First change: 03/31/2022 – 00:20
QUITO (AFP) – The war in Ukraine is jeopardizing the world’s food security and economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said in Quito on Tuesday.
The world is “suffering from the effects of the war in Ukraine, with rising food and fertilizer prices,” he said at the opening of the FAO’s 37th Conference on Latin America and the Caribbean, which began Monday in the Ecuadorian capital.
“This threatens consumers and producers and may also affect the post-pandemic economic recovery,” added the director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
He argued that the consequences “could be even worse depending on how the conflict develops” and called for “protecting people from hunger”.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, from which around four million people have fled the war, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Europe had not seen such a large influx of refugees since World War II.
Russia was accused at the United Nations on Tuesday of causing a “global food crisis” that could lead to “famine” by attacking Ukraine and igniting a war between two grain-producing powers.
During the FAO regional conference in Quito, which will last until Friday, Qu Dongyu called for identifying key multilateral measures to reduce the impact of the “crisis” of rising food prices.
“No country will be big enough or powerful enough to tackle this problem alone,” he warned.
He emphasized that according to the UN, Latin America and the Caribbean, with a population of around 650 million, produce enough food to feed the lives of around 1,300 million people.
“But by 2050 that will no longer be enough. We need to support almost 10 billion people worldwide,” he added.
He pointed out that the region is the most biodiverse and has a unique wealth that accounts for 13% of the world’s agricultural and fisheries production, in addition to 34% of the planet’s freshwater resources.
However, “the pandemic has hit Latin America and the Caribbean hard. Hunger, food insecurity, obesity and poverty are on the rise, and natural resources and the ecosystem face degradation,” he warned.
According to the FAO, ministers from the region are meeting to promote healthy nutrition, inclusive rural development and sustainable and resilient agriculture.
© 2022 AFP