Meeting with His Excellency Efa Muleta, State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Ethiopia

Rabat - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met today in Rabat with His Excellency Efa Muleta, State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Ethiopia, on the margins of the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC33).  

The Director-General welcomed the Minister and thanked him for the long-standing cooperation.

The state minister thanked the Director-General for FAO’s work in Ethiopia, especially through the Hand-in-Hand Initiative which was progressing well. He also appreciated the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative which was also proceeding well. He further requested increased support for the FAO 1000 Digital Villages Initiative, and other related rural development initiatives.

The Minister stated that Ethiopia is committed to agrifood systems transformation but needed the support of development partners for the modernization and digitalization of their agricultural products.

The Director-General expressed his satisfaction with the progress made in the country and the commitment demonstrated to continue to develop the country through the transformation of the agrifood system. He reaffirmed FAO’s ongoing support to Ethiopia for the modernization of its agriculture sector, and to continue working together with partners like World Bank and the African Development Bank for rural development.

On the issue of strengthening the agrifood system for export, he encouraged Ethiopia to explore cross cropping as that would assist them to scale up on the agricultural outputs. He also encouraged the government to decentralize policies to enhance agricultural production.