Bilateral meeting with the Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina – H.E. Ms. Željka Cvijanović

New York – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met Her Excellency Željka Cvijanović, Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 23 March in New York on the sidelines of the UN 2023 Water Conference.

The Chair of the Presidency welcomed the meeting with the Director-General as an opportunity to enquire about FAO's vision and plans for agricultural development in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, in addition to discussing potential areas of collaboration with FAO at the juncture of food, agriculture and water. The Chair of the Presidency added that Bosnia and Herzegovina has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with FAO, highlighting in particular in the areas of agriculture, forestry and natural resources.

The Director-General recalled that most farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina are smallholders, and therefore pointed to the need to help them increase their productivity levels, as part of a wider national effort to transform agrifood systems. To this end, the Director-General highlighted the potential for Bosnia and Herzegovina to invest in key agrifood and livestock products in which it could have a competitive advantage, such as honey, in addition to lamb and wine, thereby becoming more competitive in the region and being able to access new markets. These efforts, the Director-General added, could be supported as part of FAO's One Country One Priority Product initiative, which works with countries to identify and invest in high-quality products and their national branding, to help create jobs, support livelihoods and revitalize rural and agricultural economies.

The Director-General added that investing in improved agricultural machinery and innovation, especially the adoption of digital technologies in agriculture, would greatly benefit smallholder farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Director-General also referred to FAO's 1,000 Digital Villages initiative, which was welcomed by the Chair of the Presidency given that the country is currently hosting two pilot villages as part of the initiative. The Chair of the Presidency expressed interest in having a stronger FAO presence in the country, including to help expand this and other initiatives that have great potential to be scaled up and replicated across the country.

The Chair of the Presidency also enquired about FAO's vision for countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina to be able to tackle water scarcity and use water more efficiently. The Director-General outlined the feasibility of working with water-saving crop and seed varieties, including millets. To this end, the Director-General referred to 2023 being the International Year of Millets, with FAO as the lead UN agency, noting that it provided an opportunity to raise awareness around these nutritious crops that can easily adapt to a current context of water scarcity.

Aquaculture was another sector that Bosnia and Herzegovina could pursue, said the Director-General, in its efforts to ensure cost-effective investments to ensure national food security, and the pair agree to work together to develop production capacities in the country’s fisheries and aquaculture sector.