Goal 2: Turkmenistan's successful experience in achieving SDGs - food security
The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Jose Grazianu da Silva, called on Central Asian countries to solve the problem of food security.
According to him, the world community has committed itself to eradicate hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, which is a very ambitious but quite feasible task.
The Director-General of FAO emphasized that the countries of Central Asia are on the right track, and most of them have made significant progress on this issue.
It should be noted that Turkmenistan has done colossal work to ensure food abundance in the country's consumer market. Suffice it to say that in the former USSR, Turkmenistan did not grow food wheat, mainly producing valuable fine-fiber cotton varieties. At the time of the collapse of the Union, the Turkmen agro-industry annually grew about 70 thousand of mainly forage grain.
After gaining independence in 1991, the main task facing the young state was to provide the population with bread and flour. This difficult task was successfully accomplished in a short time. Already in 1998 Turkmenistan produced more than 1 million tons of wheat, completely providing the needs of the country's population with bread and flour of its own production.
Currently, the annual level of wheat production in the country remains at the level of 1 million 600 thousand tons of grain. This is enough to meet domestic needs, and send surpluses to the foreign market.
Also in recent years, a number of projects involving private businesses for the production of canned fish, confectionery, poultry, eggs, vegetables, soft drinks, etc. have been launched as part of the import substitution program. This allowed Turkmenistan to significantly reduce food imports, and to export in a number of ways.
According to experts, currently Turkmenistan has ensured food security for basic types of food.
The Director-General of FAO stresses that less than 12 years remain until 2030, and Central Asian countries should not lose momentum in ensuring food security.
At the same time, FAO identifies three components of these measures.
First, it is required to create sustainable food systems that ensure food security and nutrition for all, without jeopardizing the ability of the Earth to continue production for future generations.
Second - it is necessary to provide for all year-round access to a sufficient amount of food and a healthy diet. This task is complicated by the fact that at present there is an epidemic of overweight and obesity in the world. The main reason for this is the excessive consumption of processed foods with a high content of salt and sugar. FAO invites countries to address this problem by promoting a healthy diet.
Finally, the third is the reduction of food waste and food losses, as every third of all food produced by mankind is lost or wastes.
