Central Asia plays an important role in global food security. At the same time, the world needs to provide its population not just with food, but with functional nutrition that is beneficial to health. This was stated by FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, according to Turkmenportal.

The speech was delivered at the International Conference ‘Health and Nutrition in a Changing Climate’ in Ashgabat.

According to him, food security should be assessed not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality. He noted that some foods do not contribute to maintaining health. The Head of the FAO highlighted three key elements of food security: availability, reliability and affordability.

Qu Dongyu gave examples showing that even with the availability of food and reasonable prices, there may still be a shortage of healthy and functional food.

He also recalled the historical role of Central Asia in food security and pointed to the impact of geopolitical processes in recent decades on the global food system.