On 13th July 2020, India partnered with Chile & Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations(UN) co-hosted the “On the road to the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021: Highlighting health and nutritional benefits through sustainable production and consumption of fruits and vegetables”, side event of 2020 High-level Political forum.
Chile had championed to declare the year 2021 as an International Year of Fruits and Vegetables’ by UN General Assembly in 2019.
Aim of the Event:
Event is for the relevant stakeholders to discuss the key roles of fruits and vegetables in health, sustainable production systems, income and employment generation and other dimensions.
2021: International Year of Fruits and Vegetables:
Following the request of FAO, The United Nations adopted the resolution A/RES/74/244 on 19th December 2019, designating 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables to acknowledge the nutritional and health benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables and to create awareness about the increasing loss and waste in fruits and vegetables and their negative impacts on the global economy.
Sustainable agriculture is the key to food security:
i.In the high level UN session, India highlighted the need to bring back the seed diversity as the shift by farmers from local varieties to the genetically uniform and high yielding varieties have reduced the capacity of the crops to withstand and survive the challenges.
ii.Around 75% of the genetic diversity of the plants across the world have been lost since the 1900s because of the farmers shift.
iii.He mentioned that women farmers play a critical role from seed production, selection, enhancement, storage to seed sharing and exchange.
iv.According to FAO more than 75% of the food generated in the world are from only 12 plants and 5 animal species.
v.India is the 2nd largest producer of fruits with around 98 million tonnes which is 10.9% of the world’s production and 187 million tons of vegetables per year which is 8.6% of world production with only 2.4% of the world’s land area.
vi.The cultivation area of fruits and vegetables have increased by 11% between 2013-14 and 2017-18.
vii.India deployed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to revolutionize Indian farming sector to benefit all the farmers launches E-NAM, an online platform for trading agricultural produce
About Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO):
Director-General– QU Dongyu
Headquarters– Rome, Italy
