00:00Excellencies, Director General, the current situation worldwide is challenging.
00:09Already some has alluded to the fact that in spite of recent advances,
00:14645 million people continue to suffer from hunger,
00:18and this is equivalent to 7.8% of the global population.
00:22However, more than 2 billion people face some degree of food insecurity,
00:30and millions and millions of people are yet unable to economically have access to a healthy diet.
00:38It is also estimated that hunger affected the world in 2025,
00:46and for the very first time in history,
00:50there were two famines that happened,
00:53one in the Gaza Strip and the other in Sudan.
00:57On top of that, we're living a very difficult paradox to accept.
01:02Today, humankind has productive scientific and technologies capacities like never before.
01:09Nevertheless, simultaneously, while millions of people do not have enough food,
01:16a considerable proportion of the food that we produce is lost after harvest or ends up being wasted.
01:26This is why the challenge before us is not only producing more.
01:33We have to produce better and more efficiently.
01:36We have to reduce losses and waste.
01:39We have to improve storage and transportation, guarantee access to food,
01:45protect our soils and our water, preserve our biodiversity,
01:51and build agri-food systems that are capable of withstanding the growing effects of the climate crisis,
01:59including the adverse effects of the El Nino phenomenon that are affecting today a large part of the developing countries,
02:11including Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, and others, as they have reported on.
02:16The agricultural calendar is no longer being dictated by tradition but by the climate crisis.
02:22Therefore, we need financing for agricultural adaptation, early warning systems,
02:29and productive enhancement that is AI-driven.
02:34Distinguished Director, Excellencies,
02:38Food should never become instruments of pressure or political confrontation.
02:47There, where there are differences between countries, dialogue and diplomacy ought to prevail.
02:55And wherever there is hunger, our common responsibility should be to find solutions.
03:01And this is why, from this forum, we insist on launching a call to put an end to the implementation
03:10of measures
03:11that are at the margin of international law and that have adverse implications and effects on the realization of the
03:21right to food.
03:22Venezuela has experienced both progress and setbacks in our combat against hunger.
03:30Our country achieved significant progress during the first decade of this century and that was recognized by this very organization.
03:39In 2013, FAO recognized that Venezuela was among the countries that had been able to reduce hunger.
03:48Venezuela, indeed, had gone from 2.8 million people being undernourished and that was equivalent to 14.1% of
03:59the population in 1990 to less than 5%.
04:03And regrettably, that was followed by a very difficult time.
04:10Venezuela was faced with a very deep internal political confrontation that, unfortunately, led to a strong shrinkage of the economy.
04:22And the situation was aggravated started in 2017 with the progressive imposition of the unilateral coercive measures.
04:33These measures that in the agricultural and agri-food sector reached 16% affected access to financing,
04:41agriculture inputs, technologies, teams, and different components that are necessary to keep our productive trains up and running.
04:52Venezuela, therefore, experienced a severe food supply crisis that affected the entire society.
05:01Venezuela,unkenness, undverte, n.g.,
