FAO Director-General meets Hungarian Minister for Agriculture in Budapest

Budapest, Hungary – The FAO Director-General today met the Minister for Agriculture of Hungary, Istvan Nagy, in Budapest, and expressed his appreciation to the Government of Hungary for hosting FAO’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the Organization’s Shared Service Centre (SSC) over the past 15 years. 

The Minister Nagy commended the leadership of the Director-General in bringing about many positive changes to the Organization since taking office in 2019, and reiterated Hungary’s continuous support to FAO in the years ahead. When discussing pressing issues related to food and agriculture, the Minister mentioned that FAO has always played a vital role in assisting Members to overcome daunting challenges related to global food security. He also highlighted the challenges related to water management systems in Hungary. 

The Director-General emphasized the need to enhance investments in agricultural infrastructure. He also mentioned FAO’s water event scheduled to take place before the FAO Council meeting in December (5 -9 December), as well as several FAO initiatives at global level that help realize FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–31, and help ensure better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life – known as the 4 Betters.

FAO Director-General invited Minister Nagy to participate in the upcoming FAO Ministerial Conference in 2023 and share Hungary’s experiences on water management issues. He also encouraged him to make use of FAO’s global Hand-in-Hand Initiative as an innovative modality for cooperation and knowledge sharing.

As part of his visit to Hungary, the FAO Director-General visited a smallholder dairy farm as a good example of a family-owned livestock farm that applies modern automation technologies to enhance efficiency and food safety, and produces its own animal feed to guarantee a high quality of cheese – the farm’s main product.