FAO REGIONAL CONFERENCE ENCOURAGES GOVERNMENTS TO ENHANCE AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT AND REGIONAL COOPERATION
armradio.am
14.05.2010 16:49
The two-day 27th Regional Conference for Europe, which ended today
in Yerevan, Armenia, strongly supported enhancement of investment
in agriculture and regional cooperation, including in exchange of
policy and programmes experience, and encouraged FAO to support this
cooperation among countries and country groups in the region, such
as the Caucasus or Central Asia, as well as the exchange of experience.
This conference within the region of Europe and Central Asia has been
the first held in a country that is among the principal beneficiaries
of FAO’s technical assistance, said FAO Director-General Jacques
Diouf in his speech to the 27th FAO Regional Conference for Europe.
"This is strong testimony of the significant progress that has
been made in integrating the new Member Nations of this region into
technical activities and governance of FAO", he added.
In the spirit of the new structural approach, recommended by the
Conference and already under implementation in FAO, Ms Fernanda
Guerrieri, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative
for Europe and Central Asia will sign today the National Medium Term
Priority Framework (NMTPF) for Georgia, which has already been accepted
by the Government of Georgia. The NMTPF will improve the efficiency
of FAO assistance in the country.
Conference policy recommendations included proposals to incorporate
policies and programmes to mitigate and adapt to climate change to the
mandate and agenda of Ministries of Agriculture, as well as policies
for protecting farmers’ incomes through diversification of incomes and
jobs in rural areas, and FAO’s a twin-track approach to food security
including both short-term emergency, combined with revival of the
farm and food production. It was noted that an important cause of
the high soaring food prices of farm and food in recent years was the
decline in both agricultural investment and research and development
in previous decades and governments were encouraged to reverse this.
The conference attracted 175 participants, including delegates from
40 Member Nations from FAO Europe and European Union, USA as Observer
Member Nation not in the Region, Holy See as Observer from United
Nations Member States, delegates from 9 United Nations Agencies,
4 Observers from Intergovernmental organizations and 19 Observers
from non-governmental organizations.