Boka District hosted a discussion on food security within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and on the role of the mahalla in this process.
Today, food security is becoming an issue directly linked not only to agriculture or the economy, but also to public well-being, social stability, and national security. For this reason, along with the sufficiency of food, its quality, safety, affordability for the population, and reliable supply are among the important tasks facing countries around the world.
These very issues were the central topic of a public discussion held in Boʻka District on August 18.
The event was organized by the Tashkent Region division of the Sustainable Development Center, the Boʻka District administration, and the district Mahalla Association under the motto “The Year of Mahalla Development and Societal Advancement,” on the theme “The Role of the Mahalla in Achieving Food Security Within the Framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
It brought together staff of district government agencies, the chairpersons and activists of 28 mahallas, and representatives of non-governmental non-profit organizations, who exchanged views on the opportunities available to the mahalla in ensuring food security, on existing problems, and on ways to resolve them.
Today, the issue of food security is becoming even more pressing worldwide. According to the 2026 data of the United Nations (UN) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in 2025 nearly 7.8% of the world's population — 645 million people — suffered from chronic hunger. That same year, 2.1 billion people, or 25.8% of the global population, faced moderate or severe food insecurity.
These figures show that food security still remains one of the greatest tasks facing humanity.
At the same time, factors such as climate change, drought and water scarcity, armed conflicts, disruptions in logistics, and the volatility of food and fertilizer prices are putting pressure on food systems. UN data likewise emphasize the need to build sustainable food systems, support small-scale producers, and invest in climate-resilient agriculture.
Accordingly, food security today must be approached not only through the question “How much food has been produced?” but also through questions such as “Can people afford to buy it?”, “Is the produce of good quality?”, “Is production sustainable?”, and “Are people able to eat healthily?”
The public discussion emphasized that the 17 areas of the Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected and that most of them are also reflected in our country's development strategies.
In particular, Goal 2 — “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” — which served as the main theme of the event, is directly relevant to this discussion.
This goal implies not only ending hunger, but also ensuring that every person has quality, nutritious food, developing agriculture sustainably, supporting small-scale producers, and using natural resources rationally.
As was emphasized during the discussion, the issue of food security cannot be envisaged in isolation from the mahalla.
This is because the mahalla is the community institution that knows most closely the daily needs of the population, family incomes, the potential of household plots, employment, consumption habits, and social needs.
Abdumanop Toʻlaganov, head of the Tashkent Region division of the Sustainable Development Center, spoke about the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the substance of Goal 2 and the opportunities for implementing it at the mahalla level.
Shodiyor Azizov, an expert at the Sustainable Development Center, noted the need to strengthen the active participation of the mahalla in ensuring food security, to introduce modern approaches, and to increase the initiative shown by residents in this process.
An important feature of the event was that food security was discussed not as a theoretical concept, but in connection with the practical issues arising in the life of the mahalla and the family.
In particular, Rustam Amirov, chairman of the Toshloq mahalla, highlighted the importance of the system for identifying livestock and issuing animal passports, and proposed increasing the volume of melon and gourd cultivation in rural areas, expanding exports of produce, and simplifying the paperwork involved in this process.
The significance of this proposal is that increasing local production can serve not only to supply the domestic market with produce, but also to raise household incomes and create new economic opportunities in rural areas.
Rajab Sunatov, chairman of the Bunyodkor mahalla, shifted the discussion to a broader social question: how much choice do people actually have under conditions of sustainable development?
In his view, a person's food choices depend largely on their economic means. The higher the income, the greater the opportunity to choose high-quality and healthy food products.
From this perspective, ensuring food security should be viewed as a single process together with employment, higher incomes, the creation of decent jobs, and family well-being.
International practice, too, is changing its approach to food security.
The 2025 global report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partner organizations notes that high food price inflation is reducing people's purchasing power and having a particularly negative impact on the ability of low-income families to eat healthily. The report identifies stabilizing food systems, supporting small-scale producers, and ensuring people's access to a healthy diet as important tasks.
For this reason, the modern approach understands food security to mean not only the quantity of produce, but also its quality, safety, nutritional value, and economic affordability for the population.
This makes tasks at the mahalla level even more important: working with residents, identifying families in need, making effective use of household plots, supporting small-scale producers, and widely promoting a culture of healthy eating.
The significance of the meeting in Boʻka District is that representatives of government agencies, mahalla activists, and civil society gathered on a single platform and had the opportunity to discuss problems directly.
Such open dialogue makes it possible, above all, to identify real needs on the ground, to hear residents' proposals, to point out existing obstacles, and to develop practical solutions.
Most importantly, if the proposals voiced during the public discussion are brought to the attention of the relevant organizations, they can help improve local programs and practical measures.
Through such dialogue, the mahalla becomes not merely an institution that resolves social issues, but an active participant in local economic development, food security, and sustainable progress.
Events of this kind, held as part of the Sustainable Development Month, play an important role in turning the Sustainable Development Goals from global objectives on paper into practical tasks connected with people's daily lives.
For the Sustainable Development Goals are not the responsibility of government agencies or international organizations alone. Each of them — reducing poverty, quality education, decent work, healthy living, food security, clean water, gender equality, environmental sustainability — directly concerns the life of the mahalla and of every family.
In this sense, the public discussion in Boʻka District is significant not as yet another event within the Sustainable Development Month, but as a practical example of implementing global goals at the local level.
After all, sustainable development begins not only with decisions handed down from above, but with the needs, initiative, and participation of every person in the mahalla.