The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on October 15 co-organized a ceremony to celebrate the 40th World Food Day (WFD) and the 75th Anniversary of the FAO.

Delegates at the ceremony.

The theme of this year’s World Food Day is “Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future”, which aims to call for the whole world’s solidarity to join hands in building our future with three key messages: (1) Response, recovery and disease control (including social protection targeting vulnerable groups under impacts of the economic recession); (2) Transformation of the food systems by innovations; and (3) Behavior change towards healthier and more nutritious diets.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Le Quoc Doanh, vice minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “In 2020, despite the natural disasters and disease outbreaks, Vietnam’s agricultural production has maintained a relatively stable growth. The agro-forestry-fisheries sector has continued to demonstrate its role as the supporting foundation for the whole economy in times of difficulties by ensuring sufficient supplies of food and critical commodities for domestic consumption and exports”.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the most significant solutions to address the impacts of the outbreaks is to ensure continuous access to safe and nutritious food and food products, especially for the poor and the vulnerable populations, those who are experiencing difficulties caused by the disease outbreaks and the economic recession.

According to the estimates, Covid-19 may push an additional 83 to 132 million people into hunger, and 6.7 million more children could suffer from wasting – and therefore become dangerously undernourished – in 2020.

Data from the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 released by the FAO revealed the poverty situation has been on a significant rise since 2014, after one decade of declining trend. This situation reflects clearly the need for enhancing the resilience and adaptability of the food systems and people’s livelihoods. Nearly one-third of the world’s population regularly suffer from food and nutrition shortages.

FAO Representative in Vietnam Rana Flowers.

“If we don’t transform our food systems, the situation of malnutrition may increase significantly in the future. This increase would become more complicated if the inequalities in income, employment or access to fundamental services are not yet fully resolved,” said Mrs. Rana Flowers, FAO Representative in Vietnam.

“The FAO is committed to further assisting Vietnam to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, and supporting Vietnam’s perspective of ensuring food and nutrition security, building a prosperous future together,” added Mrs. Flowers.

Poster in competition themed "Honor the Food Heroes during the Covid-19 Pandemic”.

At the ceremony, Mrs. Flowers also handed the FAO’s Letter of Attention on the technical assistance for the Project “Support for development of National Strategy and Action Plan for Integrated Plant Health Management” to Vice Minister Doanh on the occasion of the International Year of Plant Health 2020.

As one of the celebrations for the World Food Day, awards were presented to the students who won the poster competition themed “Honor the Food Heroes during the Covid-19 Pandemic”, which was organized by Vietnam National University of Agriculture.

Poster in competition themed "Honor the Food Heroes during the Covid-19 Pandemic”.