Baku, June 16 (AZERTAC). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recognized Azerbaijan`s accomplishments in reducing hunger by half well ahead of international targets for the year 2015.

Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Ismat Abasov received the FAO diploma from the organization`s Director-General José Graziano da Silva in a high-level ceremony attended by several heads of state in Rome.

Azerbaijan was honored for early achievement of targets set by both Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) — to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 — plus the more stringent World Food Summit (WFS) goal of halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015.

The WFS goal was set in 1996, when 180 nations met at FAO headquarters to discuss ways to end hunger. The MDG 1 target was established by the international community at the UN General Assembly in 2000.

In his address, Minister Abasov said that the implementation of state programs, signed by President Ilham Aliyev, saw poverty level fall from 50 per cent to five per cent in the country.

He added the country`s agriculture had been developing at an annual growth rate of six per cent.