Bilateral meeting with the Vice-Minister for Food and Nutrition Security of Guatemala, H.E. César Arreaga

Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, had a virtual bilateral meeting with H.E. César the Vice-Minister for Food and Nutrition Security of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of Guatemala.

The Vice-Minister expressed his appreciation for the support provided by FAO particularly within the scope of the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which has benefited the family farming sector in Guatemala. With the support of FAO, the Vice-Minister pointed out that the government is now developing a single registration system (National Farmers Registry) to map all family farmers in the country.

Vice-Minister Arreaga also highlighted the importance of strengthening the resilience of farmers who produce food in areas of the Dry Corridor, severely affected by the impacts of the climate crisis. In this sense, the Minister said that the Guatemalan government is working with FAO to explore climate financing possibilities offered by the Green Climate Fund. In addition, he mentioned the visit of FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol to Guatemala in October 2021.

The Director-General said that the Guatemalan government can count on FAO's support to face several challenges and improve the livelihoods of small farmers. Qu stressed the importance of focusing on early warning systems to tackle the impacts of the climate crisis and noted that the El Niño phenomenon is likely to start this year, which could intensify droughts in the Dry Corridor.

They also talked about upcoming global events, such as the 2023 UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment Meeting, to take place in late July at FAO headquarters in Rome, and the World Food Forum 2023 in mid-October also at FAO headquarters.