Roundup: FAO awards China for halving number of hungry people, ambitious WFS target reached

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognised China here on Sunday for halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015, an ambitious target set by the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996.

China had already been awarded a diploma in June 2014 for reaching the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG-1), namely reducing by half the proportion of undernourished people since 1990 before the 2015 deadline.

Ensuring food security has always been a priority of the Chinese government, Vice Premier of China Wang Yang said, after receiving the diploma on behalf of his country.

China has put great efforts in boosting its agricultural policies and improving infrastructures, technologies and equipment in agriculture, to better support farmers and to enhance their productivity, the Chinese Vice Premier explained.

All these efforts have resulted in a significant improvement of food security of the world, he said.

The award ceremony took place at the FAO headquarters during the 39th Session of the biannual conference of the organization, which gathers representatives from some 190 countries until June 13.

According to FAO latest estimates, China was able to reduce the prevalence of undernourishment in its society from 23.9 percent in 1990-92 to 9.3 percent in 2014-16.

In the same period, China decreased the absolute number of hungry people from 289 million to 133.8 million.

"There is not a unique solution to tackle hunger. Countries that have showed progress, have done so in diverse ways," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano Da Silva remarked in his opening address.

"Some 72 countries have halved the number of undernourished people within their own societies, and 216 million have been freed from hunger since 1990," he added.

Yet, Graziano Da Silva also warned more efforts would be needed to achieve the upmost target of totally eradicating hunger in the world, which FAO considers a goal within reach for the current generation.

"The main cause of hunger today is lack of access," Graziano Da Silva said.

"Still one person out of nine in the world do not have enough food to conduct an active, healthy and productive live, and this is unacceptable," added Graziano Da Silva.

The year 2015 marks the end of the monitoring period for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), FAO recalled in a statement.

The MDGs will have to be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals, which are currently being negotiated by the international community in order to shift the fight from reducing hunger to eradicating it.

At a side event on Sunday, China and the UN food organization signed a 50 million U.S. dollars agreement to support developing countries in building sustainable food systems and inclusive agricultural value chains, within the framework of the FAO related South-South Cooperation Initiative.

The contribution will support a 5-year exchange of Chinese agricultural experts with countries in the global South, especially those with low-income and food-deficit areas in Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa and Latin America, the FAO said. Endit