Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Mohamed Hassan Qatana called for combating the climatic challenges and cross-border agricultural and animal pandemics.
Qatan’s remarks came during the closing of the 36th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Conference, which was held in Baghdad in the presence of the participating countries’ representatives.
Minister Qatana highlighted the importance of expanding and developing trade exchange between Arab countries away from politics and in a way that ensures integration and interaction to achieve food security, which has become the biggest challenge of the upcoming stage.
In turn, Iraqi Minister of Agriculture, Eng. Mohammad Al- Khafaji, who presided over the session, stressed the necessity to go ahead with work and unify the FAO efforts to support the agricultural sector and overcome the scarcity of water resources and climate change and develop appropriate solutions to them.
He also shed light on the necessity of increasing support and production by innovating better and more capable food and agricultural resilient systems to achieve the sustainable development goals.
In a statement issued by the closing session in Baghdad, the conference issued several recommendations that included considering the possibility of establishing strategic food reserves sufficient for three months, adopting integrated policies in order to secure favorable conditions for investment in the agricultural and food sector and supporting countries to develop regional plans to develop agricultural and food systems to be compatible with the FAO strategic framework.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)