In the case of Pacific Island Countries, there is an urgent need for public and private sector cooperation in order to facilitate investment in greater productivity and value chain efficiencies required to maintain their market share and food security.

While the private sector can provide the bulk of agricultural investment, these investments need to be responsible and contribute to food security, and governments must create an enabling environment for that to occur, while implementing and enhancing social protection programmes for rural people.

That's why governments from nearly 40FAO Member States are gathering in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this month to respond to these challenges. The delegates to the FAO's 32nd Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific will work together to address issues to combat hunger. They are expected to make recommendations ranging from improvements to farmers' and fishers' livelihoods, within ecologically sustainable frameworks, to the restoration of forests and grasslands, intensification of food production and progress on a regional rice initiative, with campaigns to cut down on post-harvest food losses and wastage.

Together we can work toward a region and a world free from hunger, and one that reinforces the critical importance of all of those involved in producing the food we, and our future generations, need to carry us forward.

The author is director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

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