Meeting with H.E. Guismala Hamza, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Central African Republic

Rabat - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met today in Rabat with His Excellency Guismala Hamza, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Central African Republic, on the margins of the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC33).

The Director-General congratulated the Minister on his appointment and conveyed his appreciation of the long-standing relationship between the two. The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s support for agrifood system transformation in the Central African Republic.

The Minister thanked the Director-General and stated that as a landlocked country that is emerging from a long-protracted crisis, but with the advantage of large tracts of arable land, the Central African Republic wants to move away from conservative agricultural methods to develop small farmers, improve rural livelihoods and modernize agriculture to access international markets. He requested FAO’s assistance in this regard, including on research training and data collection to develop hydro technologies.

The Minister also expressed his appreciation for the FAO team on the ground in the country as they were working on a National Development Plan 2024-2028 to enhance production to not only improve agriculture, but to propel economic growth in the Central African Republic, particularly for smallholder farmers and rural livelihoods.

The Minister thanked the Director-General for Initiatives like the Hand-in-Hand and One Country One Priority Product (OCOP), among others, through which FAO has provided technical support working together with the government. He reiterated the need for assistance with early warning mechanisms to enable the government to deal with challenges before disaster strikes.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to providing support for the development and implementation of the National Development Plan, and emphasized the importance of partnerships with private sector to achieve the transformation needed.