Newsletter

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Countries should improve the resilience of agricultural food systems to deal with shocks and pressures

On the 23rd local time, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released its annual report “The State of Food and Agriculture”, stating that affected by the new crown epidemic, the number of hungry people in the world is expected to increase again. Countries need to take action to make agricultural food systems more resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive to deal with sudden shocks during the epidemic.

This year’s “The State of Food and Agriculture” report takes “improving the resilience of agricultural food systems to respond to shocks and pressures” as the theme, and assesses the ability of various countries’ agricultural food systems to respond to shocks and pressures and quickly recover from them. The report also provides guidance to governments on how to improve resilience.

The report pointed out that the new crown epidemic has aggravated food insecurity and people’s malnutrition, and exposed the vulnerability of the agricultural food system in the face of shocks and pressures. Currently, about 3 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy diet. The State of Food and Agriculture report estimates that if the shock reduces income by a third, another 1 billion people will be hungry.

Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said: “The State of Food and Agriculture reflects FAO’s work in strengthening resilience. We will also set up new indicators to help member countries measure the resilience of their agricultural food systems and identify areas that need improvement. .”

In addition, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommended in the report that governments should consider the resilience of the agricultural food system as a strategic element for their country to respond to current and future challenges. (Headquarters reporter Yin Xin)

(Editor in charge: Shan Xiaobing)