The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has elected Qu Dongyu, China’s vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, as its next director-fashionable.
Qu may be the primary head of the agency from China and will succeed Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva. His four- to twelve-month term will begin on 1 August.
The FAO wields extensive influence on almost every aspect of meals and agriculture, including global and neighborhood rules, and allows it to shape agendas for agricultural studies. With around 11,500 employees, it is the UN’s largest technical agency and has a US$ 2.6 billion budget for 2018–19.
Qu has said that his priorities will include enhancing agriculture in tropical nations—where poverty and starvation are rampant—and helping arid international locations address agricultural challenges by using water shortages.
Trained biologist
Qu, the son of a rice farmer, holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental sciences from Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands. He became an agriculture and rural development coverage researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and became the minister of agriculture and rural affairs in 2015.
He was elected on 23 June at some point in a biennial assembly of the FAO Conference, the agency’s maximum governing body, and won 108 of the 191 votes in a secret poll that gave each of the FAO’s 194 member states one vote. European Union candidate Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle drew 71 votes, and Georgia’s Davit Kirvalidze, who the United States has subsidized, obtained 12.
Qu outlined several of his organization’s priorities at an April FAO meeting. He is known for modifying the manufacturing and intake of agricultural goods internationally to minimize their environmental impact. He also believes that the information era and e-trade for farmers offer opportunities to spur development in impoverished rural regions.
The minister also said that the FAO, based in Rome, should beef up its center function of collecting and disseminating global know-how and assisting its participants with advice on policy, generation, and information. Qu added that the organization additionally desires greater partnerships with the private sector and outside bodies, including non-governmental agencies.
