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The 9th meeting of the CIHEAM Member Countries’ Ministers of Agriculture
The 13 CIHEAM member countries’ ministers of agriculture, or their representatives, met in Valetta on the 27th of September 2012 at the invitation of the Hon. George Pullicino MP, Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Malta, to discuss about “Food Security and Pricing in the Mediterranean Countries”. The European Commissioners for Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and Consumer Policy and the Chair of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee also contributed to these deliberations.
It should be noted that the first of these meetings of CIHEAM Member Countries’ Ministers of Agriculture, informal fora for discussion on matters relating to agriculture, food and the environment, was held in Rome in 1999. Since then successive meetings have been held in Rabat (2000), Athens (2001), Beirut (2002), Paris (2004), Cairo (2006), Zaragoza (2008) and Istanbul (2010).
CIHEAM is the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, intergovernmental organisation founded in 1962. So this is the 50th year from the setting up of CIHEAM. Founded in 1962, CIHEAM is an intergovernmental organisation comprising thirteen member countries from the Mediterranean Basin. Malta has been a member since 1987. CIHEAM Institutes have given scholarships to Maltese students to obtain Master's degrees in different branches of agronomy, with the Bari Institute having been particularly supportive of Malta's endeavours to join the E.U., while also offering advice on a number of projects such as the micro-propagation facility, olive-growing and eradication of red palm weevil. Malta is currently represented on the Board of CIHEAM through its delegate Prof. Salvino Busuttil, who was also President from 1998 to 2002.
During the discussion the Ministers called for more multilateral cooperation and regional solidarity among Mediterranean countries to face these challenges. They drew particular attention to several measures able to consider the food security and food price volatility issues. They consisted in
- Implementing national agricultural and rural development policies as well as ecologically and socially responsible food strategies, in order to reinforce food security for their citizens, while supporting agricultural producers;
- Pursuing adaptation efforts for climate change in agriculture;
- Developing innovative public-private financing and risk-management tools in agriculture;
- Recognizing in these Food security policies the essential role of small-scale farmers and young farmers;
- Developing agricultural and logistical complementary opportunities among the Mediterranean countries on the level of commercial exchanges, to foster growth in investments in infrastructure and transport;
- Recalling that efforts against inefficiency and wastage contribute towards re-enforcing food security;
- Contributing to the development of a market information system of the Mediterranean countries, linked to AMIS, in close collaboration with the G20 monitoring panel, as a way to share sound information in order to help prevent price volatility in agricultural markets.
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Ciolos agreed that European Union may pursue, within the setting of its neighbourhood policies, cooperation in the Mediterranean area while attributing an important place to agricultural and rural development contained.
CIHEAM President wished to emphasize the importance of CIHEAM, and the consolidation and strengthening of the experience of half a century of existence. He emphasized that CIHEAM should continue to help the Mediterranean countries, through its education and cooperative activities, in the task of developing food security strategies and promoting institutional capacity for elaborating integrated and joint scientific research/development programs.
| Contact information |
CIHEAM General Secretariat 11 rue Newton - 75116 Paris – France
(email: abis@ciheam.org) Phone: +33 (0)1 53 23 91 00 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| File link |
http://www.mrra.gov.mt/news.aspx?nid=2504 |
| File link copy |
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| Source | CIHEAM |
| Subject(s) | AGRICULTURE , ENERGY , FINANCE-ECONOMY , HYDRAULICS - HYDROLOGY , INDUSTRY , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , WATER DEMAND |
| Relation | http://gov.mt/en/Government/Press%20Releases/Pages/2012/September/27/pr2105.aspx |
| Geographical coverage | Malta |
| Address | Valetta |
| Organizer | CIHEAM & the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Malta |
| Target audience | International |
| Period | 27/09/2012 |
| Status | Confirmed |
| Working language(s) | ENGLISH |
