COAG, 25th Session

FAO Committee on Agriculture, 26-30 September 2016, Rome, Italy

Making agricultural production more sustainable in the faceof climate change while achieving food and nutrition security for all will be a top theme at the biannual meeting of FAO’s Committee on Agriculture taking place on 26-30 September at the Organization’s Rome headquarters.

Senior representatives from government, the private sector and civil society will discuss challenges, share solutions and seek to build partnerships during the event, which will be held under the theme: Pathways to Sustainable Food and Agriculture.

A major topic is ensuring that actions to promote agriculture and livestock management are in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In particular, the Committee, which meets every two years, will provide inputs for the formulation of the FAO Corporate Climate Change Strategy. It will also examine FAO’s role in the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock, an initiative that recognizes the importance of this sector in food and nutrition security, poverty reduction, health and greenhouse gas emissions.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva will open the meeting on 26 September. Professor Joachim von Braun, the Director of the University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research, will deliver the keynote speech.

Ministers from several countries, including Bolivia, Cape Verde, Slovenia and Sri Lanka, are also scheduled to participate.

Several of the meeting’s priority themes will be the subject of dedicated side-events. Topics include supporting developing countries to apply genome sequencing in ways that benefit food safety, animal, plant and public health and help to reduce disease outbreaks while improving agriculture through effective plant and animal breeding.

The media are welcome to attend the five-day session. Please note that the opening on Monday, the afternoon session on agricultural innovation on Wednesday and several side events, will be webcast.