Arab integration needed to ensure food security

The participants of the 17th Technical Conference of the Arab Agricultural Engineers Union recommended during the concluding session held last Tuesday that organic agriculture should be introduced in the Arab world to ensure food security.

They called for laws to encourage countries to establish special institutions concerning organic agriculture. The members reunited at the conference also emphasized the importance of setting up a consultative regional office for the Arab Investment Authority and other similar bodies to harmonize organic agriculture practices all over the Arab world, requesting Arab scientific research foundations to pay attention to the applied research into organic agriculture. 

During the launch of the meeting, Prime Minister Ali Majour called for Arab integration and cooperation to address the crisis of food price increases. 

“Arab nations cannot confront the global food price spiral merely through Arab integration and cooperation to ensure food security and self-sufficiency in order to get rid of foreign domination,” Majour said. Majour added that "chemical contamination of agricultural products became one of the issues that most concerns both citizens and decision makers. This issue is essential due to the way it affects people's lives, their food and future generations." 

This conference should discuss critical subjects linked to Arab food security and its challenges related to organic farming. “Organic farming is considered to be a good solution, free from chemical substances with all the consequences this implies on humans and the surrounding environment,” said Majour.

"The environment is the largest house in which we all live. Thus, all of us must maintain it safely either as individuals, international institutions, civil society or the private sector,” stressed Majour.

He pointed out that Arab nations possess substantial capabilities in all areas but are still fragmented, which prevents optimal usage of their capacities.

The Chairman of the Yemeni Agricultural Engineers Syndicate, Ubad Mohammed al-Ansi, delivered a speech welcoming the participants to the conference. He reviewed the efforts of the syndicate and its role in creating job opportunities for members and finding resources to enable them to achieve the desired objectives. He stressed the importance of partnerships with governments and civil society organizations, donors, chambers of commerce and industry, the private sector, and media as well as the partnership with women to improve the agricultural sector.

This conference aimed to protect people from the dangers of spreading serious diseases such as cancer caused by excessive use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, as well as protecting water depletion, especially groundwater from pollutants and toxins in addition to soil protection and lower rates of gaseous emission, al-Ansi said. Chairman of the Arab Authority for Investment and Agricultural Development, Abdul-karim al-Aamri also called for the adoption of organic agriculture. He explained that this conference is an important platform for agricultural engineers and the entire concerned Arab agricultural sector.

He called for a rise in agricultural production and quality to achieve the highest degree of Arab food security. He stressed the need to activate the important role of engineers and agricultural experts and to adopt what they are doing on real land and exchange experiences among Arab countries, in addition to strengthening the framework of the infrastructure of research centers and laboratories which lead to develop the agricultural sector.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Abdul Malik al-Arashi pointed out the importance of the conference that discussed vital issues, topped by organic agriculture and its impacts on the Arab agriculture.  The 4-day-Conference was attended by 70 Arab researchers who discussed 38 papers presented by a number of Arab countries. 

The participants in the 17th Technical Conference of the Arab Agricultural Engineers Union at the end of the concluding session sent a thank-you letter to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

They expressed their gratitude to President Saleh for hosting the conference and for his support to agricultural engineers in increasing and improving production in the fields of agriculture and water. 

They also appreciated the attitudes of President Saleh in trying to heal the Palestinian rifts and praised Yemeni achievements, particularity in the agricultural field. 

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