Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar addressed the 42nd session of Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Conference which took place virtually from June 14-18, 2021.
i.All the 193 members of the FAO plus the European Union endorsed the new Strategic Framework 2022-2031 which will support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
ii.The conference elected Ambassador Hans Hoogeveen, the Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to UN Organizations in Rome, as the new Independent Chairperson of the Council (ICC) for the next two years (2021-23).
- He succeeds Khalid Mehboob of Pakistan.
FAO Conference
- The conference is the supreme governing body of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and meets once in 2 years.
- The 42nd session of the Conference was the first one held virtually in history.
- The conference determines the strategies and policies of the Organization, approves the budget, and makes recommendations to Members on food and agriculture issues.
Key Points from the India’s address
i.India congratulated FAO for completing 75 years of service on 16th October 2020 and Indian Prime Minister had released a special seventy five rupees commemorative coin to observe the long standing relationship between India & FAO.
ii.It also thanked the FAO for endorsing its proposal to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
iii.Also highlighted that FAO endorsed India’s proposal for an International Year of Pulses which was celebrated in 2016.
Initiatives in Agriculture sector of India
India highlighted its record production of 305 Million Tons of Food Grains even during the pandemic.
i.KISAN RAIL ,a train with refrigeration facility was introduced in India to transport essential commodities such as perishable horticulture produce, milk and dairy produce and others.
ii.He also highlighted the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package’ scheme which provided free food grains to 810 million beneficiaries and it has been extended till November, 2021.
iii.Around INR 137000 crore has been sent to the bank accounts of over 100 million farmers under the ‘PM Kisan’ Scheme for providing income support to farmers.
Climate Change resilient Agriculture
Apart from promoting Organic farming, India has launched several projects under the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture to develop, demonstrate and spread techniques to make agriculture resilient to impacts of climate change.
Recent Related News:
The 35th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC 35) hosted by Bhutan at its capital Thimphu was held virtually from 1-4 September 2020. The conference was chaired by Bhutan’s Secretary of the agriculture ministry, Rinzin Dorji.
About Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Director-General – QU Dongyu
Headquarters – Rome, Italy
Members – 194
