"Tremendous" efforts and increased investments are expected from countries and international organizations in order to improve national statistical capacities in achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Zero Hunger target, José Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said today in Rome.

Opening the 7th International Conference on Agricultural Statistics, organized by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in collaboration with FAO, Mr. Graziano da Silva stressed the importance of the adoption by the UN Statistical Commission of 230 indicators to monitor the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) and 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda, calling it "a turning point for the global statistical system."

The Director-General also underlined that current capacities of most statistical systems do not match the SDG data requirements, adding that tried-and-tested statistics gathering systems need to be strengthened worldwide, and innovative approaches and cost effective methodologies have to be adopted.