Bilateral meeting with the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan – H.E. Mukhtar Babayev

New York – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met His Excellency Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in New York on 22 March 2023 on the sidelines of the UN 2023 Water Conference.

The Minister expressed appreciation to the Director-General for his message delivered during the “Transition to Digital Agriculture” international conference held in Azerbaijan in May 2022, and informed that Azerbaijan is fully committed to digitalizing and leveraging technological innovation in the agriculture sector. The Director-General agreed that digital innovations are key to transforming global agrifood systems.

The Minister also presented the challenges facing the fisheries sector in Azerbaijan, noting it is an important area for further collaboration with FAO. He also underscored the drivers and implications of deforestation and land degradation in his country, and in this respect commended FAO's ongoing reforestation programmes aimed at expanding forest land cover in the country.

Speaking to the fruitful collaboration between FAO and Azerbaijan, the Director-General discussed FAO's most recent work on agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, and land and water sectors, in Azerbaijan and other countries. Dr. Qu emphasized the potential in investing in and developing high-quality aquaculture products that can directly contribute to food security efforts in Azerbaijan and the region. He also spoke of the production of several agrifood products that can be made possible through enhanced irrigation systems. The Director-General further stated that he sees potential for the transformative future of food and agriculture in the country in view of Azerbaijan's high levels of digitalization.

The Director-General moved on to emphasize the importance of identifying synergies between other line ministries, ensuring that the water agenda is treated as a shared priority between agriculture, environment and water actors. This would help ensure a more strategic use of digital technologies to transform agrifood systems, with water monitoring, governance and sustainable use at the center of these efforts. The importance of working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture in designing irrigation plans for major staple food products was also discussed.

In closing, the Director-General highlighted recent FAO efforts and important platforms such as the World Food Forum and its pillars, including the Science and Innovation Forum and the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum, which together have added to the momentum in developing bold and actionable solutions for global agrifood systems transformations.