BOAO FORUM FOR ASIA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2025 Creating a Favorable Environment for Peaceful Development and Safeguarding Common Economic Security Remarks

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues,

I am so pleased to participate the Boao Forum for Asia. This year’s theme is very timely and appropriate from the perspective of sustainable agriculture development, and for global food security.

The economic and social significance of agrifood systems is immense, especially for the world’s poorest and youngest populations. Globally, these systems employ over 1.23 billion people - nearly one-third of the global workforce - and provide livelihoods for 3.83 billion people living in households that depend on them.

In Africa, almost half of all workers rely on this sector for survival. In regions such as the Sahel, where over 65 percent of the population is under 25, the risk of widespread unemployment, instability, and conflict is set to keep expanding without the right economic opportunities. 

In 2023, approximately 733 million people suffered from hunger. This is one in every 11 people globally and one in five in Africa. The Asian region has the overall largest number of hungry people - approximately 385 million -which is mainly in South Asia.

These figures are daunting, and as we gather here today, hunger and food insecurity continue to prevail.

Food insecurity stems from both recurrent stresses and sudden shocks that the agrifood production and supply chains have been facing.

These long-term stresses include population growth, inequality, climate extremes and environmental degradation, as well as the resulting shocks ranging from droughts and floods to food price hikes, the pandemic, and armed conflicts.

Conflict remains the single greatest driver of hunger we are confronting today.

According to the Global Report on Food Crisis, in 2023 more than 281 million people in 59 food-crisis countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity with the major drivers being conflict and climate, marking the fifth consecutive year of an upward trend.

It is clear that without peace, there can be no food security.

FAO aligns itself with the UN Secretary-General’s call to resolve ongoing armed conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy.

FAO continues to reaffirm that peace is a prerequisite for food security and food is a basic human right.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of FAO, when the founding Members envisioned, and I quote from the FAO Constitution:

“The Food and Agriculture Organization is born out of the need for peace as well as the need for freedom from want. The two are interdependent. Progress toward freedom from want is essential to lasting peace”.

A Chinese proverb says, “When the granaries are full, the people are at peace (仓廪实，天下安)”.

Amid crisis, agriculture holds one of the keys to lasting peace and security.

Hunger is simply unacceptable when global agrifood systems have the capacity to produce an adequate supply of food to feed everyone.

At FAO, we are working with member countries to promote the transformation of global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable,

For the Four Betters, as set out in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life.

This transformation demands efforts across multiple domains, including by, among others:

One: Scaling up emergency agriculture assistance;

Two: Putting in place enabling policies;

Three: Increasing investment in agrifood systems and rural communities;

Four: Harnessing the contribution from science, technology and innovation;

Five: Ensuring market transparency and an open and fair global trade system;

Six: Reducing food loss and waste;

Seven: Empowering women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and smallholders; and

Eight: Providing the needed social protection

The path forward is clear: we need to produce more with less.

We need diversity in food sources.

We need value added across the food supply chain.

We need to ensure food availability, food accessibility and food affordability for all.

Combined with these three dimensions of food security, we need the four levels of foods:

The first level is basic (staple) foods;

The second level is nutritious foods;

The third level is healthy foods; and

The fourth level is functional foods.

The combination of the above – 12 combinations in total – is the true measure of food security and nutrition across all levels of society, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable households, both to meet immediate needs, and for long-term agriculture development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This cannot be achieved by a single country or organization.

Today's panel serves as a reminder that in a world of rising geopolitical tensions, we urgently need strengthened regional and global partnerships and enhanced collaboration at all levels.

We need joint, accelerated action, now.

Let us stand in solidarity and work collectively to build a peaceful world free of hunger and malnutrition, for present and future generations.

Thank you.