@fao Egy Prof. Nazmy Abdel Ghani, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University and Dr. Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Egypt

Cairo, 1 November 2016: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Faculty of Agriculture at Ain Shams University, celebrated the World Food Day 2016 under the theme “Climate is Changing. Food and Agriculture must too.” The highlight of this year’s celebrations was on the critical relationship between climate change and our planet Earth, and food security and the future of sustainable development.

The Celebrations took place under the auspices of Prof. Nazmy Abdel Ghani, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University; in the presence of Dr. Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Egypt; and the participation of a number of FAO Officers, Academia, and students.  The purpose of this event was to involve Academia and students in the process of understanding the relation between climate change, food, and agriculture.

In his opening speech, Prof. Nazmy Abdel Ghani, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture said: ”There are different themes in the agricultural system that need to be improved so as to release maximum benefit, such as: the agricultural crops map which is heavily affected by climate change and thus requires quick action; water scarcity entails finding new action strategies;  agro-processing and increasing the added value; reducing post-harvest losses in horticultural crops and fields; and activating the laws such as contract farming and health insurance to farmers, etc. "

 On his side, Mr. Hussein Gadain said: ”Egypt is one of the countries that has come a long way in facing climatic changes and attaining SDGs such as decreasing the percentage of people suffering from malnutrition into half. However, we still need to exert more efforts in overcoming the current and future challenges, of which climate change and water scarcity come upfront, especially that these lead to a decrease in food crops and water and accordingly a decrease in agricultural produce. This is what FAO, in cooperation with governmental institutions is trying hard to avoid from happening through the implementation of several programs and projects that are related to adaptation and mitigation approaches towards these challenges.”

The event also included presentations about FAO projects in Egypt on climate change, some of which are already implemented and others that are on-going or are in the pipeline. Moreover, a brief was given about FAO’s Nutrition Project showing how it relates to climate change. Also two other lectures were presented on the relation between climate change and agriculture; as well as between nutrition and climate change.