Read-out of the FAO Director-General’s meeting with Oumer Hussein, Minister for Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Rome - FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, today met with Oumer Hussein, Minister for Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

The Director-General and the Minister met at the sidelines of the World Food Forum (WFF) being held at FAO’s headquarters in Rome (17-21 October 20022). 

The Minister of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia expressed his appreciation for the close collaboration with FAO. He underlined the importance of digitalization, science and innovation and technical assistance to achieve agrifood systems transformation, noting that these topics amongst many others were being discussed at the WFF.  He proceeded to share with the Director-General the vision of the Prime Minister to bring together smallholder farmers and producers to discuss these issues at Ethiopia's National Programme on Agrifood Systems Transformation in December 2022.

The Director-General congratulated the Minister for the work being carried out. He reiterated the important need to support smallholder farmers to move from transitional agriculture to market agriculture. The Director-General also noted the need to also have a structured urbanization plan for sustainable cities. In addition to this, the Director-General underlined the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to provide accessibility to markets in order to achieve sustainable agrifood systems transformation. 

The two agreed to a continued strong collaborative cooperation, with the ensuing technical support from FAO to the Government.