Representatives of the Embassy attended three major events in the framework of the IGW, namely the GFFA Global Forum on Food and Agriculture, the German-African Agribusiness Forum and the reception given by the Federal Ministry of Cooperation and Development.
January 18 to January 19: “Shaping the Future of Livestock for Sustainable and Efficient Development”, is the theme of this Forum at the initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture BMEL, bringing together 70 international ministers, private experts who debated and discussed about the sector.
January 22nd: at the initiative of Afrika-Verein, Association for Africa of the German economy: “Opportunities and challenges along the value chain, from exploitation, transformation to distribution “. This conference brings together key policy makers, civil society, business and has helped to assess the main factors of the success in the agro-food industry field in Africa.
23 January: The reception given by the BMZ highlighted the Ministry’s willingness to support African countries in its development through fair and sustainable trade. The Chargé d’Affaires a.i was able to briefly discuss about Madagascar with the German Federal Minister for Cooperation and Development, Dr. Gerd Müller, who expressed his wish to visit Madagascar one day. The key points of these 3 events are numerous to name a few: 800 million people suffer from malnutrition, the need for animal production represents 85%, global consumers want more transparency in the source of their food, and are ready to pays more to eat healthy and good. At the producer level, they must sustainably and effectively meet the needs of the ever-increasing world population, while taking into account international challenges in terms of environmental protection. Cooperative (farmers, NGOs, etc.) is more than obvious to optimize yields and be more representative during negotiations (land, financing, capacity building, liberalization of domestic and international markets, etc.). Government support, the international standard, digitalization are all necessary parameters to ensure sustainable and accessible food supply.
Participation in such events makes it possible to establish contacts, to exchange, to understand the global agricultural environment that may be relevant to accompany Madagascar in its goal of food self-sufficiency, especially in rice by 2020. The “Good Meat” project from Madagascar in the south of the island aimed at raising cattle based on traceability and quality could in the future benefit from the export market like the case of Namibia and Botswana.