Brussels, 08/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 7 May, the Council adopted updated EU guidelines ahead of the meeting of the agriculture ministers of the G20, to be held in Istanbul on 7 and 8 May 2015.
The theme of the G20 meeting will be sustainable food systems and reducing food losses and waste, and will tackle issues such as: - investment for the sustainable increase in productivity; - promoting infrastructure in agriculture and for agriculture; - enhancing productivity and human capital in smallholder agriculture; - advancing efforts on reducing food losses and waste.
The ministerial meeting will conclude with the adoption of a political declaration, a 'communiqué of the ministers', which will address the subjects selected by the Turkish Presidency of the G20. This communiqué will refer to the ongoing discussions on the draft Implementation Plan for the Food Security and Nutrition Framework agreed in Brisbane in 2014 and will feed into the final statement of the G20 summit to be held in Antalya in November 2015.
For the EU, the objectives of this ministerial meeting can be summed up as follows: - reaffirming the political commitment for full use to be made of the instruments already created by the G20, in particular support for a deeper and stronger collaboration on the Agriculture Market Information System (AMIS); - focusing on reinforcing agricultural research and innovation. The G20 could explore possibilities of cooperation and networking to exchange good practices; - highlighting the importance of innovation in integrated water resource management, with a particular focus on designing irrigation systems that incorporate the best available knowledge; - promoting the creation of an enabling environment for responsible private investment in agriculture and underlining the critical role that responsible private agri-businesses play in boosting economic transformation in rural areas. The risk management mechanisms could also help smallholders to protect themselves against risks of serious market distortions or the impacts of climate change; - fine-tuning the focus on food losses and waste and the recommendation of setting up a platform, building on existing systems to pool information and good practices. The EU argues that the emphasis should be laid not only on food waste at manufacturing, retail and consumer levels, but also on reducing on-farm and post-harvest losses for farmers (as a way of increasing farm revenues, particularly for farmers in developing countries).
The EU calls upon the Turkish Presidency of the G20 to recognise the exhibition Expo Milano 2015, dedicated to the theme of Feeding the planet, energy for life, as an exceptional opportunity to stress the importance of food security and nutrition, share experiences in food losses and waste, raise public awareness, foster debate and give visibility to the G20 outcomes. (Lionel Changeur)