The Third Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Food Security was held in Mataram, Indonesia, from 3-5 October 2012. The meeting was attended by Ministers and representatives of the member countries as well as the D-8 Secretary-General. A number of private sector representatives also attended the meeting to promote partnership with the public sector in agriculture. Parallel meetings were also held by the Working Groups on Fertilizers, Animal Feed, Seed Bank, Standards and Trade Issues, and Marine and Fisheries.
 
The third D-8 meeting on food security discussed issues relating to food supply and food prices, as well as agricultural cooperation among member countries. The meeting endeavoured to find solutions to the food security problems faced by member countries, and emphasized, inter alia, the imperative of implementation of the policies and measures adopted during the first two ministerial meetings.
 
Mr. Suswono, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia – host country – expressed the hope during the opening session that D-8 would be in a position to contribute to sustainable global food security. He also highlighted the role of the private sector in the implementation of the D-8 programs, and underlined the importance of   promoting people’s awareness to this end.
 
D8 Secretar- General, Widi Pratikto also drew attention in his statement to the importance of the sector as a priority area of the Organization and expressed satisfaction at the regular annual ministerial meeting. He also emphasized the imperative of concrete programs of sharing experiences among the member countries in order to improve welfare and food safety within the D-8 community – and the global community at large.   

Photos of these meetings can be viewed from our gallery or by clicking here.