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Paris. G-20 agricultural ministers reached an agreement on measures to improve food security and combat price volatility at talks on Thursday, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

The consensus “marks a historic union of resolve in combating the pressing challenges of hunger and food price volatility confronting our world with greater regularity,” Vilsack said in a statement.

In their first-ever meeting together, agricultural ministers of the world’s top economies were seeking to boost food security by limiting market speculation seen as behind recent price spikes that have hit consumers’ pocketbooks and sparked unrest.

G-20 agriculture ministers also supported establishing an international agricultural market information system, said the US minister.

Vilsack said that “if fully supported and utilized” the information system would “mitigate volatility” on agricultural commodity markets by improving production and price information.

There had been disagreement over increasing transparency on agricultural commodities production and stocks, with France hoping G-20 nations would pledge to submit data over the new global data network.

Paucity of information on agricultural production and stocks is widely seen as fueling speculation but countries such as China and India are still reluctant to share information they view as important to national security, diplomats said.

Ministers also agreed to remove food export restrictions for food purchased for humanitarian purposes.

“In particular, we recognize that food export bans restricting humanitarian aid penalize the most needy,” Vilsack said.

Prior to the agreement French President Nicolas Sarkozy had urged the G-20 to come together to cure one of market capitalism’s greatest illnesses.

“By addressing the volatility of agricultural markets, in assuring food security for the world for today and tomorrow, we will rebalance the structure of capitalism,” Sarkozy told the ministers on Wednesday as they began their first-ever meeting.

G-20 nations pledged to contain agricultural commodity volatility in the wake of the 2007-08 surge in food prices, widely blamed on speculation, that triggered riots in some countries.

Fresh price spikes at the beginning of this year, seen as helping fuel the Arab Spring revolts, have kept the issue on the front-burner.

France has made limiting speculation and reining in markets a centerpiece of its G-20 presidency and said it would accept no fudges on key issues.

Paris wants changes such as limits on the participation of purely financial actors in the agricultural commodity markets.

Countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia and Brazil however are concerned that such limits could crimp futures and derivatives markets, which are increasingly vital to farmers and processors.

Biofuels are another contentious issue, with poverty relief groups disappointed that the draft G-20 document does not acknowledge that the use of food crops to produce fuels is helping push up prices and causing hunger.

Without major policy changes, food prices will likely be high and volatile for the next decade, driven by rising incomes in emerging nations and demand for biofuel, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned last week.

Agence France-Presse