COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2017
46
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 in most 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 agricultural growth in the OIC
member countries that surpassed the world average during the period of 1994-2014.
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 168.6 million people are undernourished in the OIC
member countries. This accounts for 21.2 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
required 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. Among others, organic farming,
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), prevention of post-harvest losses, wastage and
extravagance, ensuring mid-long term sustainability and introducing agriculture production
systems commensurate with agro ecological conditions of the country should be given special
emphasis in agricultural planning. Especially, the percentage of post-harvest losses is quite
high in most of the OIC member countries. Nonetheless, with simple measures, basic
infrastructure and training, these losses will be decreased substantially which will, in turn,
increase the availability of food to a great extent. Furthermore, while water scarcity is a major
problem in various parts of the OIC, even in arid or semi-arid areas some specialty crops and
medicinal plants can be grown.