H.E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, reaffirmed the country’s commitment to support joint Arab efforts to set up a strategic food reserve in response to the world food crisis. He emphasized the need to establish and implement Arab-wide mechanisms to achieve a level of agricultural integration necessary to maintain the required food stockpile.
H.E. Bin Fahad issued a statement in celebration of Arab Agricultural Day commemorated on September 27, 2014 under the theme “Strategic Arab Food reserve to Face World Food Crisis”.
The minister discussed how the current global food crises resulting from either natural factors such as desertification, drought, low rainfall or human elements such as political conflicts, armed disputes and growing populations, require strategic food stocking strategies from the Arab community. He urged countries within the region to intensify efforts to achieve this goal and reduce their dependence on imported foods in order to close the food gap which reached around USD 35 billion in 2012.
His Excellency pointed out that in spite of the significant disparity in the agricultural potentials of Arab countries, the Arab World as a whole is still abundantly rich in various types of plants, animals and fish. He noted that the region has about 71 million hectares of agricultural land and over 340 million livestock, and produces more than 4 million tonnes of fish annually.
However, H.E. said that these are not fully exploited as the Arab agricultural sector and other food security-related segments continue to face various challenges that need to be solved in order to establish a well-developed agricultural environment that can contribute effectively to Arab food security. Such an environment, H.E. explained, can further increase the contribution of agricultural industries to the national and regional GDP and help maintain the stability of food prices. This, he said, would ultimately reduce the levels of underemployment and improve the welfare of rural communities who rely mainly on agriculture and livestock.
The limited water resources and not utilizing the water resources efficiently are some of the key challenges facing the Arab agricultural sector. The Arab Water Security Strategy prepared by the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) states that, should the domestic population continue to grow, the Arab region will need around 550 billion cubic meters of water by 2025 to maintain food security. This is equivalent to more than twice the amount of currently available water, which stands at an estimated 257.5 billion cubic meters per annum.
Another major obstacle is the lack of investments into modern technologies, with many Arab countries still reliant on traditional agricultural methods incapable of optimizing the use of agricultural areas. For example, the average yield of cereal per hectare in the Arab World is 1.6 tonnes compared to the global average of 3.7 tonnes; this reaffirms the need to bridge the technological gap in order to enhance self-sufficiency through increased production.
Other major concerns include agricultural land degradation, misuse of fertilizers and pesticides, insufficient awareness and services provided to smallholder farms, lack of investments, and insufficient contributions of the private sector to the agricultural industries.
H.E. Dr. Bin Fahad further explained that the strategic stocking of food to address the world food crisis requires the immediate establishment of agricultural and food security policies aimed at achieving Arab integration. Such policies, he explained, should comply with principles guiding the integrated management of agricultural and water resource development, such as higher production inputs; enhanced potential of smallholder farms; improved awareness and technical guidance services; promotion of industry capabilities to handle climate changes; intensification of agricultural research; introduction of sustainable agricultural practices such as organic farming and soilless agriculture; and technology transfers to raise productivity in limited spaces.
The Minister added that policy development and/or reform should be directed towards the development of customized storage, transport and agricultural marketing as well as the increased competitiveness of Arab food products.
His Excellency also emphasized the need to involve the private sector more in attracting financial investments towards the development of Arab agriculture to better harness the industry’s great economic potential. He further underscored the need to introduce key policies to overcome impediments to the flow of investments into the industry, direct investments towards industry priorities, and enforce regulations and systems for creating a suitable investment environment that supports and protects funding for the agricultural sector.
The minister concluded by assuring the UAE’s continued support for regional and global food security. He called for better use of the UAE’s geo-strategic location and state-of-the-art logistics infrastructure in order to achieve the ultimate objective of establishing a strategic Arab food reserve.