Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has called on countries in the Asia-Pacific region to prioritise the right of all people to food, nutrition, peace and equality.
The princess, as the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's Special Goodwill Ambassador for Asia and the Pacific, gave a video address to mark World Food Day on Monday.
''This year's World Food Day is taking place in a year with multiple global challenges. In the Asia and the Pacific region, we are still living with a lingering pandemic, continued damage caused by climate change and natural disasters, rising prices, conflicts and international tensions. All of this is affecting our global food security," the princess said.
She said Asia and the Pacific has some of the world's fastest-growing economies, and the region had been making considerable progress in food security and nutrition in recent decades.
However, the region still faces significant issues of hunger and malnutrition, poverty, socioeconomic and gender inequality. The most vulnerable face injustice and marginalisation, she said.
These issues, along with political instability and high rates of unemployed youth in some areas, encourage increased, and often risky, migration from rural to urban areas.
According to a joint UN report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in Asia and the Pacific, progress on food security and nutrition has slowed despite all efforts, and the region is still far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 targets.
She said evidence demonstrates that external shocks and natural or human-made disasters disproportionately impact the most vulnerable, including women, rural populations and poorer households.
"Agrifood systems should be transformed to be more resilient to shocks and stresses, including natural disasters and pandemics such as Covid-19. This would require innovative and cost-effective measures aimed at providing social protection to reduce vulnerabilities, particularly of women, Indigenous Peoples and socially marginalised smallholders. Leaving no one behind, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, location, disability or migratory status, remains the central commitment of the 2030 Agenda.
"Policymakers, the private sector, academia, civil society need to empower the most vulnerable through training, incentives, innovation and technologies to vulnerable people, including women and youth, to make everyone equal agents of sustainable development. We can also provide greater respect for food by wasting less, eating healthy, seasonal and locally produced, foods and caring for natural resources like soils and water," the princess said.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu also emphasised the need for agrifood systems investment to revitalise efforts to end hunger, poverty and inequalities.
"We need to empower the most vulnerable, including small-scale producers, by investing in global agrifood systems," Mr Qu said.
"This means improved access to training, incentives, science, data, technology and innovation so that small-holders can be at the centre of this transformation."