Qu Dongyu sees off French and Georgian rivals to head UN鈥檚 FAO
Print Edition
QU Dongyu yesterday became the first Chinese national to head the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, clinching the post in the first round of voting.
Qu, 55, China’s vice minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, won 108 votes, followed by Catherine Geslain-Laneelle of France with 71 votes and Georgia’s Davit Kirvalidze with 12, according to the official results at the ongoing 41st FAO Conference, which opened on Saturday and will last until June 29.
Qu’s election at the helm of the Rome-based agency, which brings together 194 member countries, comes as the fight to eradicate world hunger takes a blow from global warming and wars.
Hunger, blamed on the combined effects of extreme and erratic weather, economic slowdowns and conflicts, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, has risen for the past three years.
FAO has sounded the alarm over rising food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition, and Qu will have to ramp up support for small-holder farms and fisheries to combat the ills of intensive farming, food waste and poverty.
The successor to Brazil’s Jose Graziano da Silva will have to put policies in place in preparation for feeding a world population expected to increase from 7.7 billion people to 9.7 billion in 2050.
Qu, a biologist by training, has 30 years of experience, from developing digital technologies in agriculture to introducing micro-credit in rural areas. He became vice minister of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2015. Before that, he had worked at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Qu will officially take the post as new FAO chief starting from August 1.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, founded in 1945, comprises of 194 member states, the European Union and two associate members, the Faroe Islands and Tokelau.
China joined the organization since its inception and has long been a major contributor to the agency’s activities and especially to FAO’s South-South Cooperation Program.
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