Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has identified trade as a means through which countries can appropriate their local advantages and accelerate efforts towards bridging food security gaps across the globe. Dongyu made the assertion at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, during a Joint High-level Panel tagged “Harnessing trade for achieving sustainable development goal 2,” pioneered by the FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A point of consensus reached at the forum was that trade policies should form part of a larger integrated strategy and enable smallholder farmers in developing countries to benefit from integration into the world’s agric-food value chains. For the FAO Chief, the goal is to “improve efficiency” with an eye to sustainability, natural resources, and the environment. He added that there was need for efficiency gains and a balance between agriculture and environmental factors.

“Every country has a different situation and FAO has to deal with all of these differences,” Dongyu stressed. He stated that FAO’s new initiative as a “new business model” geared towards engaging all United Nations agencies, the private and civil sectors, and academia to elevate vulnerable countries and people. New Telegraph