Meeting with His Excellency Lassine Dembele, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Mali

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

The Director-General thanked the Minister for the longstanding support of Mali to FAO, and reaffirmed that Mali can continue to rely on support in its efforts towards achieve its objective of ending hunger.

The Minister thanked the Director-General for the support provided to the country and praised the commitment demonstrated by the FAO Staff in Mali in the execution of their work on programmes that improve agrifood systems in Mali.

The Minister stated that the government was currently working on a National Development Plan to improve wheat, millet, sorghum and rice production, and requested FAO’s support to strengthen this work. He thanked the Director-General for the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, through which the country was increasing its vegetable production.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to continue to work together to improve agrifood systems in Mali and to provide technical support for the implementation of the National Development Plan.

The Director-General emphasized that diversification of agricultural products and reduction of food loss and waste were key to achieving zero hunger. He also encouraged Mali to work through a triangular cooperation with FAO and Morocco, as Morocco was currently leading in agrifood systems transformation.