Regional Conference on Food Security “Let’s get to work. Building a food security future”

In the morning of March 22nd in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Netherlands held the inaugural Regional Conference on Food Security with the theme ” Let’s get to work. Building a food secure future”.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh expressed his wish for delegates to discuss and propose cooperative initiatives and solutions to promote smart agricultural practices.

According to Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh, Vietnam is an agricultural country with nearly 70% of the population living in rural areas. Implementing innovation in Vietnam, the government has adopted proper agricultural policies and made great achievements. From a country being lack of food, Vietnam has provided food for the entire population and a large amount to the world market, and earned a significant amount of foreign currency.

However, Vietnam is also one of the five countries in the world heavily affected by climate change. To this point, the impact of climate change is no longer a risk but is present in many parts of Vietnam.

In response to this challenge, Vietnam’s agriculture is currently undergoing restructuring; It focuses on improving the productivity and quality of agricultural commodities, responding to weather-related risks and mitigating the impacts of climate change, cultivating and selecting varieties of plants, animals and fisheries which are suitable for areas with different climatic variations. At the same time, Vietnam is building research capacity and application to address emerging challenges of climate change and sea level rise.

In order to move towards smart agricultural practices, many institutions need to be established and strengthened to support policy implementation; including supporting farmers to access information, support for agricultural inputs and finance, etc. In order to do the above, there should be close coordination among nations for the common goal of ensuring food security for humanity and responding to climate change.

Also during the day, delegates will participate in technical workshops on food safety, creative aquaculture, smart agriculture adaptation to climate change, food waste and losses.

The conference will be held until March 23.