Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli indicated that we have the opportunity to attract the attention of the member countries to these issues by bringing our case studies to the agenda of the summit such as the conflicts in countries like Syria, which makes access to food difficult and the measures we take against food waste and desertification with our participation in the of the G20 Agriculture Ministers' Summit in Argentina as Turkey.
The G20 Agriculture Ministers' Summit held in the capital of Argentina that is Buenos Aires ended with programs at the end of the third day.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli, PhD, who attended the Summit on behalf of Turkey, continued to bilateral talks at the time while he attended the summit programs on the last day of the program.
Minister Pakdemirli attended the opening ceremony of the 142nd International Livestock Agriculture and Industry Fair on the last day. Minister Pakdemirli and Guest Ministers visited and examined the stands.
Closing dinner of the Summit has been taken place by going to San Martin Palace that is the place of the meeting later on.
Pakdemirli who sustains bilateral contacts within the frame of Summit met with his Spanish counterpart.
"Countries are in conflict like Syria, have difficulties accessing food''
Minister Pakdemirli who explains the ended Summit, said that ''G20 countries is of course important for its concept'' by clarifying the main theme of the G20 meeting is sustainable agriculture and combating against desertification. Because the 85% of global domestic, 75% of global trade volume and 80% of agricultural product trade actualized in these countries.
Approximately 65% of the world population and 60% of the world agricultural land are in these countries. We especially emphasised the food assurance as Turkey in the meetings. Yet the World's population will be 9.7 billion in 2050. In order to feed this population, the agricultural productions should be increased up to 50%. Now, 55% of the World's population is living in urban cities. However, the rate of the people who live in urban cities will be increased to 70% until 2050. In fact, hunger is an important issue for our world. Even today, 11% of the world's population, I mean, 815 million people face with hunger. We emphasised this issues at the Summit. Also he said that, "we clearly stated the access to food for people in the countries where civil war is taking place like Syria is harder the situation is more critical, because agricultural activities is decreasing the countries under civil war."
"We add important topics to agenda of the Summit''
Minister Pakdemirli said that "today one-third of the food produced for human is wasted every year in the world by expressing another important issue which is food waste as Turkey mentioned. The main theme of G20 meeting held in our country in 2015 was about food waste. He said "we clearly stated this subject at both our bilateral discussions and speech in this meeting once again.''
Minister Pakdemirli restated that, Turkey has underlined sample works about not only for food waste but also combating against desertification said that we expressed Campaign for Preventing Bread Waste which is shown as sample project and run by Ministry. Besides we emphasised the subject about 'soil' in this year's Summit. We expressed what we did about desertification. These works of us are the good examples we did for Turkey.
For example, we tried to take attention to the fact that we have increased our forest area by 1.5 million hectare in 15 years by afforestation works. By 2023, our disputed aim is to plant a sapling for every human being worldwide. With this aim, our estimated forest area will be increased by 30%. By expressing all these works, we stated that we expect other countries to do so. Thus with our participation as Turkey for both the countries suffer from food access like Syria and by bringing the samples such as the preventions we perform like food waste and desertification to the Summit agenda, we had a chance to attract other countries' attention about this issue.
"We discussed potential for agricultural cooperation during our bilateral discussions"
Pakdemirli who states beneficial bilateral discussions taken place at the Summit said that ''we have done truthful discussions. Most of the Ministers joined to the Summit were just appointed Ministers. In addition to small discussions, we held private discussions with Ministers from Italy, Germany, Canada, Argentina and Netherlands, with EU Agriculture Commissioner, OECD and FAO representatives. We particularly discussed the issues of increasing agricultural trade volume and technological development of agricultural relations in bilateral discussions between countries. In addition to this, we held a consultation on areas of cooperation that can be done in agriculture.
Pakdemirli invited all Ministers and Representatives to World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought which will be held June 17, 2019 in Turkey.
"There are important duties for our Trade Consultants"
Minister Pakdemirli stated that ''although the Latin American countries are geographically distant, the transport prices are cheaper here because of the slowing of the World Economy'' so we need to follow the opportunities which will arise in the commodity from time to time. These markets are no longer distant markets to Turkey. For that, I desire our entrepreneurs to come here more often. There are important duties for our trade consultants in here too. We will give any kinds of support to the countries in this region, especially on the commodities as a Ministry. Also he said that we will support our efforts to increase exports of agricultural products to these countries."
The Meeting in 2019 will be held in Japan
Turkey, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdoms, USA and EU Ministers and Representatives of the invited countries and organizations, participated to the Meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers which will be held in Argentina.
The subject of this year's Meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers which is determined as 'soil' was taken first of all Presidency in France in 2011 and then taken to the G20 agenda in 2015 in Turkey, China in 2016, and in Germany in 2017. The meeting in 2019 will be held in Japan.