Hanoi (VNA) – Ensuring food security andrural development to create the foundation for sustainable malnutritionreduction is the message of the ongoing Nutrition and Development Week.

Launched by the Ministry of Health from October 16-23, the campaign aims tomaterialise the National Nutrition Strategy for 2011-2020 and respond to WorldFood Day (October 16).

The drive will focus on encouraging people to develop the garden-pond-livestockpen (VAC) model in order to have safe food and improved living standards, whilecoordinating with the agricultural sector to employ solutions to ensure foodsecurity for households.

Localities will also join hands to raise public awareness of balanced and nutritionalintake at home, contributing to improving wellness and physique of Vietnamesepeople.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated that during 2010-2012, 852 million people in developing countries oraround 15 percent of the global population suffered from chronicundernourishment.

UN agencies also revealed that in 2016, about 159 million under-five-year-oldchildren were stunted and 50 million others were wasted. In the year,micro-nutrition deficiency conditions were spread among 2 billion people globally.

Despite being one of the world’s biggest rice exporters, with about 5.7 milliontonnes expected to be shipped abroad in 2017, up 800,000 tonnes from 2016,there remain problems in the country regarding food security in households,especially those in climate change-affected areas, food hygiene and safety, aswell as food production, stockpile and distribution.

Therefore, food security plays an important role in talking hunger and reducingmalnutrition rate in Vietnam.-VNA