Message on IYPH delivered at CFS High-Level Special Event

At the occasion of the CFS High-Level Special Event, Mr Bommakanti Rajender, Alternate Permanent Representative of the Indian Mission to FAO and newly appointed Chairperson of COAG, delivered the following message highlighting the relationship between plant health and food security:

“2020 is the International Year of Plant Health. Plants are critical for safeguarding food security, or the ongoing access to sufficient, affordable, safe and nutritious food, hence ensuring the right to food for all in order to live and healthy lives.

Transition to sustainable and resilient food systems in the context of climate change will require additional efforts and collective action to prevent, inter alia, plant pests and diseases and to advance the right to adequate food for present and future generations.

Countries have put in place different instruments and bodies that have provided valuable responses and standards. However, considering the dimension of the challenges, the world requires increased innovation in governance responses, as well as in capacity to implement standards in those areas. Consumers are at the forefront of demanding healthy, safe, affordable and nutritious food, and globally, through consumers’ organizations they contribute to strengthening food systems governance, including the plant health domain at global, regional and national level. Coordinated actions across all relevant sectors is essential to advance progress towards the SDG2, and therefore contribute to the achievements of all SDGs by 2030.”