Da Nang 12 October, 2022 – The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO),  the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and the World Bank in Viet Nam co-organized a ceremony to celebrate the 42nd World Food Day (WFD) and the closing workshop for the Viet Nam Sustainable Agriculture Transformation project.

The ceremony in Da Nang today was attended by Le Quoc Doanh – Vice Minister of MARD, Rémi Nono Womdim – FAO Representative in Viet Nam, and Dina Umali-Deininger, Agriculture and Food Practice Manager for the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank, together with provincial leaders, representatives of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, development partners, local enterprises, cooperatives and farmers in the project areas.

The theme of this year’s World Food Day “Leave no one behind. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life” provided an opportunity to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders on the need to transform food systems to ensure that every person has access to adequate food and nutrition, while protecting the environment, conserving natural resources and responding effectively to climate change.

“Ensuring equal access to safe and nutritious food is an important element in sustainable development, especially for the poor and the vulnerable, who are suffering the most from the epidemics, natural disasters, wars and economic recession. Viet Nam stated its goal to become a transparent - responsible - sustainable food producer and supplier that can meet the demands for food security and nutrition of about 100 million Vietnamese people and for export ” said Le Quoc Doanh, Vice Minister of MARD.

Participants also engaged in the closing workshop of the World Bank-funded “Viet Nam - Sustainable Agricultural Transformation” (VnSAT) Project, implemented from 2015 to 2022 in 13 provinces in Viet Nam. The project made significant contributions to operationalizing the Scheme on Agricultural Restructuring by enhancing the institutional capacity of the agriculture sector, introducing and scaling up innovative, sustainable and low carbon farming methods, and improving the value chains for the rice and coffee sub-sectors. The project not only had a positive impact on economic performance, such as improving farmer productivity and the quality of rice and coffee, but also delivered positive environmental and social impacts.

“VnSAT has not only helped to improve farming efficiency, increase farmers’ incomes, and reduce environmental pollution, but also contributed to the reduction in agriculture GHG emissions, amounting to over 1.5 million tons CO2e from rice farming annually. This successful model can be a springboard to scaling it up to other regions of the country, as MARD pursues the green agricultural transformation in Vietnam,” said Ms Dina Umali-Deininger, Agriculture and Food Practice Manager for the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank.

“I strongly believe that working and sharing together, Viet Nam can accelerate the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind,” said Rémi Nono Womdim, FAO Representative in Viet Nam.