Bilateral meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Republic of the Congo - His Excellency Paul-Valentin Ngobo

Rome – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and His Excellency Paul-Valentin Ngobo, Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Republic of the Congo, met today on the sidelines of the 43rd Session of the FAO Conference.

The Minister congratulated the Director-General for his re-election for a second term as FAO Director-General. He also thanked the Director-General for the support received to achieve the Agricultural Strategy – a lead pillar of the National Development Plan 2022-2026. In this regard, he informed the Director-General of the successful launching of 20 Protected Agricultural Areas (ZAPs) across Congo, with activities covering agriculture, livestock, small-scale aquaculture and agroforestry, and producers including youth, women and indigenous peoples. The key outcome of the programme is to improve production capacity, engage youth in the sector and improve the countries food security.

The Director-General assured the Minister of FAO’s continued support and commended the Minister on the strategic approach adopted to address agrifood systems transformation. He also highlighted the importance of supporting smallholder farmers through increased investments, which in turn would also increase production. The Director General noted the importance of this specifically with regard to cassava under the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative.

Finally, the Minister and the Director-General also reiterated the critical role of science, innovation and technology as levers for agrifood systems transformation.