Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli emphasized that agriculture is a growing sector with its challenges and importance. "Ensuring sustainable agricultural production requires cooperation at a global level. I believe that the G20 Summit is one of the most important platforms in this sense. "Minister Pakdemirli attended the G20 Agriculture Ministers Summit held in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina.
Pakdemirli delivered a speech to the general assembly at the Agriculture Ministers' Meeting, which began with family photography at the San Martin Palace.
Pakdemirli, expressing the honour of addressing to such distinguished participants as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey, noted that the " I extend my gratitude to the Term Presidency of Argentina for this meeting organized in this beautiful city Buenos Aires. I wish that the decisions to be taken will give beneficial results to the global agricultural sector. "Minister Pakdemirli emphasized that agriculture is an ever-increasing sector with its challenges and importance." By 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion people, and therefore agricultural production must increase by almost 50%. "Urbanization, erosion, land degradation and climate change are the main factors that stress agricultural production. Today, 55% of the world's population live in urban areas and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050.
Achieving sustainable agricultural production requires cooperation at global level. I believe the G20 Summit is one of the most important platforms in this sense. "According to FAO, 815 million people, 11% of the world's population, are starving, Pakdemirli said that:
"As in the case of Syria, the problem of hunger is more prevalent in areas of conflict. People are forced to leave their countries due to civil war and conflict makes it difficult to provide food safety by preventing agricultural production. According to recent estimates, about 1.3 billion tons of edible food per year is lost or wasted, one-third of total human consumption worldwide. Minister Pakdemirli recalled that during the term presidency of Turkey in 2015 G20 leaders attracted attention to the subject, agreeing on to constitute a "Technical Platform for Assessment and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste and said: "The initiative in question is being supported by us for the activities in future. One of the most important steps taken in Turkey is the Bread Waste Prevention Campaign that can be shown as an example of good practice worldwide.1
Pakdemirli mentioned the national and international activities of Turkey aimed at combatting land degradation scale desertification for soil protection, expressed that "12. One of the most important decisions taken during of the 12th Parties Meeting of UNCCD held in Turkey in 2015 is related to Land Decay neutralization. Turkey, in cooperation with international organizations such as the UNCCD and FAO makes an important contribution to overcome the problem of land degradation."
Ministers Pakdemirli expressed "Turkey has increased the forest existence during the last 15 years to 1.5 million hectares. We aim at planting a sapling for every person living in the world and increasing our forest presence by 30% till 2023" and reminding that Turkey will be the hosting country of the World Day for Combating Drought and Drought on June 17, 2019 and invited the representatives of Member States to this program.
At the end of his speech, he expressed his belief that the meeting would have very beneficial results and outputs.
Minister Pakdemirli also held bilateral meetings. In this context, he met with his Italian counterpart Gian Marco Centinaio and his German counterpart, Julia Klöckner. The meetings focused on the development of bilateral agricultural cooperation and general agricultural issues.
Pakdemirli also held discussions with EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan and Buenos Aires Province Agriculture Minister Leonardo Sarquis.