Syria: need for cooperation among countries to restore food security and invest resources

Amman, SANA- Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Mohamed Hassan Qatana, stressed that international cooperation and unity have become an urgent necessity today to face grave challenges in order to restore food security, invest resources, develop agricultural, food and trade systems, and adapt to climate change. 

Minister Qatana pointed out in a speech before the Regional Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization for the Near East and North Africa (FAO), held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that international and regional economic blocs and gatherings have become a feature of any economic activity that is intended to succeed in a rapidly changing world. 

Qatana added that the meeting between Arab countries during the conference is only a response to the challenges and a recognition of the importance of appropriate economic bloc and cooperation in the agricultural field. 

Qatana breifed participants on events in Syria over 12 years of terrorist war and its repercussions, and its damage to all agricultural, economic, and service sectors, and the subsequent Corona pandemic, international crises, climate change, global economic turmoil, the sanctions and the unjust siege imposed on the Syrian people.
The continued emergence of crises pushes us to follow individual, defensive economic policies to build self-sufficiency, through unsustainable use of the natural resources available in every country, in an alarming manner, reaching a point of no return in the loss of biodiversity and collapse of ecosystems, and the subsequent decline in agricultural systems and food production, which threatens levels of food security, Qatana said.