President Shavkat Mirziyoyev hosted the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Qu Dongyu on Thursday and discussed the ways to counter modern challenges and threats to food security, including at the regional level, the presidential press service said.

The parties reportedly identified imbalances in the development of the agricultural sector, water resource shortages, long and ineffective value chains, logistics failures and others as the main risks of sustainable development.

Qu Dongyu arrived in Uzbekistan to attend the International Conference on Food Security in Samarkand with technical support from FAO.

As noted in the FAO report, the parties agreed to raise cooperation to a new level. Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that the country would adopt a new “road map” to enhance the partnership with FAO.

An agreement was also reached to include joint activities in three areas in the new Cooperation Program between Uzbekistan and FAO until 2030:

• agricultural modernization, including soil management, seed storage and selection;
• digitalization of the agricultural sector, including the use of big data as part of the Hand in Hand initiative and the implementation of the 1000 Digital Villages initiative;
• introduction of new effective financial instruments.

In his address to the conference participants in Samarkand, Shavkat Mirziyoyev called on international financial institutions to help make modern technologies and agricultural methods available to farmers in developing countries.

Qu Dongyu noted in his speech that Central Asia was particularly vulnerable to climate change issues, and this affects the global food basket.

We must help the region with technologies, investments and solutions to climate change issues, he said.