News desk :
The seventh D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Food Security will begin virtually today.
“Organised by the Agriculture Ministry, the two-day ministerial level meeting of D-8 (Developing Eight), an alliance of developing countries, is going to begin today.
The meeting will be held virtually due to coronavirus pandemic,” Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said while addressing a virtual press briefing yesterday. Bangladesh is the incumbent president of D-8 Forum and that is why the conference is very important as a part of South-South cooperation, he said.
Besides, the agriculture minister said, Bangladesh is now the president of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) too. The meeting will discuss climate smart agriculture promotion, so it is very important, he added.
He said the main topic of the meeting this year is ‘Agriculture and Food Security: Development of Climate Smart Agriculture’.
Razzaque said cooperation on various issues, including agricultural production and increasing productivity, joint agricultural research, mechanisation, agro-processing, blue economy, fertiliser production, seeds, animal feed, value chain development, training and capacity building will also be discussed in the meeting.
Agriculture and food ministers and secretaries and other senior officials from the alliance’s member states – Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey – will join the high-level meeting, he said.
Besides, the agriculture minister said, the representatives of different international organisations, including Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), will participate in the meeting.
