China witnesses remarkable drop in undernourishment rate

BANGKOK - China has seen a remarkable drop in its rate of undernourishment over the past 20 years, which has contributed to the sharp decline in the rate of East Asia and Asia as a whole, a United Nations official told Xinhua here on Wednesday.

"We highly appreciate China's contribution to the overall improvement in nutrition, both globally and regionally," said Hiroyuki Konuma, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assistant director-general and regional representative for Asia and the Pacific.

"The Chinese government has already indicated its intention to move towards zero hunger." Konuma said on the sidelines of the briefing on the 2nd International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2).

Meanwhile, Konuma urged China to disseminate effective agricultural technologies like the hybrid-rice technology to other countries. "China has a lot of experience in agriculture. We are very much looking forward to China helping and working closely with other nations."

The ICN2, jointly organized by the FAO and World Health Organization (WHO), will be held in Rome, Italy from Nov 19 to 21. It will convene high-level government officials and stakeholders with the overall goal of improving diets and raising nutrition levels through policies that more effectively address today's major nutrition challenges. The ICN1 was held in 1992.

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