Address by Qu Dongyu Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at the International Forum on Hybrid Rice Assistance and Global Food Security

Address by Qu Dongyu

Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

at the International Forum on

Hybrid Rice Assistance and Global Food Security

Excellences,

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Through the Sustainable Development Goals, the international community has committed to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

We have only 7 harvests left to achieve this!

At FAO, we are concerned about the continued worsening levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, which have been increasing steadily since 2014.

In 2021, nearly one third of the world population – that is 2.3 billion people - were moderately or severely food insecure.

Extreme climate events together with other often overlapping drivers such as the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies, are making the challenges even more daunting.

The severe drought in the eastern horn of Africa is affecting  over 36 million people. And agriculture around the world is both affecting or being affected by the climate crisis, water scarcity and land degradation.

This alarming trend clearly suggests that we are not on track to achieve the zero hunger target of SDG2, as well as No Poverty of SDG1 and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) by 2030.

At FAO, we are convinced that these targets, especially zero hunger, are attainable and that everyone on our small planet earth can have access to enough nutritious food.

But, we need to radically change how we produce and consume our food.

FAO's vision for doing this is set out in our Strategic Framework 2022-2031, with the objective of transforming our agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

To achieve our collective goal of the 4 Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

Dear Colleagues,   

Rice is the staple food for over 3.5 billion people around the world, and it supports the livelihoods of over 1 billion people.

For this reason, rice is critically important for global food security, and efforts to address this challenge must include improvements to rice production systems.

The production of global rice has been increasing over the past two decades reaching an  average of 780 million tonnes per year in the biennium 2020-22, with productivity improvements being the leading driver of this global growth, Together with expansions in irrigation infrastructure, improved practices and the introduction of improved varieties which have increased yields.

This underlines the critical role of science, research, innovation and technology.

Given the increasing scarcity in natural resources and competition for land and water, the needed increase in rice production must come from improved productivity.

That is, producing more with less as envisioned in the FAO Strategic Framework.

We need to work together, exploring all possibilities to transform agrifood systems sustainably and to help the farmers maximize their production, while minimizing input use and environmental impacts.

Hybrid rice has demonstrated to yield significantly higher than the open pollinated one, and is therefore key for improved productivity.

This is why the technology has been so successful in China – accounting for about half of its rice production.

I wish to recall the work by Dr. Yuan Longping on this subject, who left a legacy with significant impact on food security.

Yet, it has not taken off widely in other countries, in spite of the evident benefits.

Low rates of adoption of the technology include the higher cost of the seeds, and that farmers cannot gainfully re-use the seeds.

Clearly, these valid concerns by farmers should be addressed, especially through the setting-up of fit-for-purpose seed systems.

To provide an enabling environment to support the expansion of this promising technology to other countries, FAO developed the Regional Strategy for Sustainable Hybrid Rice Development in Asia.

With the 2030 Agenda deadline approaching fast, we need to move quickly to action to implement this regional strategy, and to replicate it in Africa where demand for rice is expanding rapidly.

The world rice market is thin, with only 10 percent of global production internationally traded and highly concentrated – in 2021 77 percent of world rice exports were sourced from only 5 countries.

Dear Colleagues,

Further research and support are necessary to improve domestic regional production.

To boost rice production systems in Africa, FAO is collaborating through the Coalition for African Rice Development, an important tool for bringing hybrid rice technology to Africa, which can further be facilitated through the FAO South-South and Triangular Cooperation Programme.

This Forum provides an important opportunity to understand the state of the art on hybrid rice, and to see how we can work better together towards reaching the SDGs, especially SDG2 Zero Hunger.

I thank you.