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COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2019
5. Agricultural Cooperation under the COMCEC
Agriculture is one of the most important cooperation areas of the COMCEC. It has been
prioritized by the COMCEC Economic Summit held in November 2009 in İstanbul. The COMCEC
Strategy, adopted by the 4th Extraordinary Islamic Summit held on 14 -15 August 2012 in
Makkah, has also determined agriculture as one of the six cooperation areas of the COMCEC.
The COMCEC Strategy sets the “Increasing the productivity of agricultural sector and sustaining
food security in the OICMember Countries” as its strategic objective. The COMCEC Strategy also
highlights the common challenges of the agriculture sector in the OICmember countries, among
others, as the following:
 Low level of agricultural productivity,
 Lack of appropriate legal and regulatory framework,
 Low agro-industry investments,
 Poor basic infrastructure and related services
 Low level of agricultural mechanization,
 Low level of research and development activities,
 Lack of reliable and up-to-date data
In order to address these challenges, the COMCEC Strategy, in its Agriculture Section, identifies
four Output Areas (Increasing Productivity, Regulatory Frameworkand Institutional Capacity,
Reliable and Up-to-date Data and Market Performance) as well as specific expected outcomes
under them.
With the purpose of realizing the objectives and the expected outcomes of the cooperation areas,
Working Groups (WG) have been formed under each cooperation area. The COMCEC Agriculture
Working Group (AWG) has been established to achieve the objectives of the COMCEC Strategy
in this context. Within the framework of the Strategy, the COMCEC AgricultureWorking Group
provides a regular platform for the member country experts to discuss their common issues,
concerns and problems as well as to share experiences and good practices. Moreover, the AWG
serves in developing a common understanding and approximating policies among the member
countries in this crucial sector.
In this respect, the 1st meeting of the AWG was held in June 2013with the theme of “Increasing
Agricultural Productivity in the OICMemberCountries: Improving Irrigation Capacity”. The 2nd
meeting was held in December 2013with thethemeof "Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments
(FDIs) in the OICMember Countries for Increasing Agricultural Productivity." Furthermore, the
3rdmeeting AgricultureWGwas held in April 2014 in Ankara with the theme of “Improving the
Statistical Capacity of the Agriculture Sector in the OIC Member Countries”. After that, the 4th
meeting of the COMCEC AgricultureWorking Groupwas held in September 2014 with the theme
of “Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access in the OICMemberCountries.” The COMCEC
AWG gathered its 5th meeting with the theme of “Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries” in March 2015. The sixth
Meeting was held in October 2015 with the theme of “Promoting Agricultural Value Chai ns in
the OIC Member Countries.”
Moreover, given the importance of food losses in the Member Countries, the COMCEC AWG
devoted its 7th, 8th and 9th Meetings to different dimensions of this subject which are
respectively on-farm food losses, post-harvest food losses and food waste in the OIC Member
Countries.