Turkey helped prevent a global food crisis, contributing to the conclusion of a grain agreement, which allowed the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets through the Black Sea. This was stated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a video message on the occasion of World Food Day celebrated on October 16th.
“Thanks to the Black Sea (grain) initiative implemented together with the UN, we prevented the danger of a global food crisis, providing 33 million tons of grain products to world markets,” said the Turkish leader.
According to him, Ankara continues to force “to facilitate the burden of regions at risk of hunger, primarily in Africa.”
He noted that Turkey is among the “most generous” countries of the world in terms of assistance for development purposes. The head of state added that the country is ready to “without hesitation to take responsibility for each problem, including food and water crises.”
The President recalled that over the past two decades, the Turkish government has implemented a number of important projects aimed at ensuring the “water and food security” of the country.
The Turkish leader stated that humanity gradually departs from the implementation of the thesis, which provides for the achievement of “zero hunger” by 2030. He emphasized that this principle is one of the most important components of the goals of sustainable UN development.
“According to the food and agricultural organization [UN], every nine people in the world suffer from hunger. At the same time, from 4 to 5 billion tons of food is produced annually. Although this volume is considered as sufficient for the population of the world predicted. In 2050, unfortunately, it is not enough for the current population of the world. Because 21 tons of 127 tons of food produced every second around the world are wasted. This figure indicates the possibility of feeding 735 million people who are currently starving “, he said
President Erdogan urged the entire world community to make efforts to achieve the goal of “zero food losses”, which is one of the elements of the Zero waste project, initiated by the wife of Turkey President Emine Erdogan and turned into a global movement under the auspices of the UN.