DUBAI, 5th July, 2017 (WAM) -- A UAE delegation, headed by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, is taking part in the FAO Conference 40th Session, attended by Saqr Nasser Al Raisi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Italy and UAE Permanent Representative to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO.

The 40th Session of the FAO Conference, the organisation's highest governing body where sessions are held every two years, will run until 8th July. The purpose of the Conference is to convene the Member Nations at FAO headquarters in Rome to review and vote on the Director-General's proposed programme of work and budget.

At the 40th Session, participants will discuss a number of pressing issues including how to turn commitment into action to achieve the Global Goal of Zero Hunger, water scarcity, food security and a changing climate in the Near East and North Africa, sustainable solutions to prevent famine in conflict-affected countries, an action plan on food security and nutrition for Small Island Developing States, and the role of rural development in mitigating pressures that drive migration.

Addressing the plenary session of the conference, Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi said that climate change and its extreme impacts constitute the most important challenge facing agriculture and food production around the world.

He explained that while the world needs to increase agricultural production to meet the rising demand for food due to population growth, we are also required to reduce emissions from the food production sector, which accounts for 21 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions, in order to achieve the goal of keeping the temperature below two degrees Celsius as compared to the pre-industrial era in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Dr. Al Zeyoudi added that despite the environmental conditions and constraints, such as limited agricultural land, lack of soil, scarcity of irrigation water and harsh climate, faced by agriculture and food production in the UAE, the country has succeeded in establishing a remarkable agricultural progress based on increasing cultivated large areas of land and supplying water and production requirements.

To face the pressures and challenges, the Minister indicated that the UAE has adopted a set of policies and measures aimed at sustaining the food production sector, and taking into consideration the reciprocated relationship and effects between agriculture and other related sectors, particularly energy and water.

Dr. Al Zeyoudi elaborated that the UAE has adopted a plan to increase clean energy contribution into the national energy mix to 50 percent by 2050, maintain groundwater reserves as the main source of renewable freshwater, and improve the levels of recharging groundwater by establishing more dams and water fills, which stand currently at 145 dams with a capacity to hold more than 130 million cubic metres of water, in addition to developing the technologies and techniques of rain enhancement and providing non-conventional water sources such as desalination and wastewater treatment, which currently account for 56 percent of the country's water supply.

The minister explained that the UAE has adopted flexible and climate-friendly agricultural practices, such as protected, organic and hydroponic agriculture. The area of hydroponics increased by 124 percent during the period 2013-2016, while organic agriculture increased by more than 368 percent during the same period.

Al Zeyoudi said that the country has deployed the use of modern and intelligent irrigation methods in more than 90% of UAE farms, depended more on plants and crops that could adapt to climate and quality of soil and water, as well as building the capacity of workers in agriculture and adopting best practices in this field.

He also highlighted a number of initiatives and projects that the UAE is working on, such as the Integrated Water and Aquaculture System Initiative, the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium and the Strategic Tunnel Project in Abu Dhabi.

At the end of his speech, the minister extended an invitation to the delegations to participate in the second session of the Climate Change and Food Security Forum, to be held on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in February 2018 in Dubai.

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