ROME, 9 June 2015 – Thailand has been awarded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for successfully reducing the rate of hunger and malnutrition among residents by more than half.
Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya stated that, during his participation in the 39th FAO Conference in Rome, Italy, he also took part in the award ceremony held for countries with achievements in the fight against hunger. On behalf of Thailand, the minister was assigned by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to accept the special diploma at the ceremony.
The diploma recognizes Thailand as one of the countries having met or exceeded the Millennium Development Goal, which is aimed at halving the rate of hunger and malnutrition within the year 2015. Out of a total of 194 member countries of the FAO, 72 have so far been granted the award.
Based on the statistics, the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition in Thailand has been slashed from 19.8 million back in 1990 to only 5 million this year while the proportion of the group has decreased from 34.6 percent of the entire population to 7.4 percent.
Mr Petipong attributed such an achievement to Thailand’s continuous implementation of development policies in the areas of food and agriculture, public health and education.
