His Excellency Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, called for supporting the least developed countries in the fields of agriculture and rural development, and enabling them to achieve their food security through the various available means.
It came over "The second thematic session of the Private Sector Forum: Agriculture and Rural Development", which was held on the sidelines of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which is currently being held in Doha, in the presence of experts and business leaders. During his speech at the session, the Polish President said: "Security is not only in the military aspects, but in other aspects represented in the abundance of food and water, and various agricultural products and crops."He indicated that the food supply chains are affected by the conflicts taking place in the world, such as the war in Ukraine, and the food supply chain in many regions of the world is damaged because of it. He added that the agricultural sector in various countries constitutes a major branch of their economies, as well as its impact on the social, economic and environmental aspects as it is the main element in achieving food security for each country, in addition to its positive effects in providing suitable job opportunities and achieving important commercial gains. He pointed out that countries The least developed countries today face challenges in supporting organizations concerned with their agricultural sectors, stressing the importance of using modern technologies in the agricultural fields, including artificial intelligence technologies, navigation, photography and digital platforms for farmers, which contributes to achieving better financial returns in this context. His Excellency President Andrzej Duda explained that the Republic of Poland uses various modern solutions in agriculture, which are applied in the Center for Agricultural Statistics, where farmers are able to improve the type and quality of fertilizers, which reflects positively on increasing the efficiency of the agricultural product and the quality of food as a whole. He said "LDCs cannot adapt on their own to implement these solutions without help", stressing his country’s readiness to support leadership in these countries to raise the efficiency of agricultural products, work to improve water infrastructure, and protect biodiversity. In his speech, His Excellency reviewed the Polish experience, which he considered an example of success in this field, as Poland carried out a comprehensive restructuring to modernize the agricultural sectors, coinciding with its accession to the European Union, indicating that agriculture became the main catalyst at that time, as Poland benefited from price competition to achieve positive results that improve annually. He pointed out that the value of Polish agricultural exports over the past two decades has increased more than 7 times. And he said: "In the year 2021, our agricultural products were exported to more than 170 countries"He added that Poland today is the fifth largest food producer in the European Union, with a production rate of about 10.7% of the entire European Union’s production. His Excellency concluded his speech by emphasizing that agricultural development is a guarantee of a better life in rural areas, stressing that the continuous modernization and development of this sector contributes to bridging social gaps due to the work that agriculture provides for thousands of young people. A number of experts participating in the session on agriculture and rural development also reviewed the most important challenges and issues facing the least developed countries in this aspect, calling for supporting these countries with various available tools and means, promoting agricultural investment, and using modern technologies to achieve food security. Mr. Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Obaidly, a member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Chamber and Chairman of the Chamber’s Food Security Committee, said: The Qatar Chamber is putting forward an initiative to establish a partnership fund aimed at developing productive resources under international auspices, so that the fund will be one of the contributions to support the least developed countries towards the structural transformation of the economy. Al-Obaidli stressed, during his intervention in the session, the readiness of the Qatar Chamber to host the headquarters of the fund, and to facilitate the initial meetings of representatives of the relevant parties, to develop this vision in its various technical, financial and legal dimensions under international auspices, with the aim of putting the initiative into practice, and launching this fund from the State of Qatar during the current year. He explained that the proposed fund aims to build human and economic capabilities to support the least developed countries to be self-reliant in the near future, and strive to contribute to supporting other least developed countries in the future, and the transfer of the productive resources of the intended country from low-productivity economic activities to high-productivity economic activities, especially Agri-food systems, while striving towards job creation. Al-Obaidli said that the State of Qatar views food security projects as part of national security, and these projects are also transformed into economic projects, indicating that the success of the experiment in Qatar was achieved only with the cooperation of stakeholders to achieve this, as well as attention to all components of supply chains. He reviewed the challenges associated with the successive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, the growing need to transform the agricultural sector, and accelerate rural development in the least developed countries, as a major variable in eradicating poverty and achieving global food security. He pointed to the main role of the private sector in this context, through its ability to provide the financing, technology and infrastructure necessary for the structural transformation of rural economies, the establishment of new value-added industries, the increase of farmers’ income, and the provision of job opportunities, stressing the importance of corporate social responsibility mechanisms, and their role in Building trust between the private sector and all stakeholders in this field.
For his part, Mr. Maximo Torrero Collin, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), stressed the weakness of the least developed countries in facing agricultural challenges and environmental repercussions, given the multiple economic problems that these countries are experiencing. During his intervention in the session, he said that the Doha Action Program presents a common goal to provide a decent life for the people of the least developed countries, by securing access to healthy food for all, stressing the need for the commitment of the various concerned parties, including governments, companies, civil society institutions, universities and others, in moving forward to achieve security. food for these countries. Colin stressed FAO’s endeavor to move from the stage of strategies and recommendations to actual implementation on the ground, by working from the bottom up by identifying farmers’ needs and challenges, providing the necessary facilities, and applying in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity, and excellence by using the best means, in addition to adopting a system Defined for continuous development and identification. In turn, Mr. Dejen Tezira, Director of the Agribusiness and Infrastructure Development Department at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), stressed the importance of achieving food security for the least developed countries, especially as these countries face many challenges that include the fragility of their food systems, and their receiving shocks more than Others, indicating that improving these systems is very important to eradicate chronic hunger. He affirmed UNIDO’s commitment to intervening within the framework of local contexts in least developed countries, by supporting knowledge and innovation, and using modern technologies to achieve the required food security, through partnership between the public and private sectors. For his part, Mr. Alessandro Cataldo, Head of Transaction Strategy Implementation at EY-Parthenon Consulting Company, said that the conference is an appropriate opportunity to build a coalition that may help us in addressing multiple problems, most notably the food political crisis and the global food crisis (half a billion people suffer from food stress). ), in addition to exposure of food supply chains to many shocks, and deterioration of soil quality, especially in the least developed countries. He pointed out, during his intervention in the session, to the possibility of addressing many solutions aimed at reducing dependence on agricultural exports, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and converting imported crops into local crops, stressing the importance of these solutions being structured and designed specifically for this purpose. In a related context, Mrs. Hanan Morshed, Director of Sustainability at the OCP Group for Fertilizers, stressed the importance of the role of the private sector in accelerating the structural transformation of rural economies and local agro-food systems, by providing capital, technology and expertise, in a way that contributes to opening new markets for farm owners. Small and medium, providing job opportunities for local communities. She explained, during her intervention, that increasing investment is the best way to support the least developed countries, as well as their contribution to achieving their food security. For her part, Mrs. Rose Namayanga, Managing Director of Kandy Farms in Uganda, said: Small and medium enterprises look at risks more than they look at opportunities, and this is one of the biggest challenges facing least developed countries. She pointed out that a large percentage of the peoples of these countries work in agriculture, which means that most of them are small and medium-sized companies in this field, and therefore there is a missing link between financing on the one hand, and using this financing to enhance productivity and provide job opportunities on the other hand. In the same context, Mr. Sheikh Muhammad Bilal, Director General of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), explained that the demand for food is great compared to supply, pointing to the importance of supporting the least developed countries in the agricultural and food fields, by taking advantage of technological solutions in this framework. During his intervention in the session, he stressed the importance of bridging the gap in the value chains between the producer and the consumer, which is reflected in increasing the profits of farmers, especially in the least developed countries.
