Read-out of the FAO Director-General’s meeting with Marian Jurečka, Minister for Social Affairs and Vice-Premier of the Czech Republic

Rome - FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu today met Marian Jurečka, Minister for Social Affairs and Vice-Premier of the Czech Republic.

The Director-General welcomed the Minister to FAO’s Headquarters and commended him for his broad understanding of agriculture as former Minister of Agriculture, and as a farmer himself. He underlined the importance of FAO for farmers, as the UN specialized agency for food and agriculture.

The pair agreed that there needs to be increased appreciation for the hard work carried out by farmers aimed at feeding the world, and agreed on the concept of “No Farms, No Food, No Future”.

The Director-General recalled the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 aimed at transforming agrifood systems to become MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

The pair discussed the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security, and the challenges for international organizations like the EU and FAO to address them. Recent studies show that food production in Ukraine, the fifth largest exporter of wheat in the world, could decrease as much as 30 percent with implications for many food-importing countries around the world.

The Czech Republic will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2022, and this will be the country’s second presidency term.

The pair agreed these are challenging times due to the pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine. Conflict, economic shocks, natural hazards, political instability, and limited humanitarian access create “hunger hotspots”, putting millions of lives at risk. These and other factors have a big impact on agrifood systems. Inflation is increasing, food prices have gone up dramatically, as shown by the FAO Food Price Index (even if the last 2 months saw a slight overall decline, several commodities like wheat still show an increase in prices). The impacts of the climate crisis can be seen in many ways, for example through drought, locust and fall armyworm. Food loss stands at 14 percent, while food waste, if curbed, could feed almost 2 billion people worldwide every year. For this reason, they agreed that food waste deserves increased global attention, and that agrifood systems have suffered from many years of underinvestment.

The Minister indicated that the Czech Republic aims to provide more support for developing and food importing countries, including through education, training, capacity building and knowledge exchange, indicating that the multilateral system can do more to stimulate countries, universities, and other key actors to share their expertise.

The Director-General mentioned FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative as a good way for the Czech Republic to share their experiences with developing countries.