DUSHANBE, April 4, 2014, Asia-Plus -- UN FAO is ready to work with European and Central Asian countries facing food insecurity, obesity, high rates of food waste and losses.

FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva stated this in Bucharest on April 2 as he addressed the opening of the Organization’s Regional Conference for Europe, attended by delegations from 46 countries.

Graziano da Silva referred to a report released this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which forecasts serious disruptions to agriculture due to shifting weather patterns.

He pointed to the necessity of stepping up their efforts to mitigate, to adapt and, most importantly, to shift to more sustainable food systems. 

The world’s poorest are particularly vulnerable to climate change, he said, because the impact on agricultural production will be felt harder in the already marginal production areas in which they live.

FAO’s intensified emphasis on sustainable family farming was another key theme of Graziano da Silva’s statement, as he addressed delegations to the biennial conference that governs FAO’s activities in the Europe and Central Asia region.

FAO director-general referred particularly to FAO’s new regional initiative that aims to reduce rural poverty by supporting family farmers and smallholders, by focusing on sustainable production technologies, land tenure issues, access to markets, and income diversification for people in rural areas.

FAO will also advise national governments on policies and strategies in favor of family farming and small-scale production.

A second new regional initiative of FAO for 2014-15 will deal with agri-food trade, improving countries’ capacity to engage more effectively in regional and international agricultural trade and comply with international norms for food trade.

FAO will also work with countries on combating food losses and waste, Graziano da Silva said.

According to him, FAO’s latest estimates point to the need to increase agricultural output by 60 percent to feed the world’s population in 2050.  “If we could reduce food loss and waste to half of its present level, the production increase would need to be only 25 percent,” Graziano da Silva noted.

FAO’s Europe and Central Asia region has 53 member countries and one member organization (the European Union).  The Regional Conference for Europe is concluding today.