20 October 2023, Rome: The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met with the Minister for Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, H.E. Limber Cruz López, on the sidelines of the World Food Forum, which is taking place at FAO headquarters in Rome from 16 to 20 October.
The Minister conveyed his appreciation for FAO’s support in implementing various programmes in the country to fight hunger and malnutrition, as well as to help farmers. He listed several initiatives in this regard, such as the one that aims to eliminate intermediaries between producers and consumers to reduce the price of food products. The Minister also noted that the national strategy to boost food production has three main axes: i) mobilization of investments, ii) supply of fertilizers; and iii) seed distribution.
The Director-General congratulated the Dominican government for its strong leadership and ability to implement key programmes. He noted that even upper middle-income countries suffered severely the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qu highlighted the importance of supporting farmers and building their resilience to face the impacts of the climate crisis. The Director-General also encouraged the Dominican government to support some poor Caribbean islands, as well as the Dry Corridor region in Central America.
