Highlighting the importance of practical strategies towards promoting sustainable agricultural growth in D-8 Member States, the Fourth D-8 Agricultural Ministerial Meeting on Food Security was successfully held on 4-6 December 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. Delegates from Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Republic of Turkey attended the meeting.

On the first day, 4 December 2013, the event commenced with parallel sessions of five Working Groups, on Seed Bank, Fertilizer, Animal Feed, Marine Affairs and Fisheries, and Standards on Trade. The Working Group meetings urged Member States to expedite the implementation of identified projects and activities in each group through solid collaboration between government, private sectors and related agricultural institutions.

The Senior Officials Meeting was held subsequently on 5 December 2013. In this meeting, delegates considered the reports of all Working Groups and welcomed the D-8 Programme for Food Security (D-8 PFS) as well as D-8 Information and Knowledge Management Network, which will serve, inter alia, as a guideline for further activities of D-8 agricultural cooperation.

Subsequently, the Meeting also encouraged private institutions and businessmen to participate in creating a framework of cooperation through public-private partnerships in the fields of development of effective food supply chains, feasibility study on nutrition, and food systems transformation.

The main event, 4th D-8 Agricultural Ministerial Meeting on Food Security, was held on 6 December 2013. The Heads of Delegations from each Member Country adopted the “Abuja Initiative” as a pragmatic approach to underscore the needs of strengthening and energizing collective efforts in order to achieve self-reliance and self-sufficiency at the D-8 national level in food production.

The meeting also welcomed the proposals of Nigeria concerning D-8 Agriculture Research and Development Capacity Building Initiative, establishment of the Seed Sector Investment Fund as well as the Fertilizer Investment Fund and Halal Meat Industry Development.

Finally, the Meeting welcomed the offer by the Head of Delegation of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock of Republic of Turkey who stated that in principle, Turkey is willing to host the 5th D-8 Agricultural Ministerial Meeting on Food Security in 2014.

In addition to this very important event, D-8 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) during the courtesy visit with Vice President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the Presidential Palace. It is expected that the MoU would provide rational strategy to achieve the expansion of D-8 agricultural cooperation as well as sharing lessons learned between both organizations and their experiences, including the human resource development, joint implementation of development projects, sharing information, knowledge and resources, promotion of agri-trade and networking.

Photos of this Meeting can be viewed form the link below :

Video of this Meeting can be viewed form the link below: