The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development co-hosted the opening of the 31st FAO regional conference for Asia-Pacific region in Hanoi on March 12, attended by ministers and high-ranking officials from 40 regional member countries.
Rising and fluctuating food prices, food security, hunger, and natural resource depletion were the main topics discussed at the conference, reported a FAO representative.
FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that prices of staple commodities would surge sky-high by the end of the decade, with rice prices set to rise by 40 per cent; maize by 48 per cent, wheat by 27 per cent and oilseeds by 36 per cent.
According to Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the urgent issue was of food security and hunger eradication in rural areas, given the fact that at the moment, there are nearly one billion people worldwide suffering from hunger, 60 per cent of which are living in the Asian-Pacific region.
Over the next two days, all the FAO member countries in the region will discuss in depth issues of food security, rural poverty eradication, and provide strategies and measures for endorsement at the Plenary Session convened for March 15.
