24 February 2015 – Philippine Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio R. de los Reyes and Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization (PAFSAM) Secretary Francis N. Pangilinan visited the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN).
During the visit, the country’s top officials for rural development had a meeting with FAO-UN Director General Jose Graziano da Silva. They conveyed the Philippines’ deep appreciation for FAO’s continued assistance to rebuild rural livelihoods affected by typhoons (most notably, Yolanda/Haiyan). Specific areas of cooperation such as technical support to deal with coconut infestations, as well as a planned agri-related visit to Brazil of legislators were further discussed.
The officials also took the opportunity of the meeting to reiterate to the Director-General the country’s strong support to his re-election candidacy as FAO’s Director-General.
Secretaries de los Reyes and Pangilinan were in Rome to represent the country at the 38th Session of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Governing Council (IFAD-GC) convened at the IFAD Headquarters in Rome from February 16 to 17. Discussions at this year’s Council focused on rural transformation as a key to sustainable development. END