The consultation is officially opened by H.E. Mr. Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Viet Nam; Dr. Hans Hoogeveen, Vice Minister for Agriculture, The Netherlands; Dr. Shadrack Moephuli, President and CEO Agriculture Research Council, South-Africa; Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; Dr. Harry Palmier, Senior Partnerships Adviser, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR); Mr. Tomoyuki Kimura - Country Director- Asian Development Bank- Vietnam Resident Mission and Mr. Leo Sebastian, CCAFS, Regional Program Leader for Southeast Asia. Over 100 participants including representatives from governments, private sector, scientific institutes, farmers organizations and unions, foundations, civil society and international organizations will attend the consultative meeting for Asia Pacific region.
H.E. Dr. Cao Duc Phat expressed his support to the global alliance of CSA at the opening remarks that the establishment of the CSA alliance is a crucial initiative to assist developing countries like Viet Nam to achieve their multiple objectives of development, agriculture, and environment. "Viet Nam actively joined hands with international communities to apply the CSA practices and shared an important conception that CSA is a "triple win" for agriculture, climate, and food security."
The Consultative meeting provides an opportunity to stakeholders of the Asia Pacific region to discuss complex and interlinked challenges that require major shifts in agriculture and rural development in the region. Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma emphasized the timely importance of the meeting in the opening speech that “This conference gives Asia a unique opportunity to identify common needs and objectives and create coordinated actions as has been done in other continents”.
The role of private sector and private investment can be much strengthened in mainstreaming Climate Smart Agriculture. In the opening speech, Dr. Hans Hoogeveen stressed that “Investing in agriculture is the most effective way of reducing poverty and hunger. Strengthening the enabling environment for agriculture will be the key to support such investments”.
The key messages and conclusions of this meeting will be input into the Global Consultative Meeting in Hague in the next month, and the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture will be launched in New York at the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September 2014.
The launch of the Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (ACSA) is expected to be the first major step towards a set of enhanced and coordinated global actions for Climate Smart Agriculture, as Dr. Harry Palmier mentioned in the opening speech, “The launching of the ACSA next September is not the objective, but will be only a major step forward towards an Action-oriented, inclusive and effective ACSA entrusted to develop a responsive Action plan for Climate Smart Agriculture composed of coherent initiatives at national, regional and international levels”.
Source: http://www.un.org.vn
