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ANKARA- Anadolu Agency
Turkey wastes 19 million tonnes of food annually, which is a fifth of the country’s food production, the Minister of Agriculture and Forests said on October 16.
“If we can prevent food waste by just 2% in our country, we will be able to cover the living expenses of about 360,000 families for a year,” said Bekir Pakdemirli at an online meeting related to World Food Day, organized by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Saying that the period of the pandemic became critical for access to food, he noted that Turkey took innovative measures in the field of agriculture in this period, such as a digital agriculture platform, smart agriculture deployments, GenBank and seed projects. ancestral.
Turkey annually feeds 4.5 million refugees and 40 million tourists in addition to its own population, and it is an important responsibility, he recalled.
Viorel Gutu, FAO Representative in Turkey and sub-regional coordinator for Central Asia, said hunger has increased since 2014 globally, while obesity rates have been increasing at the same time.
Around the world, around 2 billion people cannot access safe, nutritious and sufficient food, Gutu noted, adding that it is necessary to change the methods of food production and consumption.
