Food security policies and measures are well developed, supplemented by applied agricultural research and a comprehensive crop insurance scheme
I wish, therefore, to congratulate all those dedicated international civil servants and national and other experts and consultants on the assiduous and valuable work they have done in the preparation of the Rio Conference and beyond
Based on our experience, we have no reservation in giving our full support to FAO’s efforts in integrating environment and sustainable development criteria in special field programmes and projects. Once again, our Organization leads the way in meeting one of the most important challenges of our generation, a challenge that involves a radical reorientation not only of our policies but of the ways of approaching the problems as well. On the way to Rio, my country participated at the den Bosch and Bridgetown Conferences and has fully appreciated the FAO’s initiatives to assist Member countries achieve sustainable agricultural and rural development. We can also attest to our Organization’s active involvement at Rio and are encouraged by FAO’s concrete plans for the road from Rio.
We face a formidable task especially if we consider that, as pointed out in the paper under discussion, the majority of Agenda 21’s programme areas are relevant to FAO’s programmes. In these efforts, I would like to assure you that we shall assist our Organization to promote the policy issues mentioned in the preparatory document.
The document calls for a multisectoral and integrated approach and it is imperative for it to cover the environment, economic, cultural, social, political, technology adaptation, settlement, manpower and international issues of sustainable agricultural and rural development. (more…)