II meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Organization of Turkic States was held in Baku

Final declaration of the II meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Organization of Turkic States was adopted

The second meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of the Organization of Turkic states (TDT) was held in Baku. The meeting chaired by the Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan Majnun Mammadov and General Secretary Kubanichbek Omraliyev was attended by the Ministers of Agriculture and Deputy Ministers of the countries that are members of the organization and invited as observers.

Majnun Mammadov who was speaking at the event said that the Organization of Turkic States has passed a long way of development since the Nakhchivan Summit in 2009. Noting that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev declared the strengthening of relations with the OTS countries in all areas one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan's foreign policy, the Minister emphasized that today the OTS has become a globally recognized powerful organization covering a huge geography, where about 160 million people live.

It was stressed that OTS accounts for 6.1% of global agricultural land resources, including 3.9% in arable land, 2.2% in global production of agricultural products, and 2% in exports of agricultural and processed products. The participants of the meeting noted that at a time when the countries of the world are faced with climate change, reduction of water and land resources, high-level urbanization and other problems, the Turkic states should also be ready for these challenges, increase productivity and achieve sustainable development by exchanging experience in the application of new technologies and solutions.

The possibilities of expanding cooperation between the participating states in the field of agriculture, increasing trade turnover, and implementing projects of mutual interest were discussed at the ministerial meeting.  Speakers who made a speech at the meeting noted that the Turkic states have a wide potential for cooperation in all areas of agriculture.

The proposals of the Azerbaijani party on the creation of a single digital agro-data platform of the Turkic states, joint production of agricultural and food products under the TDT brand were presented to the member states of the organization and an agreement was reached on the implementation of work in this direction at the meeting. The proposal of the Azerbaijani side to determine the agricultural capital of one of the cities in the OTS countries was also welcomed. Guba region of Azerbaijan was declared the agricultural capital before the next meeting of OTS Ministers of Agriculture on the basis of predetermined criteria. An agreement was reached to hold the next meeting of the OTS Ministers of Agriculture in Kazakhstan.

The final declaration of the II meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Organization of Turkic states was adopted at the end of the event. The document defines the main directions of future cooperation between the OTS member states: increasing trade turnover in agriculture and food products, promoting mutual investments, transferring modern technologies in the agricultural sector, mutual exchange of best practices, efficient management of land and water resources, promotion of the agricultural insurance system and other areas.