The BBC World Service’s flagship ‘World Today’ news programme interviewed Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda to hear her thoughts on global food security and the emerging outcomes of the G8 agriculture ministers’ meeting, which occurred in Italy from April 18-20.

Dr. Sibanda noted that food shortages in certain parts of the world were unavoidable. Noentheless, policy experts could still prevent these shortages from making affected regions more unstable politically and economically. She says:

Definitely, food insecurity is global in that it will unsettle the whole world’s peace agenda. The developed countries have to contribute to the plan but more importantly the African countries now have to make sure that the smallholder farmer is at the centre of the debate.

Dr. Sibanda is highlighting how interconnected the policies of the G8 countries are in shaping outcomes for smallholder farmers across the world.

Listen to an mp3 audio file of this BBC interview here:

[audio:bbcworldtoday.mp3]