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- Insufficient veterinary services for animal husbandry and fisheries
- Insufficient financing instruments in agriculture
- Difficulties arising from different practices of land tenure system (i.e. women lack land
ownership, etc.) in some parts of the OIC region
- Insufficient extension services
- Lack of adequate institutional and human capacity
- Lack of women empowerment in agriculture sector in some parts of the OIC region
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
In light of the above-mentioned challenges and problems, AWG came up with a set of policy
recommendations:
1. Legal and regulatory framework
 Developing national strategies/plans based on robust and country-level data for
ensuring food system stability
 Harmonizing standards on agricultural products for enhancing agricultural trade
 Strengthen regulatory activities to ensure food can be certified in accordance with
global standards – spanning safety and religious certifications such as Halal – which is
essential to enabling exports
 Creating legal and regulatory frameworks that provide an enabling environment for
the FDIs and encourage the private sector to invest in more sustainable agri-business
operations.
 Developing legal infrastructure that promotes and allows member countries to use
non-conventional financing modalities especially Islamic finance.
2. Improving Agro-production and Agricultural Productivity
 Developing policies/programs/mechanisms to improve farmers’ timely access to
quality inputs (e.g. seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, animal feed and other key
ingredients) with a view to increasing quality, quantity and marketability of end
products,
 Improving and ensuring the safety and quality of food at all stages of the food chain
with constant monitoring
 Developing the storage infrastructure / equipment of regional reserves for food
products so as to meet the shortage of strategic and staple products and create
regional production industries of selected fertilizers and seeds (seeds banks) in
collaboration with the national and regional financial institutions of the OIC Countries
as well as with international financial institutions
 Launching programmes for reducing pre-harvest, processing and post-harvest losses
and food waste in the member countries through campaigns, technological
applications, cultural and social approach,etc.
 Enhancing cooperation and coordination in the whole food chain to reduce food
losses and waste
 Encouraging youth participation and women empowerment in agriculture sector
 Encouraging innovation and Research and Development in agriculture and improving
access to efficient extension services in agricultural activity and food production.