QATAR WINS PRESIDENCY OF ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION FOR FOOD SECURITY

QATAR WINS PRESIDENCY OF ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION FOR FOOD SECURITY
17 October 2022
‘The Peninsula’ published an article about the outcomes of 5th IOFS General Assembly, that announced the State of Qatar as a Chair of the Executive Board, for a period of three years.

Minister of Municipality HE Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie noted that Qatar’s election is an outcome of  policies implemented by Qatar towards the Islamic world, as well as support of IOFS member countries. State official also highlighted that Qatar’s election for a three years term will offer an opportunity to contribute to enhance food security state in Islamic countries. Particularly, tackling with recurring food crises demands coordinated joint efforts among countries.

Director of the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality Dr. Masoud Jarallah Al-Marri noted about country’s self-sufficiency in agricultural products, including local vegetables provision increased from 20 percent in 2017 to about 46 percent in 2022, reaching 130 percent growth. Self-sufficiency rate of dates was grown from 70 percent in 2017 to about 78 percent in 2021, with 11 percent growth, and green fodder from 32 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2022, with an increase of about 22 percent. Self-sufficiency in animal products have improved too, with increased volume of dairy products from 28 percent in 2017 to 100 percent in 2022, quadrupling the rate in the last five years. Incraese in production of local fresh broiler chickens has grown from 50 percent in 2017 to 100 percent in 2022, eggs from 14 percent in 2017 to 36 percent in 2022, with an increase of more than 157 percent. Red meat production has also improvements from 13 percent in 2017, to about 18 percent, with an increase of about 38 percent. Further goal of the food security strategy seeks to stabilize the self-sufficiency rate of dairy and fresh broiler chickens at 100 percent of local commodities, and raise the self-sufficiency rate for table eggs to 70 percent and red meat to 30 percent by 2023.

The fishery sector has also achievements marked by the successful operation of the Aquaculture and Fish Farming Research Center, including production of millions of fish of all kinds.

The country focuses on the importance of food security through production of sufficient strategic stock of storable food commodities, and diversifying  import sources to effectively handle crises and emergency situations. Qatar’s National Food Security Strategy (2018-2023) developed on the four main pillars such as local self-sufficiency, strategic reserves, international trade, and local markets with the aim to achieve three basic elements: availability, cost, quality, and safety.

The Islamic Organization for Food Security is a specialized institution affiliated with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), established in 2013, and aims to provide expertise and technical knowledge to member states in various aspects of sustainable agriculture, rural development, food security, and biotechnology, and to monitor the food security situation in member states to enable them to identify emergencies, provide social safety nets and humanitarian aid through food security reserves, coordination, formulation and implementation of common agricultural policies such as exchange and transfer of appropriate technology and public food management systems, address problems such as desertification, deforestation, erosion and salinity, mobilization and management of financial and agricultural resources to enhance food security.

The Organization's executive council consists of 7 members, including the president. The current council includes Qatar, (Chair) and the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Cameroon, and the Gambia as members.