INSTANT VIEW: G8 summit pledges $20 bln to boost food output

ROME (Reuters) - Following are comments from aid experts on the G8 summit's global food security initiative, which pledged $20 billion over three years to spur agricultural investment in poorer countries to fight hunger.

STAFFAN DE MISTURA, VICE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

"$20 billion was a last-minute agreement and it was greeted with great happiness by all of us in the conference room. While we are rebuilding agriculture we need to continue supporting food assistance because the financial crisis is pushing another 103 million people into hunger this year."

SARAH GILLAM, ACTIONAID

"The final pledge doesn't change much. It is a welcome step in the right direction to get food on table for the 1 billion hungry but it's not enough to feed them all.

"Aid for food must reach at least $23 billion a year by 2020 to reach the millennium development goal of halving hunger by 2050. This takes the G8 much closer but there is still a way to go. Also, is this all additional money? Given the G8 record on delivery, this is still very much a work in progress."

JACQUES DIOUF, DIRECTOR GENERAL, U.N. FOOD AND AGRICULTURE Organization

"The most important thing is the shift in policy and focus on the need to help hungry and poor people to produce their own food. That's the biggest shift in strategy I have seen over the past two decades.

We still have a lot of work to do, but this time I believe we will deliver, because this was the initiative of President Barack Obama, so Yes We Can."

OLIVER BUSTON, EUROPE DIRECTOR, ONE

"The statement makes clear that emergency food aid needs to be additional to support for agriculture, which is good. There has also been progress in improving the effectiveness of aid.

Obama has shown real vision and leadership, but it is still unclear who, other than the U.S. and perhaps one or two other countries, is putting real new money into this.

We are now looking to the G20 in Pittsburgh to see some real new money on the table and to firm up how this aid will be delivered."

AJAY VASHEE, PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS

"The policy shift is important. Before, there was always this complacency that emergency food aid would get through food crises, so a lot of reforms that needed to be taking place in developing countries did not happen and budgetary allocation for investment in agriculture was delayed.

"In the past, a lot of investments have not reached their target, small farmers who need to be helped a leg up the ladder with new technologies and seeds, so it's important to get them involved. We need to boost agricultural productivity before and after the harvest -- about 40 percent of the crop is lost in African countries due to inadequate storage or lack of proper distribution to market."