Chengdu, China – The South African Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, attended the second meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development which reviewed progress made in the implementation of the Moscow Declaration themed “Making Joint Efforts for World Food Security”.
The Moscow declaration was signed in 2010 at the first meeting of BRIC Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development.
The BRICS Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development who participated in the meeting are from Brazil, Russia, India, the People’s Republic of China and South Africa. The three-day meeting started on 29 October and ended on 31 October 2011, in Chengdu, China.
The Ministers also signed a second declaration committing their countries to:
- enhancing the coordination and communication with international and regional organisations, including G20, Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Food Programme, Organisation for Animal Health, Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, with the goal of ensuring that the debates in this organisations address issues of global food security, climate change, environmental protection, trade and investment promotion;
- support the global endeavour to combat hunger, and call on the international community to make all efforts to further enhance aid with the United Nations in playing a coordinating role in preventing further deterioration of the crisis in the Horn of Africa;
- make best efforts to help African countries improve their food production capacity so as to enhance food security, particularly among smallholder farmers, through technical cooperation, policy dialogue, agricultural technology demonstration and transfer, personnel training, agricultural infrastructure construction and food aid;
- enhance agricultural cooperation among BRICS countries which is of great significance for ensuring global food security and sustainable agricultural development, eradicating poverty and achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals;
- the construction of an agricultural information and digital agriculture platform to provide more accurate long-term market forecast information for food producers and purchasers to reduce excessive speculative activities that result in high food prices;
- develop agriculture in other developing countries by actively strengthening coordination and cooperation for comprehensive food productivity of farmers including smallholders, women and youth by relying on scientific research and technology transfer, creating favourable environment for investment and sustainable utilisation of agricultural resources, and promoting agricultural products trade to improve food access;
- to establish the “BRICS Strategic Alliance for Agricultural Research and Technology Cooperation”, which will pool efforts in addressing major challenges faced by the world in agricultural technologies.
The Alliance will receive guidance and support from the agricultural ministries of the respective member countries, with a view to strengthening and deepening cooperation among BRICS countries in dealing with the impact of climate change on global food security.
The meeting also resolved to adopt what is known as the ‘Action Plan 2012 to 2016 in order to achieve the above objectives, which includes, amongst others, the following:
I. Creation of basic agricultural information exchange system of BRICS countries (Coordinating Country PR China)
II. Development of a general strategy for ensuring access to food for the most vulnerable population (Coordinating Country Brazil)
III. Reduction of negative impact of climate change on food security and adaptation of agriculture to climate change (Coordinating Country South Africa)
IV. Enhance agricultural technology cooperation and innovation (Coordinating Country India)
IV. Trade and investment promotion (Coordinating Country Russia)
The ministers agreed that their third BRICS meeting will take place in India in 2012 to review progress regarding the implementation of Action Plan 2012 to 2016.
Enquiries:
Selby Bokaba
Media Liaison Officer: Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Tel: 012 319 7876
Cell: 082 778 0245
E-mail: selbyb@daff.gov.za
