FG hosts 15 West Africa, Sahel countries over status of agri-food systems

THE Federal Government will today played host to fifteen countries from West Africa and Sahel sub-region at the 13th Multidisciplinary Team Meeting (MDT13) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for West Africa.

The meeting will among other things, deliberate on the food and nutrition situation in the area.

The 3-day meeting opening will be both virtual and physical, attracting the attendance of over 200 delegates from the ECOWAS member states including senior officials, ministers and commissioners of agriculture, FAO staff, regional technical organisations, civil society among others.

Under the theme: ‘Joining efforts to build resilient Agrifood Systems in West Africa and Sahel’, the countries will take stock of developments, achievements and challenges of the previous year, the alignment of national priorities with those of the sub-region and Africa Region at large and then plan for the emerging issues during 2022.

A statement from FAO said the MDT13 comes at a time when the West African and the Sahel societies are in the midst of rapid demographic and socioeconomic transformations, with population growth, urbanization, rising incomes, climate change and globalization acting as key drivers of change.

At the same time, West Africa’s agrifood system faces continuing challenges of a declining natural resource base, recurrent natural and human-caused disasters, climate change, and rising insecurity.

In his message during his meeting with FAO Nigeria delegation ahead of the meeting, the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who is the host on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, said that this was a great opportunity for the country and the region as a whole to deliberate on food security and nutrition issues facing them.