Aware of the urgent need to raise awareness at all levels and promote and facilitate the adoption of measures for global food safety, based on scientific principles, the General Assembly of the United Nations has decided to proclaim the 7th June as the World Food Safety Day.
Nearly three million people worldwide, both in developed and developing countries, die every year from waterborne diseases and food, and millions of people fall ill. Food is the starting point of our energy, health, and well-being.
Social Promotion Foundation promotes agricultural development in different countries through the implementation of cooperation projects that foster access to drinking water and food security.
We join in the celebration of this day and applaud this initiative that we consider vital for development.
We want to highlight on a day like today our project “Integrated rural development with an environmental and gender approach in East Wellega (Oromiya) Ethiopia” financed by the Regional Government of Valencia.
Food security depends on the population’s access to food and access to the resources to produce it.
Oromiya is the most extensive and populated region of Ethiopia. With more than 27 million inhabitants, 89% live in rural areas and their livelihoods are linked to agriculture and livestock production. However, the levels of production are insufficient to meet the needs of families, who suffer from food insecurity for several months a year.
This food insecurity due to the scarce availability of food is caused by multiple factors linked to inappropriate cultivation techniques that reduce soil fertility or not having adequate agricultural tools or fertilizers that recover the properties of the soil.
From Social Promotion Foundation, with our partner ECC-SADCO, we work in this region to generate skills in the local population that allows them to reverse this problem that violates their right to food.
To this end, different training activities are being developed (on soil conservation, water resources management or composting) and also actions that ensure better access to water for agricultural irrigation, the construction of seed and seedling nurseries and the plantation of trees that fix the soil and combat erosion.
All this will contribute to improving agricultural production in a sustainable manner, increasing the availability of food in quantity and quality, with better nutritional values. Together with this component, we are working with small producers to improve their livestock production, not only for the enrichment of the diet but also with an income generation orientation that contributes to improving their living conditions.