Voting begins for new UN food agency head

ROME: Members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation began voting to elect a new head on Sunday amid growing concerns over global hunger, spiralling food prices and the effects of climate change.

Of the six candidates, former Brazilian food security minister Jose Graziano da Silva and former Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos were favourites ahead of others from from Austria, Indonesia, Iran and Iraq.

Senegal's Jacques Diouf, the head of the FAO for 17 years, is stepping down at the end of the year and his successor is expected to tackle chronic inefficiencies at the agency as a key part of the fight against global hunger.

"We need a strong and effective FAO, now more than ever," Graziano said Saturday ahead of the vote, adding that food security, transboundary disease, fish stock conservation and climate change were urgent issues for FAO.

Mexico's ambassador to the FAO, Jorge Chen, who is supporting the Spanish candidate over the Brazilian, told AFP: "Right now FAO needs to become a political instrument and Moratinos has the right profile for that."

Each of the FAO's 191 member states gets one vote in the election -- unlike other UN agencies where the biggest contributors get more of a say. Voting began at 0830 GMT and the result is not expected until late Sunday afternoon.

There is still a possibility for a compromise candidate to come out ahead like Europe's former agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler of Austria or Indroyono Soesilo, a veteran natural resources scientist from Indonesia.

The outsiders are Iran's Saeid Noori Naeini and Iraq's Abdul Latif Rashid. Noori Naeini, Iran's former envoy to the FAO, is seen as one of the most experienced candidates but his nationality is believed to count against him.

"The tradition is for the agency to go to a developing country and Brazil is not going to miss the chance to take advantage of this," a source informed about the inner workings of the FAO told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Members may also vote to keep the post out of European hands after France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, was tipped as favourite to lead the International Monetary Fund, riling emerging economies who fear being left out of international decision-making.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011