South Perth, Western Australia
October 11, 2011
Greater attention needs to be paid to plant biosecurity to ensure the security of the world’s food production and supplies, according to an Australian scientist.
The Director of Plant Biosecurity with the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food Shashi Sharma delivered the warning today in a keynote address to an International Symposium on Grain Information Technology, being held in Beijing.
The Symposium features speakers from Canada, Japan, Australia and China.
Dr Sharma said plant biosecurity was not receiving enough global attention or investment.
“There is a pressing need to improve the world’s plant biosecurity if plant resources and the world’s food production and supply are to be safeguarded from biological threats,” Dr Sharma said.
“The international community urgently needs to develop a biosecure global food supply chain and establish a strategy for regional, national and global biosecurity requirements to produce, process and deliver food.”
Dr Sharma said the green revolution of the 1960s was primarily focused on producing more food.
“The daunting task of feeding humanity now and in the future urgently requires another revolution focused not only on producing more food, but making it available and affordable, and not losing what is produced,” he said. “To make that happen, plant biosecurity has a pivotal role to play.”
Dr Sharma said biosecurity covered the full spectrum of biological risks, whether they were naturally occurring pests and diseases, those introduced by accident or negligence, or deliberately as biological weapons.
“Nations need to consider undertaking a stocktake of their biosecurity risk management strategies, policies, institutional arrangements and systems to respond to biosecurity threats to the world’s food supply chain,” he said.
“There are new opportunities for trading and for enhancing the availability of food. But there is a growing concern that the spin-off from globalisation is increased exposure of the food supply chain to biosecurity risks.
“The world is already seeing significant production and post harvest food losses world-wide because of pests and diseases, particularly in the developing countries where chronic food shortages persist and where many people are starving.
“For instance, rice blast fungus alone is estimated to destroy enough rice to feed 60 million people a year. Importing food has the potential to expose a country or region to the introduction of harmful organisms, significantly impeding its ability to become food self sufficient.”
Dr Sharma said the adverse impact of these organisms in the invaded regions could be intergenerational and irreversible.
“Safeguarding the food supply chain from biosecurity threats by implementing effective risk management strategies is necessary to achieve food security for all,” Dr Sharma said.
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