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Irish rep notes emigration in Year of Potato support

By Noreen Bowden | November 13, 2007

At the recent launch of 2008 as the International Year of the Potato, Kevin Dowling, Counsellor from the Irish mission to the UN, noted that Ireland is planning to be an active supporter of the year. He noted that Ireland is providing $300,000 to support the activities, seeing it as “an opportunity to focus on the role agriculture can play in improving nutrition and food security” and also co contribute to the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

Ireland is also giving 200,000 euro in funding to the International Potato Centre in Peru and 320,000 euro for a related research project in Milawi.

He added,

“Ireland’s commitment to combating hunger is not without historical reason. The failure of the potato crop in Ireland in the 1840s led to a famine that left 1.5 million dead and forced 1 million to emigrate. Since then, Ireland’s fortunes have changed and we are now a prosperous nation, but hunger and food insecurity continue to hamper progress in reaching the MDGs in many developing countries. Earlier this year Ireland established a Hunger Task Force with the aim of identifying the particular contribution that Ireland can make to international efforts to eliminate hunger and tackle food insecurity.”

See the full text of Mr Dowling’s remarks.
Visit the Year of the Potato website.

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