On October 16, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held a grand "World Food Day" celebration at its headquarters in Rome, Italy. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu announced that the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPPCAAS) was awarded the 2024 FAO Achievement Award, recognizing IPPCAAS's outstanding contributions to effectively controlling fall armyworm and promoting global food security. Qu Dongyu presented the award to IPPCAAS during the ceremony.

In his speech on this year’s World Food Day theme, "Right to Foods for a better life and a better future - Leave No One Behind," Qu emphasized the need to fully realize the "right to food" and to build a new framework for healthy, nutritious, and affordable food systems. He reaffirmed FAO's mission of “ensuring everyone has food and striving to achieve food security for all,” and called for achieving "better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life." Qu also pointed out that the 2024 FAO Achievement Award was given to IPPCAAS for its pioneering work in controlling the fall armyworm. He highlighted that IPPCAAS established a sustainable pest management system in China, maximizing food security, and shared this knowledge, technology, and products with Southeast Asian and African countries, helping them build sustainable control systems. This, he said, was a model of how to work hand in hand with countries around the world to safeguard global food security.

Leaders from FAO, Italy's Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Germany's Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and other organizations attended the event. Prof. Lu Yanhui, Director-General of IPPCAAS, attended the ceremony on behalf of the institute to receive the award. Notably, IPPCAAS is the first Chinese organization to receive the FAO Achievement Award.