D-8 Ministers Endorses KL Initiatives to Ensure Food Security

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | February 28, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

The D-8 Ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur endorsed the KL Initiative to ensure food security in the member countries

The D-8 Ministers meeting Friday endorsed the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to ensure food security in the member countries. The three-day meeting concluded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia also acknowledged the importance of food security to D-8 economies and reaffirm their commitment to enhance collaborative efforts to increase food production and ensure food security.

The meeting directed the D-8 Secretariat to assist coordination of actions identified in the Kuala Lumpur Initiative and to help convening of Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in agriculture within a year to monitor progress of the Kuala Lumpur Initiative.

The meeting hoped that the successful implementation of Kuala Lumpur Initiative will increase food production and strengthen food security in D-8 countries and the clear strategies identified under this initiative will facilitate international financial and funding institutions to finance the projects under this Initiative.

The meeting discussed the three priority areas - the production and supply of quality fertilizers, the production and supply of quality animal feed and the creation of seed banks to supply quality seeds.

In the first area of priority, the meeting agreed to encourage initiatives especially among the private sectors of D-8 countries to create joint ventures in the establishment of fertilizer plants and to make available supply of the fertilizers to all D-8 countries at competitive prices, establish joint research & technological collaboration in production and supply of fertilizers to manufacture customized organic and non-organic fertilizers, strengthen capacity building and promote closer collaboration to accelerate transfer and adoption of new technologies in production and crop improvement and harmonization of standards in the production of quality fertilizers, In the second area of priority, the meeting agreed to establish a D-8 corporation to carry out R&D activities of strategic commodities in D-8 member countries, create a centralized information sharing mechanism to facilitate systematic information collection and sharing, foster greater utilization of credit facilities for food production and supply provided by international financial and lending institutions such as Islamic Development Bank (IDB), facilitate trade through the harmonization of standards among D-8 countries based on international standards and  implementation of capacity building programmes through a centralized information centre and  encourage the utilization of non-food crops for bio-fuel production.

In the third area of priority, the meeting agreed to establish modalities for downstream seed production through the establishment of National Seed Banks and a D-8 Umbrella Seed Bank, create collaborative research and development programmes between private and public sector organizations and standardize and harmonize seed certification and quality enforcement procedures among D-8 countries.

Ministers and heads of the delegation also agreed that D-8 trade in fertilizers, animal feed and seeds will increase with implementation of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and its ratification by all D-8 Countries.

The meeting also acknowledged the importance of information gathering among D-8 countries and agreed on the establishment of a market information service system in D-8 countries be initiated on animal feed, seed banks and fertilizers.

Turkey and Iran have been appointed as the prime movers for the seed bank program; Malaysia and Indonesia for animal feed; Egypt for fertilizers; Iran and Turkey for standards and trade issues and Indonesia for marine and fisheries.

The D-8 Ministers agreed that it is important to address the issues of standards and trade issues separately as it encompass all the three subject matters.

The meeting also agreed to convene the first workshop within six months to discuss detailed implementation of priority areas and stressed upon the D-8 secretariat to coordinate such efforts.

The concluding session was attended by over 80 representatives from the official and private sectors from D-8 members countries including Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and host Malaysia.

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