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posted on 31 Jan, 2012
GFA at Green Week in Berlin
Each year in January, the Green Week in Berlin turns into a highlight of Germany’s calendar of events. For nine days, this most important fair for the food and agriculture sector attracts close to half a million visitors. The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) is the Green Week’s political opening event where country delegations, international business experts, development cooperation professionals and scientists exchange about agriculture and food policies. Since 1994, GFA Consulting Group has been involved in co-preparing this event as part of its long-standing support to the Bilateral Co-operation Programme of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). The Forum’s 2012 heading was “Food Security through Sustainable Growth – Farming with Limited Resources”. GFA, together with the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (oa) and the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), organized a panel discussion on “Agricultural development through sustainable resource management”. In a nutshell, the panelists highlighted that the responsible management of water, soil and food will become a matter of survival for mankind and will place great demands on politics, industry and society. What is needed throughout the world is sustainable land development, taking into account the limited nature of natural resources, suitable technologies for efficient and resource-conserving farming as well as infrastructure, and human resources which support these requirements.
Dr. Gerd Müller, Parliamentary State Secretary to the BMELV opened the panel, followed by a keynote address by Alexander Müller, Deputy Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in which he outlined approaches for sustainable resource management against the background of a growing global population. The subsequent panel discussion brought together Mr. Alexander Müller, Dr. Dietrich Guth, Head of the Directorate General for EU Policy, International Cooperation and Fisheries at the BMELV, Mrs. Ludmila Orlowa, General Director of SAO Eurotechnika in the Russian Federation, Mr. Jan Sass, Head of GFA’s Africa Department, and Mr. Rüdiger Heinig, Resident EU Twinning Adviser to promote vocational training in agriculture in Azerbaijan.
The outcome of this panel, together with results from other rounds of discussion at the Forum, will provide important contributions to the upcoming UN Conference for Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio +20) in June 2012.
