There is a need to reverse the long-term decline in investment in agriculture of developing countries and to create institutional capacities at global, regional and national levels that are able to assure universal access to adequate food. Investment in agriculture by both the public and private sectors has to be boosted, and the part of development aid going to agriculture has to be increased. Most of the growth in food demand will come from developing countries, and this is also
where the greatest production capacity potential lies. There is need for a new wave of investment in rural areas of developing countries. This must be guided by projections that show that 90 percent of the necessary production increases (80 percent in developing countries) will need to come from increases in yields and cropping intensity and only 10 percent (20 percent in developing countries) from expansion of arable land. Preliminary
estimates indicate that, compared to the last decade, investments in agriculture and rural areas in developing countries need to be increased by nearly 50 percent to deliver the projected growth of global food production until 2050. Providing the resources to underpin the growth in food production and for social security programmes will require a major reallocation in developing country budgets as well as in donor programmes.