Preface

COMCEC Strategy adopted during the 4th Extraordinary Islamic Summit held in Makkah Al-

Mukarramah on 14-15 August 2012, envisages Working Group Meetings as one of the

instruments for its implementation. Through the Working Groups, experts from the member

countries get the chance of elaborating the issues thoroughly in the respective cooperation areas

and sharing their good practices, views and experiences. The Working Groups are established

for each cooperation area defined by the Strategy, namely Trade, Transport and Communication,

Tourism, Agriculture, PovertyAlleviation, and Finance.

The COMCEC Outlooks are prepared in each cooperation area of the Strategy with a view to

exploring the global trends and current situation in the COMCEC in the respective a reas and to

enrich discussions during the Working Groups Meetings by providing up-to-date data and

analysis.

This COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2019 is revised and updated by Prof. Dr. Hami Alpas (Food

Engineering Dept., METU, Ankara-Turkey)Consultant for the AgricultureWorking Group to the

COMCEC Coordination Office and Dr. Filiz Yeni (Food Engineering Dept., METU, Ankara-

Turkey) with the objective of providing general information on the status of the agricultural

sector in the Member States. It aims to be a frequently referred handbook for decision makers

and other users; to identify the relationships between agriculture sector and other sectors; to

be a source for monitoring and evaluation of current agricultural policies and to assist in

formulation of better policies in the Member Countries by combining various data and

statistics published or compiled by different institutions. This document also dwells on the

major issues with regards to agricultural sector development and provides comparisons for

different country groupings to expose the situation in the Member States and thus the

cooperation potential.

Views and opinions expressed in the report are solely those of the authors and donot represent

the official views of the COMCEC Coordination Office or the Member States of the Organization

of Islamic Cooperation. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this

publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the

COMCEC/CCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its

authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its political regime or frontiers or boundaries.

Designations such as “developed,” “industrialized” and “developing” are intended for statistical

convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the state reached by a particular

country or area in the development process. Themention of firmnames or commercial products

does not imply endorsement by COMCEC and/or CCO. Excerpts from the report can be made as

long as proper references are given. All intellectual and industrial property rights for the report

belong to the COMCEC Coordination Office. This report is for individual use and not be used for

commercial purposes. Except for purposes of individual use, this report shall not be reproduced

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, CD

recording, or by any physical or electronic reproduction system, or translated and provided to

the access of any subscriber through electronic means for commercial purposes without the

permission of the COMCEC Coordination Office.