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Xinhua) 14:18, December 03, 2013
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Comments twitter facebook Sina Microblog reddit Director General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva delivers a speech during the reception of the 40th anniversary of cooperation between China and FAO in FAO's headquarter in Rome, Italy, on December 2,2013. (Xinhua/Xu Nizhi)
ROME, Dec. 2 -- China has made great achievements in fighting hunger, halving thenumber of its undernourished people, Director General of the UN Food and AgriculturalOrganization (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva said Monday.
"China's achievements against hunger have been impressive," Graziano da Silva said at theFAO Headquarters at a ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of thecooperation between the UN agency and China.
China has reduced the prevalence of its undernourished people from 23 percent in 1990 to11.4 percent in 2013, he said.
China has registered some of the world's sharpest poverty and hunger reductions in thepast 20 years and met the target of reducing by half the proportion of its chronicallyhungry people, as specified by the first Millennium Development Goal, Graziano da Silvapointed out.
The FAO is proud to have witnessed and contributed to China's tremendous feat of feeding20 percent of the world's population with only 9 percent of the world's arable land and 6percent of its freshwater, he added.
The four-decade relationship between the FAO and China has so far been solid andprofitable for both sides, according to the head of the UN Food agency.
About 114 million people in China have been lifted out of hunger since 1990, accounting fornearly two-thirds of the total 173 million such people worldwide, according to FAO figures.
Qu Sixi, a senior official with China's Ministry of Agriculture expressed his gratitude to theFAO for years of support and assistance.
The Chinese government considers feeding its more than 1 billion people a top priority inmaintaining peace and stability, Qu said.
"China continues to provide incentives to farmers to produce more by promotingindependent scientific and technologic innovations and steadily improving overallagricultural production capacity," Qu said.
The FAO has provided technical support and know-how to projects in China and carriedout cooperation with China in such fields as policy researches, information exchange andstandard making, said Xia Jingyuan,the FAO's permanent representative in China, addingthat China has actively supported the FAO's work.
Graziano da Silva praised the active role China has been playing in implementing theSouth-South Cooperation Initiative.
Under the initiative, about 1,000 Chinese experts have been sent to 25 developingcountries to provide technical support and know-how in sectors such as irrigation,livestock, fisheries, crop production and agroforestry, according to Qu.
A new five-year FAO-China cooperation plan is being discussed following the success of thefirst South-South Initiative, Graziano da Silva announced.
"It is gratifying for FAO to witness China transforming itself from a recipient to a majorprovider of technical assistance, development solutions and funding to other nations of theglobal South," he concluded.
（Editor：ZhangQian、Liang Jun）
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