President Ranil Wickremesinghe delivers the keynote address
The 37th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, was held in Colombo from February 19 – 22 with Government Ministers and Heads of Delegations from 46 member nations.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, FAO Director-General Dr. QU Dongyu and Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera inaugurated the session.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva, State Minister of Plantation Industries and Mahaweli Development Lohan Ratwatte, State Minister of Livestock Development D. B. Herath, State Minister of Agriculture Mohan Priyadarshana De Silva and State Ministry of Rural Economy Kader Masthan were also presen t at the inauguration.
The 37th session, convened by FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and hosted by the Government of Sri Lanka, marks a major international, multilateral milestone in an effort to reform agrifood systems across the Asia-Pacific region.
The objective of the conference is to outline a pathway toward a full recovery from the pandemic and other converging crises, and reinforce ways to rebuild and transform the region’s agrifood systems, delivered through better production, better nutrition, a better environment and leading to a better life for all – leaving no one behind.
