BANGKOK, Sept 24 (Bernama) -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) yesterday presented a revised draft Strategic Plan for Asean Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry, 2016-2025.
The document, tabled in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, is for the agriculture and forestry ministers from Asean countries to consider.
It includes the Zero Hunger Challenge in Asia and the Pacific.
In a news release, FAO said the strategic document was introduced during the 36th Meeting of Asean Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF), by FAO assistant director-general and regional representative Hiroyuki Konuma, on behalf of FAO director-general Jose Graziano da Silva.
It said Konuma expressed "FAO's profound gratitude to AMAF and the Asean Secretariat for the trust and confidence in FAO to develop this important strategic document for agricultural development, food security and economic progress towards an integrated and sustainable Asean economic community".
The draft Strategic Plan was first prepared and presented at a Special Senior Officials Meeting in Malaysia last month and was presented today to AMAF for further guidance, it said.
According to the news release, the plan will be further refined by taking into account the comments and suggestions from AMAF sector working groups, task forces and technical bodies and will be presented for final approval by the 37th AMAF Meeting in October, 2015.
FAO also cooperates with Asean and its members in the development of an Asean Integrated Food Security Framework and Strategic Plan of Action on Food Security in Asean.
"Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) hunger goal is on track in Asia, but the goal should be achieving '0' percent hunger," Konuma said.
He also noted the still alarming global and regional food insecurity situation and underscored the need to eradicate hunger and malnutrition and to pursue "zero hunger".
According to the latest estimates released by FAO, World Food Programme and International Fund for Agricultural Development on Sept 16, the world is home to 805 million undernourished people in 2012-14, and one in every nine people worldwide are suffering from chronic hunger.
"Although the proportion of the undernourished in Asia declined from 23.7 percent in 1990-92 to 12.7 percent in 2012-14, and achieving the MDG1 target to reduce the proportion of chronic hunger to 11.8 percent by 2015 is on track (just the balance of 0.9 per cent left to achieve), problems still exist with the last remaining 11.8 percent who constitute the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in our society who desperately require our support," said FAO.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Timor-Leste became the first country which officially launched the Zero Hunger Challenge at the national level in January 2014 and formulated a National Zero Hunger Challenge Action Plan.
-- BERNAMA
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/fao-assists-asean-in-formulating-asean-vision-towards-2025/
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