Discussing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition in Africa is the purpose of the meeting of Agriculture Ministers this Thursday, which will be held virtually.
The online meeting was jointly convened by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and the Chairperson of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment and South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, Angela Thoko Didiza.
The meeting, from which a final declaration is expected to be signed, will be moderated by the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko.
The agenda also includes a technical presentation on the global vision of Covid-19 by FAO economist Maximo Torero, in addition to concluding remarks by QU Dongyu and Thoko Didiza.
In a recent article, the FAO Director-General warned about the consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable and what to do to address them.
He later recalled that in Africa during the Ebola crisis, food production plummeted by 12 percent.
Now more than ever, we need international cooperation and flexible arrangements to preserve the fluidity of global food markets, he stressed.
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