Georgetown : Guyana is listed among 18 countries to receive an award on June 16 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals to curtail hunger and undernourishment.
The honour goes to countries that have satisfied the MDG target of halving the proportion of hungry people and have reached World Food Summit (WFS) goal of reducing by half the absolute number of undernourished people between 1990-92 and 2010-2012.
The presentations are expected at a high-level ceremony at the FAO headquarters during the week-long meeting of the FAO Conference. Among the other honourees are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva congratulated the aforementioned countries for taking the lead by demonstrating strong political will, coordination and cooperation, keeping in mind the aim to 2012 challenge by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to eradicate hunger.
With the vast majority of the hungry (about 852 million) living in developing countries (according to the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012), agriculture plays a pivotal role in providing access to food, especially for the 70 percent of the poor who live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture, the FAO stated.
In Guyana, the agriculture sector contributes 30 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and has over the years been boosted with heavy investments in efforts to promote diversification, incentives for farmers and drainage and irrigation.
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