G20 Urged to Make More Investments in Rural Areas

Matera: The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Qu Dongyu has urged Foreign Affairs and Development Ministers of G20 countries to make more investments in rural areas and double down on actions to eradicate hunger and poverty.
 
Qu made the appeal at Tuesday's Italy-presided G20 Foreign Affairs and Development Ministers' meeting where - for the first time - food security and nutrition were at the centre of the agenda.
 
"Governments must refocus their energies and investment to rural areas. Agricultural sector is the solution to eradicate poverty and undernourishment while reducing unwanted migration," said Qu in a press release on Tuesday.

Eighty percent of the world's poorest, or 600 million people - more than Europe's entire population - live in rural areas, working in the agricultural sector, and yet go to bed hungry.
 
Almost half of them are children under 15, with fewer opportunities for education and jobs than their peers in urban areas.
 
"Eradicating poverty and hunger doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive," said Qu.
 
He cited a recent modelling study by FAO and partners that found that if industrialized countries doubled their investment for 10 years and if poorer countries kept up with their investment to promote a series of low-cost interventions - such as in agricultural research and development, agricultural information and communications services, improvement of literacy for women and girls - and scaled up existing social protection programmes, this could help 500 million people escape from hunger. Moreover, an additional $39 billion to 50 billion per year is needed to end hunger by 2030, as envisaged by the second Sustainable Development Goal.
 
"Public, private, bilateral, multilateral and innovative forms of funding and partnerships are all needed to support the transformation of our economic and agri-food systems, particularly in low-income countries," stressed Qu.
 
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