The three-day G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting, which concluded here on Saturday, has adopted ‘Outcome Document and Chair’s Summary’, which includes the Deccan High-Level Principles and International Millets and Other Ancient Grains Research Initiative.
“The Deccan High-Level Principles demonstrated the G20 collective responsibility in reinforcing and complementing efforts across geographies in response to global food security crises by means of facilitating humanitarian assistance,” as per the document.
“This assistance will be offered to countries and populations in vulnerable situations, enhancing availability and access to nutritious food,” it said.
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The document also called for strengthening policies and collaborative actions for climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, said, “India’s goal was to consult developing countries not represented in G20, on their developmental priorities and what they expected India to achieve through its presidency. The idea was to ensure that developing countries feel better engaged with the G20 process and, in turn, G20 could produce better results to promote ‘human-centric-development.”
Four priority areas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed the gathering on Friday, wanted the G20 meeting to promote agricultural diversity and social security systems to enhance food security and nutrition. He also wanted the nations to focus on financing climate friendly technologies and adopting a climate-smart approach for sustainable agricultural production.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addresses the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting
Ramesh Chand, a Member of NITI Aayog, made a presentation on ‘Global Food Security and Nutrition’, highlighting the challenges that the agriculture sector was facing.