COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2016
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4. 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 OIC Member Countries” as its strategic objective. The COMCEC
Strategy also highlights the common challenges of the agriculture sector in the OIC Member
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 Framework and Institutional
Capacity, Reliable and Up-to-date Data and Market Performance) as well as specific expected
outcomes under them.
In addition, this Outlook prepared by the COMCEC Coordination Office elaborately sets
out some problems of the OIC agriculture sector with a view to display the situation in the OIC
Member Countries. The Outlook highlights that the challenges facing the OIC Member
Countries need to be determined accurately and extensively. In this respect, in order to
contribute to development of the OIC Agriculture sector, it is crucial to initiate projects and
programmes to reach the expected outcomes determined in accordance with the
aforementioned challenges.
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 has been established to achieve the objectives of the
COMCEC Strategy in this context. Within the framework of the Strategy, the COMCEC
Agriculture Working 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 Agriculture Working Group serves in developing a common
understanding and approximating policies among the member countries in this crucial sector.
In this respect, the first meeting of the Agriculture WG was held on 6th June 2013 with the
theme of “Increasing Agricultural Productivity in the OIC Member Countries: Improving
Irrigation Capacity”. The second meeting was also held on 19th December 2013 with the
theme of "Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in the OIC Member Countries for