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What isTeleFood? An initiative of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, TELEFOOD is an annual campaign to raise funds through broadcasts, concerts, and other events dedicated to reducing hunger and malnutrition in the world. TeleFood harnesses the power of the people, including renowned actors, singers and athletes, to get its message out to the public. Money raised goes to hundreds of small projects in developing and transition countries that help poor farmers grow the food they need for their hungry families. The TeleFood approach to fight hunger is based on the belief that - public opinion counts. If enough people decide that they can no longer accept conditions that condemn 800 million people to lives of chronic hunger in a world of plenty, then by sheer weight of numbers they can change those conditions. Person to person, village to village, hunger must be beaten YES IT MUST BE. TeleFood ‘99 is the global campaign to raise public awareness of the problem of world hunger and to give hope to the hungry. An estimated 320 million people live below the poverty line in India - a majority of them not certain whether they will be able to have even one square meal in a couple of days. The battle to end hunger in the world continues this year with World Food Day ‘99 theme "Youth Under Hunger " which focuses attention on what more than one billion young people between the ages 15-24 can do to defeat hunger. With heads full of dreams and hearts full of hope, youth can play a decisive role in making "Food for All" a reality in the century that is about to dawn. Under TeleFood ’99 a number of activities have been planned. Personalities from different walks of life such as Mr. R. Venkataraman, Ex-President of India, Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan, Sarood Maestro etc., have expressed their solidarity towards the "Fight Against Hunger". A school orchard in the Suraj Bhan DAV school (Vasant Vihar, Delhi) has already started bearing fruits. There are also plans to have a concert of various Indian classical artistes and/or a cricket match at a later date. The corporate sector has also been requested to give their support. The cooperative fertiliser giant IFFCO has donated US$10, 0000 to the TeleFood Fund and the India Grains Council has agreed to donate US $ 1, 000 as well 10% of its advertisement revenues henceforth. Under the activities planned to celebrate this year’s World Food Day, a Workshop has been organised on the 15th of October to review the agricultural development strategies planned on the eve of World Food Summit in 1996. The Government of India had planned a number of activities across the country which include elocution, essay writing and painting contests as well as cultural programmes by the Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangathan( a country wide network of youth clubs organisation mainly located in the rural and semi-rural areas.) Awards will be presented to outstanding media persons, Doordarshan, Rotary International, School and students who have actively contributed to the field of agriculture and World Food Day activities.PROJECTS HANDLED FAO is currently supporting the implementation of 36 projects comprising 7 UNDP funded, 10 FAO technical Cooperation projects, 7 trust Fund and 12 Regional projects. The ongoing FAO projects include those in the fields of sea safety development, greenhouse floriculture, apiculture, walnut propagation, establishment of phytotron facility, plant quarantine and inspection facilities, integrated pest management, oilseeds and pulses, development of hybrid rice technology, agro-forestry conservation of animal genetic resources, coir processing, technical assistance for dairy development, development of small-scale fisheries and coastal fisheries management and tuna development. Under TeleFood the project which has started is the school orchard in a school in Delhi. Others in the pipeline include a horticulture garden to reduce malnutrition in Kumaon hills, onion production in Bulandshahar, Tapioca production in Lalitpur, support to rainfed rice crop activities of tribals in Bihar and rice productivity in Vindhyan region. Other activities in India’s relate to India’s participation in international conferences, recruitment of Indian specialists for FAO assignments in other member countries and placement of fellows from other countries from training at Indian institutions. All FAO projects have the common feature of being complementary to ongoing government funded programmes which are much larger in size and the FAO technical assistance plays a catalytic role in addressing technology gaps, institutional build-up support and human resource development at the management and technical levels. FAO also supports exchange of technical know-how and technical cooperation among developing countries, through its various programmes. PROJECTS IN THE PLANNING STAGE Government Cooperative Programme (GCP)
Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP)
TELEFOOD (TF)
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