CIDA President Margaret Biggs offered that candid assessment of the state of the undeveloped world and what Canada can to do help, in a speech Thursday to University of Ottawa students.

Biggs, who rarely speaks publicly, also said a tough road lies ahead in rebuilding earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Food security is expected to be a key part of the G8's outreach to poor countries at the summit Canada is hosting this summer.

Reminding her audience of about 80 graduate students of the global food crisis of 2008, Biggs said: "It has not gone away."

One-sixth of the world - one billion people - including one of every three inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa live in poverty and are "chronically hungry," she said.

And the ability of poor people to grow food to feed starving populations will be strongly challenged by climate change in the next five years, she added.

"A key factor has been a decrease in agricultural productivity because of the low levels of investment in agriculture around the world. Everybody dropped the ball," said Biggs.

"In some areas, climate patterns are exacerbating some of these tendencies. Arable land and water is becoming scarcer in some cases because of climate change," she added.

"It doesn't mean we can't adapt . . . but that's a major new dynamic."

Her remarks are some of the strongest to date by a Canadian official on the subject of climate security - the notion that climate change will have serious security effects such as forcing mass migrations of people, loss of coastal areas and possible conflict.

The British and U.S. militaries have drawn up significant contingency plans to compensate for what they see as the serious global security threats posed by climate change in the coming decades.

Before the Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti was ravaged by four hurricanes that destroyed 85 per cent of its agricultural capacity, said Biggs.

On the development front, Haiti is a "microcosm of a lot of what's gone wrong in the past and what we have to get right going forward."

The key will be rebuilding state institutions and ultimately making Haiti's government stronger, she said.

On a broader scale, Biggs said Canada's development focus on food security is a key priority.

Biggs noted how Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced $600 million over three years for food security at last year's G8 summit in Italy. At the Huntsville meeting in June, food security is expected to be a major issue on a day of outreach when the eight countries open up their talks to about a half dozen poor countries.

Biggs said food security is linked to Harper's other high-profile G8 priority - reducing the deaths of children and pregnant women in poor countries.

She said poverty reduces the ability of countries "to move forward and we know what it can do to children and mothers."

Biggs said more money is needed to boost agriculture production, from developing new crops and new farming practices to new ways of doing more.

Gebisa Ejeta, an award-winning agronomist, said if the G8 is serious is about food security it should first make good on its past promises, many of which remain unfulfilled.

The Ethiopian-born winner of the 2009 World Food Prize for his creation of a drought-and parasite-resistant strain of sorghum said Africa has not shown that it can yet feed itself, but it has that ability.

"A lot of these nations are primarily agricultural countries and therefore developing the agricultural sector becomes extremely important and vital for developing these chains of events in health and infrastructure building and expanding the economy," Ejeta said in an interview prior to addressing a major conference in Ottawa on expanding African innovation and prosperity.