The Ministry of Environment and Water sponsored the celebration held by the sub-regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States and Yemen in Abu Dhabi, on the occasion of World Food Day, which is held this year under the slogan "Cooperative Societies Feed the world”.
Government sectors, members of the diplomatic corps, national and regional development funds, the private sector, cooperative societies, large-scale farmers, and the media have been invited to participate in this celebration.
The sponsor of the event, Dr. Rashid Ahmad bin Fahad, the Minister of Environment and Water, gave a speech on this occasion in which he said:
"The world celebrates today the World Food Day under the theme" Cooperative Societies Feed the World" in order to highlight the role played by cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the fight against hunger, poverty and malnutrition, in a time of growing number of hungry people as a result of many factors and crises that led to the increasing attention of cooperative associations as one of the important sources to provide food for a large segment of the world's population. This attention of cooperatives reflects as well as the resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations to name the year 2012 as the "International Year of Cooperatives".
His Excellency added: "We recognize that achieving food security both at the global or national level is not easy, and there are many obstacles and challenges that could prevent such achievement in the United Arab Emirates, and perhaps the harsh climate, lack of water resources, the nature of the soil, underinvestment in the agricultural sector by the private sector, employment of modern technologies in agriculture and climate change are the major challenges that we face in this area. Our wise leadership, led by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan – the President of the State (may Allah protects him), and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and the Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai (may Allah protects him) and Their Highnesses Members of the Supreme Council of the Federation - Rulers of the Emirates are working on providing support for all efforts in order to achieve food security in the country, and develop appropriate solutions to overcome all the obstacles and challenges that could prevent the achievement of this goal. "
The Minister said: " in spite of the efforts made by the world to improve the food security situation in the past years, several factors such as low productivity of agricultural land, and increasing numbers of the population, especially in the areas most affected by food insecurity, water scarcity, and the low level of investment in research and development of agricultural, represent significant challenges facing the populations most in need of food globally. Reports indicate that the number of people living in extreme poverty has risen to 103 billion people, and about 900 million suffer from malnutrition. This is in addition to the one billion people suffer from the so-called hidden hunger, a lack of vitamins and minerals, which requires us to help the poor in the world to get food and support their efforts to escape from the poverty trap forever. However, the global ecosystem and biodiversity are suffering from severe pressure due to over-exploitation, land degradation and the effects of climate change. The world faces the challenge of increasing food by about 60% by 2050 and at the same time the management of natural resources so as to ensure the availability of food for future generations. And this is achievable. We can reach the goal of getting rid of poverty and achieve sustainable food production if there is a will among decision makers. It is a common challenge includes action plans of governments, the private sector, the producers and consumers of food, and strengthening civil society partnership. one out of every seven people is suffering from lack of nutrition but the world has the means to eradicate hunger and provide sustainable development."
The Minister pointed in his speech that there is considerable agreement on that minor stakeholders will provide a lot of extra food needed to feed more than 9 billion by 2050. Among the steps needed to achieve food security is to support cooperatives, other rural institutions and investment.
Hence, this highlights the role of cooperative societies in achieving the goals set by the leaders and heads of state participating in the World Summit on Food in 1996, especially the goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by half by 2015, through the food production, processing, marketing and even buying food. Estimates indicate that today there are one billion people in the world who are members of cooperatives of different kinds.
The cooperative societies are development institutions that contribute to the achievement of economic and social development of the countries, they are also the institutions to collect agricultural and social capacity, direct support for national economies, and to achieve sustainable development for all sectors of society. Cooperative societies are working to achieve a lot of benefits such as: provision of agricultural inputs, various agricultural machinery and services, the positive impact of this support of agricultural production areas of the work of associations, development of ancient agricultural methods to modern methods , and contribute to the stability of food prices especially in areas established by such associations, as well as the training of citizens for various work opportunities in the field of administrative and marketing related to the agricultural sector.
Cooperative societies contribute to the diversity of agricultural projects such as productivity projects for crops, vegetables, fodder, poultry and cattle farms, as well as improved crop varieties and modernization of irrigation methods. This is what happened in the United Arab Emirates supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water despite the difficulty of weather conditions, so we got to the abundance in the production of some crops, such as dates.
The Minister said that on the basis of the importance of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, the Ministry of Environment and Water has encouraged the declaration of Ras Al Khaimah Farmers Association as the first cooperative agricultural association in the country in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Law of Cooperative Agricultural Associations. Furthermore the continued support and cooperation with fishermen associations in different emirates that are 13 associations in total, and to ensure the continuity of the work of this important class of society, and the continuation of its important role in fishing, which is considered one of the important food requirements in the country.
Finally the Minister thanked the sub-regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Abu Dhabi for organizing this event and for raising awareness of the importance of cooperative societies where all these efforts contribute to improving the social and economic conditions of farmers and thereby increase food production and contributing to food security.