G20 2nd agriculture deputies meeting begins in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: Delegates of the second agriculture deputies meeting of agriculture working group under India's G20 Presidency on Wednesday discussed the food market situation and identifying capacity building needs.

On the opening day of the three-day meeting, the 12th session of agricultural market information system (AMIS) rapid response forum (RPF) was held here.

Arun Kumar, Senior Economic and Statistical Adviser, government of India, welcomed all the delegates to the 12th session of the RRF and spoke about the timely evidence-based policymaking as the need of the hour to address the concern of high food prices, according to an official statement.

Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, mentioned that the main objective of G20 is to build consensus on current challenges of food security and nutrition, sustainable agriculture with a climate-smart approach, inclusive agricultural value chains and food systems, and digitalisation for agricultural transformation.

Likhi further emphasised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of mission LiFE through which everyone can contribute in the fight against climate change.

The RRF was chaired by Seth Meyer, chairperson, AMIS, wherein he spoke about the current situation on global food security and contribution of AMIS on the same.

Pramod Kumar Meherda, Additional Secretary, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, giving examples from India, spoke on the need for digital public infrastructure architecture that is standardised and non-proprietary.

This would help AMIS in obtaining credible and real time information on production estimates, supplies and consumption for countries to respond quickly to shocks and volatility in food markets, he said.

He then introduced the speakers for the first and second sessions of AMIS on 'Food Market Situation and Outlook', which was based on providing the current situation on global food markets and an outlook for 2023 and on the status and development of AMIS highlighting their notable achievements in 2022 and any new developments for 2023, respectively.

Ritesh Chauhan, Joint Secretary, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, introduced the speakers for the third and the fourth sessions.

Third session was focused on the vision for the future evolution of the AMIS initiative and the fourth session was based on identifying capacity building needs and strategies.

The fifth session was centred around Asia's role in regional and global food security and the sixth session discussion was on the impact of financial factors on importing countries.

Samuel Praveen Kumar, joint secretary, stressed the need for regional cooperation and investment in climate resilient agriculture to address the challenges of climate change, urbanisation and food waste.