FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945.

The objectives of World Food Day are to:

• encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end;
• encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries;
• encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions;
• heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world;
• promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and
• strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development.

The theme this year is ‘Social Protection and Agriculture; breaking the cycle of rural poverty’. Social protection exists when governments develop policies and programs to address economic, environmental and social vulnerabilities to food insecurity and poverty. Through cash transfers, vouchers, insurances and in-kind contributions, social protection programs enhance the income, status and capacities of poor and vulnerable people. Social protection improves people’s access to healthcare and other social services, enabling them to sustainably provide for themselves and their family members.

In the absence of social protection, poor households, which are already constrained by limited access to resources and services, are at constant risk of hunger and poverty, especially when faced with a crisis or shock of any nature.

Social protection is critical in such cases because, the economic or in-kind support it provides prevents people from hunger in the short term. Moreover, by stimulating production, social protection provides greater income stability and ability to manage risk, thus contributing to reducing poverty and food insecurity in the longer-term.

For this reason, FAO has stepped up its efforts to help governments and partners incorporate social protection into national development strategies and policies. World Food Day is an occasion to focus the world’s attention on the crucial role played by social protection in eradicating hunger and poverty.

FAO Sri Lanka intends to commemorate this day by depicting the theme through skits which will be organized through Non-Government Organizations, Schools and Department of Agriculture. Skits will be performed  in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages to communicate information to farmers and government officials on how to break the cycle of rural poverty through Social Protection and Agriculture. This event would be done in partnership with World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Agriculture and would take place at the Institute of Post-Harvest research and Technology Center on October 16^th from 9.30a.m to 12.30p.m.