FAO and Samoa stress the role of traditional diets and food diversity for better nutrition

23 October 2019, Oslo – FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu today met the Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa Naomi Mataafa who thanked him for FAO’s support in organizing the 2019 Pacific Week of Agriculture recently hosted by her country.

Mataafa, who is also Samoa’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, praised FAO for emphasizing at the high-level event the links between agricultural production, food security and nutrition.

She stressed that safeguarding traditional diets is key to ensure better nutrition, but that this requires making seed resources for these more readily available. In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister and the FAO chief both stressed the importance of biodiversity and food diversity to ensure healthy diets.     

Mataafa also briefed the FAO Director-General on Samoa’s efforts to monitor the quality of food imports and the parties agreed to explore joint capacity building activities related to this as well as strengthening Samoa’s veterinary services to control transboundary pests and diseases.

Qu thanked the Deputy Prime Minister for Samoa’s hosting of FAO’s Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands and outline the UN agency’s new Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which prioritizes targeted work that benefits people in the world’s most vulnerable regions including small island states, least developed and landlocked countries.