November 16, 2009--the World Summit on Food Security was held in Rome, Italy. Chinese Vice Premier of the State Council Hui Liangyu attended the meeting on behalf of the Chinese Government. The three-day meeting was aimed to seek for effective ways to lift over a billion people around the globe out of hunger.

Prior to the meeting, FAO Director-General Jacque Diouf who initiated the event calling on all countries to increase their investments in agriculture, and in particular, to intensify support to small-scale farmers in poor countries. He urged the developed world to enhance their level of assistance to the agricultural development of the developing countries to help the poor nations solve their food crisis.

Diouf said hunger posts threat to 1/6 of the world population while being a severe challenge to world peace and security. There is an urgent need for the international community to reach a broad consensus on thoroughly and rapidly eradicating the phenomenon of hunger around the world.

Despite the international efforts to eliminate hunger, the number of famine refugees has been on a constant rise over recent years, and is further expanded due to the global financial crisis. According to the FAO estimation, the world population suffering from hunger and malnutrition has exceeded 1 billion this year, to 1.2 billion. A child dies from hunger or related diseases every six seconds.

In order to raise people’s attention to global hunger, Diouf and UN General-Secretary Ban ki-Moon went on a 24-hour hunger strike on the eve of the summit.