Rome/New York – The pandemic, global interruption to supply chains, rising costs of major primary commodities, conflicts and humanitarian crises threaten the functioning of world agrifood systems, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu said last week.
“We are at serious risk of facing a food access crisis now, and probably a food availability crisis for the next season. All this has put at risk our efforts to achieve the SDGs,” Qu said at the opening of the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York.
The HLPF is the main United Nations platform for following up and reviewing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals on the global level.
“We must prevent the acceleration of acute food insecurity trends in the coming months and years,” Qu said.
The FAO Director-General outlined measures to be taken by the international community to address this situation:
Food production at the countrylevel must be expanded.
Cash and critical inputs are needed for cereal and vegetable production and to protect livestock with treatments, vaccinations, feed and water.
Agrifood supply chains and value chains must be strengthened with the engagement of the public and the private sectors, to support smallholder farmers and households.
In addition, livelihoods, agrifood systems and economies need protecting against future shocks.
Increased sustainable productivity, strengthened capacities to deliver services and commodities, and increased access to innovative financial tools and digital services are required to mitigate the impacts of conflict on food insecurity.
Speaking later in the day at the FAO-led Side Event: Agrifood Systems Transformation for a Resilient World: Responding to Global Crises, Qu said, «We only have eight years before our agreed timeline to implement the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. We have no time to lose.»
Qu summarised the scale of the task ahead, pointing to the impacts of the pandemic, conflicts, and the cumulative loss to the global economy of more than $12 trillion in 2020 and 2021, setting back progress on the SDGs. -FAO