ASEANews Headlines: VIENTIANE- Laos receives FAO Model Farmers Award

.
The award recipients for 2018, which are given to mark World Food Day, are the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Laos, the Maldives, Thailand and Vanuatu.

– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
.

The guest of honour at the ceremony was Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who presented the awards to five agriculture experts from the Asia-Pacific region. The princess is a UN FAO Special Ambassador for Zero Hunger.

.

The Lao recipient, Mrs

.

Phonexay Thammavong, willingly shared what she had learned about farming with her neighbours, training eight other families. Then farmers from nearby villages came to see her and she trained them too. Now she’s the Head of Organic Rice Production in her area.

Mrs Phonexay’s hope now is that more farmers will use sustainable methods. “They are good for the environment, good for health, and good for ending hunger,” she says.

.
This year’s World Food Day has taken on a more sombre tone as the FAO and four sister UN agencies recently reported that, globally, hunger is on the rise after decades of improvements.
In an address at the Bangkok ceremony, Her Royal Highness underscored the concerns, particularly as the Asia-Pacific region accounts for nearly half a million hungry people out of the world’s 821 million people who are undernourished.

.
“There is a growing realisation that achieving an end to hunger and malnutrition will require greater nutritional fortification of food.

.

Safe water and improvements to sanitation are also critical, as are good health care systems. All of these approaches are needed to improve food security and nutrition in the region,” Her Royal Highness said. “The message is clear.

.

We must redouble our efforts to get back on the right track to defeat hunger.

.

Yet we have only 12 years or so to finish the job we started – to achieve zero hunger,” said Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific.

.
In his keynote presentation, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, an eminent Malaysian economist, pointed out that with three-fifths of the world’s population, the Asia-Pacific region faces a variety of food and nutrition challenges.

.
While hundreds of millions lack sufficient income and access to basic nourishment or dietary energy from macronutrients, even more suffer micronutrient deficiencies of minerals, vitamins and trace elements, due to inadequate dietary diversity.

.
Meanwhile, well over a billion people are overweight, if not obese, in the Asia-Pacific region, with similarly high numbers suffering from diet-related non-communicable diseases due to poor nutrition, said Sundaram.

.
ADS by Cloud 9:
.
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
.

.
Only appropriate nutrition policies that address food systems can ensure adequate and healthy nutrition for all, he added.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update October 23, 2018)

ASEAN NEWS STAND FRONT PAGES:

.

All photographs, news, editorials, opinions, information, data, others have been taken from the Internet..aseanews.net | [email protected] / For comments, Email to : Aseanews.net