungry populations from skyrocketing food prices.

Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of COPA-COGECA, said: “In the past the EU has been blamed for lowering world prices and causing poverty in developing countries, particularly through its export refunds.

“Now that almost all export refunds are gone, the same critics say higher prices cause poverty and hunger.