The 5th D-8 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting was held on Wednesday, 03 December 2014, at Le Meridian in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting was preceded by 5 (five) Working Group meetings on different sub-sectors in agricultural cooperation and Senior Officials’ Meeting on Agriculture. The meetings were widely attended by the high dignitaries and delegations from the D-8 Member States as well as international and regional organizations.  

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Livestock of Turkey, D-8 Secretary-General, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Iran, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Malaysia, Minister of State of Agriculture of Nigeria, , AARDO Secretary-General were, among others, present in the Ministerial session on Wednesday. 

Dr. Seyed AliMohammad Mousavi, the D-8 Secretary-General, stated in his statement that agriculture was an extremely crucial and important sector having pervasive impact on the economy and livelihood of the majority of the peoples of the D-8 Member States and therefore, this occasion should be utilized with maximum efficacy and productivity in order for the D-8 Organization to achieve objective outcome that may positively contribute to the life of the people of the region. He also stated that the average contribution of all D-8 Member States’ agricultural sector to the GDP growth was around 20% by the end of 2013. He mentioned that there was no room for complacency though; the Organization should strive to achieve the minimum target of 25% contribution to the GDP by agricultural sector.  

Dr. Mousavi thanked the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in particular, for all the arrangements made for the meetings. 

Mr. Mehdi Eker, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Livestock of Turkey, underscored the importance of enlarging agricultural zones and called for joint action on food security. He said that  more than 30 percent of the total workforce in the  D-8 is linked with  the agricultural sector.

African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Representation of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Turkey, Representation of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Istanbul and delegation of Somalia attended the event as Observers. 

The Ministerial session adopted a Ministerial Declaration namely, ‘Istanbul Initiative’, reaffirming their commitment to give priorities in areas such as, maintaining food availability and affordability, advancing sustainable agricultural-led growth, increasing food supplies, sharing food reserves in the larger producing countries and strengthening the income of small farmers, fishermen and rural communities.