Minister of Agriculture chairs technical committee meeting to address production issues

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Abu Bakr al-Bashri confirmed during the chairmanship of the first meeting of the Emergency Technical Committee to address economic production issues yesterday morning in the Ministry, that weak and late funding affects production and disrupts agriculture.

The State should place the highest priority on agriculture as a way out and the world was set to threaten food security, adding that agriculture’s first challenge was to raise production and stressing that the allocation of 770 million pounds covered 10% of improved seeds and was given to smallholder farmers.

On the other hand, the Minister of Industry, Engineer Batul Abbas, said that the most important challenges facing the Ministry of Industry were increasing fuel and electricity, the lack of foreign exchange, the introduction of imported goods and its competition for domestic production and finance.

Speakers from ministers in charge and representatives of ministries and employers’ union stressed the importance of placing the Ministry of Agriculture at the forefront, solving all its problems, formulating a budget that addresses various crises, focusing on supportive policies and facilitating trade finance.

It is worth mentioning that the Technical Committee for Addressing Production Issues was formed by a decision of the Transitional Council of nine Technical Committees (Decisions of the Supreme Committee for Economic Emergencies), comprising the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Industry, the representative of the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Government Office and the representative of the Employers’ Federation (Agricultural Chamber), Agricultural Research Authority and some relevant stakeholders to diagnose the current realities of production issues and develop insights for development while identifying challenges and recommendations and putting them into an operational matrix.