Asia-Pacific Regional Launch Event of the Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products: One Country One Priority Product (OCOP)", on 10 May 2022 at 10.00-12.00 hours (GMT +7)
Join in FAO for the Asia-Pacific Regional Launch Event of the Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products (SAPs): “One Country One Priority Product” (OCOP).
Agricultural production systems encompassing crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry production, play an essential role in meeting the increasing demands for food, feed, fiber and fuel, which are closely linked to the rapid global population growth and substantially contribute to various UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 2, aiming to eliminate hunger.
Achieving productivity increases and healthy diets, while enhancing the livelihoods of the world’s small- scale agricultural producers and other agri-food actors under a continuously changing climate and environment, are global challenges. However, agricultural production systems still lack integration, optimization, diversification and innovation, while relying on the intensive use of agricultural inputs and natural resources. Today, global food supplies increasingly rely on just a few crops and food products. Moreover, the yield potential of traditional major food crops (rice, maize and wheat) is limited, with an annual increase of about 1 percent while a nutrition gap still exists due to the insufficient supply of nutrient-rich foods.
Special Agricultural Products (SAPs) are the agricultural products with unique qualities and special characteristics associated with geographical locations and cultural heritages. They are an important example of underutilized resources that can significantly contribute to ensuring food security and healthy diets, supporting farmers’ livelihoods and economic growth while protecting the environment and biodiversity. SAPs include all kinds of agricultural products, recognized (or having the potential to be recognized) as symbolic national or local agricultural products, but have not benefited from local agricultural and rural development programmes to the extent of commonly grown staple crops (e.g. rice, wheat, maize, soybean and potato). SAPs have huge potential to be integrated into local, regional, and global markets and trade. Development of SAPs can help address the challenges mentioned above, including natural resource constraints, environmental pollution, ecological degradation, and climate change.
The OCOP was launched by FAO Director-General in September 2021. As a corporate initiative, the OCOP is developed to support FAO Members to transform agri-food systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable through the green development of the special agro-products (SAPs). By promoting inclusive, profitable, and environmentally sustainable food systems through the green production, storage, processing, and marketing, the OCOP is intended to address five major global challenges, including (1) increasing productivity and ensuring healthy diets, (2) reducing food loss and waste, and protecting biodiversity, (3) saving water and optimizing land uses, (4) minimizing agricultural chemical inputs, and (5) mitigating and adapting to climate change. OCOP is a country-owned and country-led initiative which is inclusive to all FAO Members.
Against this background, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) has organized the Regional OCOP Launch on 10 May 2022. OCOP opens to all Member States to join. Governments has leadership and ownership on OCOP. OCOP is country inclusive, product inclusive, food system inclusive and stakeholder inclusive.
Objectives of Regional Launch Event:
- Officially launch the Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products: “One Country One Priority Product” (OCOP) in the region of Asia and the Pacific.
- Engage with FAO Members and partners in the region to cooperate and implement the Global Action.
- Engage a wide group of diverse stakeholders to participate actively in the implementation of the Global Action.
Contact: Xuan Li, Senior Policy Officer and OCOP Regional Lead, FAO RAP ([email protected])
Agenda (to update table below)
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Opening remarks by Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General, FAO
Presentation by Mr. Jingyuan Xia: Key Components on Global Action Plan on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products
Presentation by Ms Xuan Li: Regional Organization Plan on Implementation of OCOP in Asia and the Pacific
Presentation by Prof. Siddique: Diversified Food System to Enhance Food Security and Nutrition in the Asia Pacific Region
Presentation by Ms Shamsunnahar: Bangladesh
Background on OCOP