Address by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Italy and the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to UN Agencies in Rome at the 34th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Conference Rome, Italy on November 20.
According to FAO estimates, around 854 million people worldwide were undernourished in 2001 to 2003 period, which includes, 9 million in industrialized countries, 25 million in countries in transition, and 820 million in developing countries.
It is in this context, the relevance and the importance of the FAO, as an international body, has become paramount; it also provides the timely impetus for all member countries to make the FAO more effective and efficient, to address these issues, which I believe, was the basis for initiating the process for the Independent External Evaluation of FAO.
As for Sri Lanka, we have embarked on a new agricultural strategy for the country, through the introduction of the National Agricultural Policy in September 2007, to uplift the farming community.
