The event came on the same day as the EU-Africa Ministerial with Commissioner Hogan, FAO Director General Graziano da Silva. It came in a bid to boost rural development and to promote cooperation and exchange of knowledge between farmers’ organisations to enable this.
Speaking at the high-level event, Jean-Francois Isambert, President of Agricord said “Faced with less land and limited resource combined with a rise in population growth, farmers across the world will need to increase production. We therefore need dialogue and cooperation between farmers organisations to facilitate this. Investment in infrastructures alone is not enough for these countries to reach their full production potential. What we need is to increase investment in skills and training. We need to encourage farmers to join producer organisations like cooperatives to help them to add value to their produce, market it and get a better return for it and link them collectively to value chains actors and integrate them in these value chains. This will help to transform rural areas that are lagging behind and feed towns and cities with high quality products. Agricord - an international alliance of 12 agri-agencies acting in 52 countries and puts in contact 200 farmers associations – can play a strong role in this”.
Mr Scanavino, President of the Italian Agricultural Confederation (CIA) and member of Copa and Cogeca said “For both the EU and Africa alike, the key role that the agriculture sector plays for society is the same. It is about securing safe food supplies, jobs, and dynamic rural areas. Agriculture is part of the solution in tackling upcoming challenges like climate change and migration. We favour direct dialogue between farmers and encourage them to organise themselves by joining cooperatives to ensure a regular income”.
