Read-out of the bilateral meeting between the Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, Kotaro Nogami

27 July 2021, Rome - The FAO Director-General QU Dongyu held a bilateral meeting today with H.E. Kotaro Nogami, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. The Minister encouraged FAO to play a leading role on concurring environment challenges, and in ending hunger.

Regarding the transformation of agri-food systems, the Minister introduced Japan’s efforts currently underway, such as the new Japanese strategy on food systems transformation launched in May this year, which identifies innovation as the key to provide solutions for food systems and to achieve sustainability.

The Minister also informed of the voluntary contribution of USD 450,000 from Japan to FAO to address the challenges to global food supply chains and to strengthen them to be more resilient and undisrupted.

The Tokyo Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit 2020 to be held in December 2021 will be an important follow-up to the UN Food Systems Summit for the implementation of outcomes.

The Minister informed that he looked forward to the Director-General’s participation , in the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Meeting to be co-hosted with FAO  on 24-26 Nov 2021. 

The Director-General paid tribute to Japan’s consistent and continued support to FAO’s work. He confirmed the importance of the N4G and GIAHS meetings and expressed FAO’s willingness to contribute to both events.

The Director-General invited the Minister to participate in the SIDS Solution Forum 2021 to be held on 30-31 August 2021. The Director-General encouraged the Minister to attend more FAO events and meetings to share its successful experiences with smallholder farmers, as well as rural development.