Can Tho (VNA) – The Food andAgriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) will continue accompanyingVietnam and supporting the country to implement underway programmes and projects,Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and thePacific Kundhavi Kadiresan has said.

She made the affirmation at a meeting withDeputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh in theMekong Delta city of Can Tho on August 24 on the sidelines of the 2017 APECFood Security Week and a High-Level Policy Dialogue on enhancing food securityand sustainable agriculture in response to climate change.

Kadiresan said the FAO will help Vietnam carryout a programme on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and forest loss anddegradation along with integrated nutrition and food security strategies forchildren and vulnerable groups.

The UN organisation also pledged to assistVietnam in promoting the intensive rice cultivation system in the MekongRiver’s lower part in addition to enhancing monitoring and management capacityof information on diseases, building solutions to the sustainable provision offood for tra fish, and supporting the research of hi-tech agricultural modelsthat are adaptive to climate change, she affirmed.

Deputy Minister Doanh said Vietnam’sagricultural sector is focusing on two major targets, which are increasing thecompetitiveness for deeper global integration, and coping with climate change.

Vietnam hopes to cooperate with internationalorganisations and partners, especially the FAO, in experience sharing,technology transfer, and trade and investment promotion.

The Southeast Asian country proposed the FAOprovide technical assistance and help to access international funds to tackleclimate change, reduce natural disaster risks for the domestic agriculture, andimplement a national programme on agricultural restructuring and ruraldevelopment.

As the country’s northern mountainous region isbearing brunt of floods and extreme weather patterns, Vietnam hopes the FAOwill support her to implement the “Zero Hunger” programme, build the TechnicalCooperation Programme (TCP), and realise the comprehensive strategies on greengrowth and poverty reduction in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to help locals applyeffective cultivation methods to deal with climate change and ensure foodsecurity, Doanh said.

Vietnam called on the FAO to join her in ascheme to mobilise non-refundable capital from the Green Climate Fund toimplement the action strategy of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and ForestDegradation (REDD ) in the Central Highlands and shift the cultivation of ricein the Mekong Delta to other crops that are resistant to climate change, headded.

The country also needs FAO technical assistancein preventing crop and livestock diseases and ensuring food safety, he noted.-VNA