Gutu: The best remedy is sustainable food and agriculture
Ankara- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Sub-regional Coordinator for Central Asia and FAO Representative in Turkey Viorel Gutu made a speech at the “Future of Agriculture and Forest Summit”. Organized by Turkuvaz Media Group and Para Dergisi and under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with the participation of the Minister Dr. Bekir Pakdemirli, the event aimed to contribute to the roadmap of agriculture of Turkey in the new decade. During the event, Gutu approached food safety issue within the scope of COVID-19 and emphasized that the COVID-19 is posing a threat to food safety.
Gutu highlighted the importance of protecting and sustainably managing the natural resources to ensure food security at local and global levels in this challenging time. Asserting that governments must do everything in their power to keep trade routes open, Gutu marked Turkey’s Contactless Trade mechanism as a good example and expressed his gratitude to Turkey for supporting agricultural production and providing flow of supply chain.
Underlining that we are far from the point where it should be in the fight against hunger, Gutu voiced that strict measures should be taken in regard to food security and nutrition at global scale. If the current trends continue, he stated, 840 million people will suffer from hunger in the future. He then added that unlike transportation and logistics sectors, food sector is successful according to June reports of this year. Expressing that COVID-19 will increase malnutrition and food sector will be negatively affected due to rising prices, Gutu said that 132 million people are fighting hunger in in 2020 for COVID-19 related reasons.
Emphasizing that the best remedy to reverse current negative trends is sustainable food and agriculture, Gutu said that natural resources, technical equipment and animal husbandry should be structured in a rational way to increase robustness and designed to tackle with new challenges. As a last word, Gutu expressed his satisfaction with the collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
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