Director-General opens Slovakia’s Agrokomplex 2024 exhibition

Nitra - On the second day of his visit to the Slovak Republic, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu participated in the opening ceremony of the country’s Agrokomplex 2024, a major international exhibition on food and agriculture, underlining the sector’s crucial role in striving to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals amid an array of challenges.

With the 2030 Zero Hunger target date only 5.5 years away, working together is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said, adding: “The solutions for these complex global challenges” including hunger, food insecurity,  degrading soils and the impacts of the climate crisis,”  lie in the rich agricultural traditions and diversity, combined with innovation and adaptation capacities.”

Also among those delivering keynote opening addresses were Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Tarabas and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Richard Takáč.

The FAO Director-General commended the collaboration and synergies between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture in Slovakia as well as the strategic linkages among its research community, the private sector and the education institutions.  He also paid tribute to the country’s emphasis on vocational training for agriculture students which ensures  efficient knowledge transfer to those working on the ground.

The Slovak Republic has much to offer developing countries to support their agricultural development and agrifood systems transformation, through capacity building and knowledge sharing, Qu said.

The FAO Director-General visited several sections of the exhibition, including its Pavilion of Precision and Regenerative Agriculture, the Scientific Academic Pavilion as well as areas devoted to local, traditional and artisanal food production and the country’s Rural Development Programme.

Minister Takáč also unveiled in the presence of the Director-General a stand dedicated to communicating the work of the FAO to the thousands of people attending the  exhibition.

The International Agricultural and Food Exhibition, Agrokomplex, held in Nitra, about 90 kilometers northeast of the capital, Bratislava, is the most comprehensive of its kind in Slovakia, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and the Agrokomplex Narodne Vystavisko state enterprise. This year, Agrokomplex is celebrating the 50 years anniversary since its foundation in 1974.

The FAO Director-General went on to take part in the official opening of Slovakia’s 17th National Livestock Exhibition.

He recalled his own experience raising livestock and aquaculture, underlining the importance of livestock to agrifood systems and in yielding valuable products. The Director-General emphasized that food is a primary need which we cannot take for granted. He appealed to the audience to appreciate the natural resources of Slovakia which are well suited to sustainable food production and rural development.

Later in the day, the Director-General also visited the headquarters of the National Agricultural and Food Center (NPPC). The institution provides research and knowledge gathering in the field of sustainable use and protection of natural resources, especially soil and water for growing plants and animal husbandry, ensuring the quality of agricultural products, impact of agriculture on the environment and rural development. NPPC also demonstrated its rabbit breeding and genetic improvement facility to the Director-General.