Riyadh, September 26, 2021, SPA -- Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Eng. Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, reiterated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken important steps towards consolidating effective and flexible national food systems and based its vision on building a sustainable agricultural sector that contributes to achieving food and water security, as well as economic, social and environmental development. During his participation in the Food Systems Summit, which was held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the minister explained that the Kingdom has been working extensively to enhance the sustainability of natural resources, improve consumption, to reduce losses and waste by 50% by 2030, and build a strategy for responsible agricultural investment abroad, citing the Kingdom’s achievement to increase lending from the Agricultural Development Fund by more than 400% in 2020, and aims to hit a $1 billion target of agricultural loans, in addition to developing agricultural and marketing services, and improving agricultural and food production. The minister said these steps contributed to achieving high rates of self-sufficiency for many strategic food commodities in the local markets, as the Kingdom, through its global, regional, and local partnerships has adopted different means of technologies and innovations that have raised the operational efficiency and productivity of local agricultural and food systems at the level of large and small producers and distributors, at low costs and ease of implementation with high efficiency, in addition to launching an ambitious rural development program that had a positive impact in supporting and empowering youth and women in agricultural work. He underlined the need to build flexible and sustainable food systems at the local and international levels that ensure the availability of healthy and safe food for all segments of society, and to ensure the availability of all possible tools and measures that help achieve the goals of sustainable development in 2030, stressing the Kingdom’s keenness to support the UN efforts to rebuild global food systems, to achieve food security and combat hunger and poverty across the world. --SPA 20:47 LOCAL TIME 17:47 GMT 0025 www.spa.gov.sa/w1626965