FAO attends Agriculture and Animal Resources Fair of Abidjan, SARA 2015
A sign of encouragement to invest more resources in agriculture
3 April 2015, Abidjan – As part of a 2 day-visit to Cote d’Ivoire, FAO Director-General Mr. Graziano da Silva attended the inauguration ceremony of third (3rd) edition of the Agriculture and Animal Resources Fair of Abidjan, SARA, 2015, at the invitation of Cote d’Ivoire’s Prime Minister, Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget, M. Daniel Kablan DUNCAN.
SARA had not taken place in the country for the past 15 years due to political instability.
The International Fair is a manifestation of the Ivoirians’ desire for peace and development to which partners like FAO have been associated. SARA is organized in Ivory Coast to create the platform for investors and exhibitors to share ideas and solicit technical support in the Agriculture sector.
“We are here to express and show support to this event because it symbolizes our commitment to building strong partnership with countries that drive initiatives to invest in Agriculture”, declared Mr. Graziano in a keynote speech on « Investing in poorest countries and family farming-A factor of success of African economies ».
“FAO supports policies that make sure people have access to enough high-quality food with the goal of achieving food security and eliminating hunger”.
Investing in Agriculture
Taking into consideration the enormous contribution of Family farming in the value chain effect on food security, FAO continues to provide the necessary support in engaging countries, especially the developing countries through conscientious efforts towards providing policies aimed at strengthening the output delivery- (agro-ecological conditions, access to market, access to land and natural resources).
The FAO visit was marked by the endorsement of two new development projects with the Minister of Agriculture, M. Coulibaly Sangafowa. A first one on “the sustainable intensification of agricultural products in degraded areas in Côte d’Ivoire”; it aims at contributing in a sustainable manner to poverty reduction and to the improvement of food security by increasing the productivity, the improvement of farmers’ incomes, and job creation for youths and women.
More specifically, the project envisages optimizing the potential of degraded areas by providing the sustainable utilization of resources such as inputs, soils and water.
The second project focuses on “Capabilities strengthening and experience sharing for sustainable development of the rice value chain in Africa through South-South Cooperation”, funded by the Government of the Republic of Korea. It aims at contributing to making the agricultural sector more modern and more profitable by strengthening national capabilities within recipient countries such as Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria to develop competitive rice value chains.
The previous Day, SARA organized a Panel discussion with high-level representatives of governments and world institutions on ‘Les Assises du SARA- Bilan du Programme National d’Investissement Agricole’ where the Director-General was represented by Mr. Bukar Tijani, his Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa.
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