China attends the sixth meeting of BRICS ministers of agriculture and agrarian development

 

The Vice Minister pointed out that BRICS members are all major agricultural countries with significant influence on global agricultural development. BRICS summit mechanism has created an enabling political environment for BRICS agricultural cooperation. He put forward the following suggestions for BRICS agricultural cooperation:

 

First, close communication, coordination and collaboration among BRICS countries on global agricultural issues of common interests under the framework of UN food and agricultural agencies and G20, etc. Second, strengthening cooperation between agricultural research institutions of BRICS countries to promote research and application of new agricultural technologies. Third, capitalizing complementarity by intensifying agricultural trade and investment among BRICS countries. Fourth, creating agricultural information and digital agriculture platform to encourage the application of ICT and Internet in the field of agriculture for information exchange and sharing.

 

On the sidelines of the meeting, Vice Minister Qu held bilateral meetings with Indian Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Blairo Maggi, and FAO Assistant Director-General & Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific Kundhavi Kadiresan, respectively. After the meeting, Vice Minister Qu visited the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and local agricultural enterprises.

 

Since the first meeting of BRIC Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development, extensive exchanges and cooperation have been conducted among BRICS countries covering basic agricultural information exchanges, food security, climate change adaptation in agriculture, agricultrual technology and innovation, agricultural trade and investment promotion, etc. The sixth meeting adopted a Joint Declaration, reflecting the consensus among BRICS countries on promoting sustainable agricultural development, application of ICT in the field of agriculture, and development of smallholder agriculture, among others.