Promoting food security, agriculture and rural development through relevant education at all levels

Progress towards achieving the international development goals of ‘Food for All’ and ‘Education for All’ by the year 2015 has been too slow. Although the number of children attending school is increasing in many countries and the number of sufficiently nourished children and adults is rising globally, the challenges facing the achievement of these international development goals are still enormous, especially in rural areas of the developing world where food insecurity, low school participation, high school dropout rates and under-education are still all too common. Food insecurity, poverty and educational deprivation often create a vicious circle from which underprivileged households and communities are unable to escape, especially in rural areas. Climbing out of this ‘poverty trap’ can not be achieved by addressing one sector alone, but requires multi-disciplinary approaches. It is therefore timely and essential to explore feasible measures in which the interrelated issues of food security, sustainable rural development and relevant education can be tackled together. This should be done at all levels of the education system, starting with primary education where there are direct links between food and education

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