Rome – Morocco received on Sunday in Roma the Food and Agriculture Organization’s distinction for achieving the first Millennium development goal (MDG) of reducing extreme poverty and hunger, two years ahead of the scheduled date (end of 2015).
FAO Director General, Jose Graziano Da Silva, handed the prize to secretary-general of the Moroccan ministry of agriculture and fisheries, Mohammed Sadiki, during an official ceremony held on the sidelines of the FAO 39th conference held in Rome this June 6-13.
A majority – 72 out of 129 – of the countries monitored by FAO have achieved the MDG target, while 29 out of a total 72 countries have met the more stringent goal to halve the number of hungry people as laid out by governments when they met in Rome at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996.
The Moroccan official told MAP Morocco has achieved the goal two years ahead of the scheduled date thanks to various policies adopted by Morocco to fight poverty and vulnerability, mainly the Morocco-Green plan (agriculture), the Halieutis plan (fisheries) and the National forest program.
“These strategies have not only mobilized considerable public and private investments but have also brought significant support to small farmers, forest operators and fishermen to improve their income and, consequently living standards and better manage their natural resources in a sustainable manner”, he further explained.
Worldwide, “since 1990, 216 million people have been freed from hunger,” said the FAO Director- General who also deplored that “One out of nine people on the planet still do not have enough food to conduct active, healthy and productive live.
