After its historic participation in the 2008 Toyako-Hokkaido Summit, this year Indonesia again takes part in the G8 Summit meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, under the framework of the Major Economies Forum (MEF).

In this summit, Indonesia is involved in discussions on strategic issues that have national and global implications, namely energy and climate change, trade and food security.

The convening of this year's G8 Summit coincides with the presidential election in Indonesia. This situation means President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is unable to attend the summit.

In this regard, he appointed the Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and the State Minister for the Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar as his special envoy to L'Aquila.

Food security is indeed an issue of global concern. Last year the world experienced the devastating impact of a food crisis when the price of food commodities skyrocketed.

According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), from 2007 to 2008, the number of undernourished people in the world rose by 40 million to a total of 963 million. Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD's president said just recently that the number of hungry people in the world had reached 1.02 billion - the highest ever.

Nowadays even though the price of food commodities has decreased from a peak in mid-2008, if we look back over the last few years, they remain high (around 17 percent higher than the 2006 prices and 24 percent higher than they were in 2005). In addition to this, the volatility level is also high.

Indonesia performed very well in coping with the 2008 food crisis by showing strong resilience to the impact of the high food prices. As a result of this success, Indonesia's voice is better-heard in the international area.

The world wants us to share our experience in facing the threat of the food crisis and wants to know our national strategy on food security. This is a precious diplomatic chip to pursue our agenda and to push the international community to handle the issue of food security in a better way.

Prior to the summit meeting, some international media indicated the L'Aquila Summit would commit more than US$12 billion to agricultural development over the next three years. What does this signify? It is clearly a signal of a shift from food aid to more long-term investment in farming, especially in the developing world. Food aid is no longer enough. As the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated last month, "It is, at best, a short-term fix".

What is more important, is to increase funding and long term investment in the agriculture sector, especially to help small-holder farmers alleviate poverty. On this note, the Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso also wrote in the Financial Times, "Lasting investment is the only viable solution for a sustainable future, and we must work to restore confidence in the market, particularly among food-importing countries concerned by the proliferation of export restrictions. Charity alone cannot be a lasting solution".

What does the above indicate Indonesia? Currently we have around 43 million people working in agriculture sector. This is roughly 18 percent of total population.

That is a lot of people depending on agriculture for their livelihood. The agriculture sector itself contributed around 14 percent of the total share of Indonesia's GDP in 2007.

Thus an increased amount of investment in the agricultural sector means that more Indonesian people will have a better chance to alleviate themselves from poverty, strengthen the agriculture sector in the Indonesian economic system, and also contribute to stronger world food security.

The writer is Indonesian diplomat based in Rome. This is a personal opinion.

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