Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Back for his question. Food security is vitally important to our regional security. Some 80 per cent of the world's extreme poor live in rural areas, and many of these people are working in agriculture. Of course this is also the case in the Indo-Pacific area. Food security in the Indo-Pacific region is of concern on a number of fronts—due to pressures of population growth, natural resource decline, urbanisation and adverse climatic events. So, sustainable agriculture and fisheries are very important for food security in our region. Our aid program in agriculture and food security focuses on three areas: firstly, strengthening markets to increase market participation by the poor, with a particular emphasis on women's empowerment and making finance available to them to leverage private investment; secondly, improving productivity along food and agriculture value chains and promoting more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources; and, lastly, promoting policy, governance and reform to assist our partner countries to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and open trade.

I want to talk about a couple of examples of Australia's agriculture aid investment, and this includes a $48 million market development facility which is working across five countries—in Fiji, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka—to strengthen market access for the poor. By 2021, MDF's work will result in US$68 million in additional income for a quarter of a million men and women, including almost 12,000 jobs benefiting almost 800,000 households. (Time expired)