COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2018
48
Conclusion
After examining the macro agricultural indicators, sectoral indicators and state of food security,
it is evident that agriculture is one of the prominent sectors in the OIC member countries. Even
though agricultural activity inmost OIC member countries has been slightly replaced by services
and industrial activity over time, the significance of agriculture sector on national economies is
still undeniable.
The value of agricultural production in the OIC member countries rose in the last decades due
to increases in production as well as higher prices. Furthermore, the share of OIC agricultural
production in the world agricultural production has an increasing trend. This achievement in
agriculture sector can be explained by noteworthy rate of both agricultural and economy-wide
growth in the OIC member countries that surpassed the world average during the period of
1994-2016.
Nonetheless, there still is an unused potential of agricultural sector in OIC member countries
that could be utilized to increase agricultural value added and to sustain the food security. The
need for productivity improvement in the most common, important and strategic crops such as
wheat, maize and cotton seed, which play a crucial role in the OIC production, consumption and
trade, is still valid. Moreover, millions of people in the Member Countries are facing
undernourishment. Recent data show that almost 200 million people are undernourished in the
OIC member countries. This accounts for 25 percent of the undernourished people in the World.
Furthermore, after examining the related indicators with respect to all dimensions of food
security such as availability, access, utilization and stability, it is clear that more efforts are still
needed to enhance the state of food security level in member states.
At the sub-regional and individual country level, agriculture sector in the OIC member countries
substantially differs. While there are countries with well performing agriculture sectors, many
countries face considerable structural challenges and problems in their agriculture sector
mainly arising from the agro-ecological conditions, lack of a modern agricultural infrastructure
and inefficient input utilization.
Notwithstanding the structural issues mentioned above, the OIC member countries have also a
great potential in agriculture especially for cross country investments. On the other hand, as the
global demand for quality food is increasing, along with efforts for increasing quantity, quality
related issues also need to be addressed adequately. Any efforts to reduce these productivity
and market efficiency gaps already appeared between OIC member countries and the rest of the
World in different terms at this Publication could serve as a leverage for both food and nutrition
security.
With careful planning based on detailed studies and required allocations at national level and
enhancing regional cooperation, experience sharing and mobilizing resources at international
level, the challenges mentioned throughout the Outlook can be addressed to a great extent. In
this framework, the COMCEC Project Funding which offers grants for capacity building and
experience sharing projects should be used efficiently.