Agriculture and allied sectors still remain the backbone of economies of most African and Asian countries, said Wassfi Hassan El-Sreihin, Secretary General of the African Asian Rural Development Organisation said today.
He was speaking at the inaugural of the 15-day international workshop organised by Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to train researchers and officials from 13 member countries of the AARDO here.
"Despite progress in other economic sectors, agriculture and allied areas such as fisheries are still major economic components of many African and Asian countries as these sectors contribute significantly to their employment generation, economic growth, food security and overall development", he said.
Touching upon the overall net increase of disasters, including those caused by climate change, Wassfi said one of the main global challenges today was how to ensure food and nutrition security for a growing population.
"Ensuring food and nutrition security is crucial for ensuring long-time sustainable development the people across the globe especially in many African and Asian countries", he said.
Wassfi said agriculture and allied sectors would need to produce 60 per cent more food globally by 2050, and 100 per cent more in developing countries using the same limited available natural resources.
He also said that fisheries and aquaculture would play a major role in meeting the food demand of an increased population in the coming years.
"Rapid development of fisheries and aquaculture are foreseen to generate food, nutrition,income and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world," Wassfi said.
To achieve the global transition to sustainable development, developing countries in Asia and Africa should focus on environment-based policies and governance that take into account the three dimensions of sustainability
economic, social and environmental with closely interwoven targets, he said.
Inaugurating the workshop, Prof A Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor of KUFOS said fisheries was increasingly becoming a major food commodity in our daily nutrition.
"The high quality protein in fish is helping the population to be nutritionally well fed", he said.
CMFRI Director Dr A Gopalakrishnan presided.
Representatives from Taiwan, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, Malaysia, Malawi, Libya, Mauritius and Bangladesh are attending the two-week long workshop.
They will be imparted training in areas such as marine fisheries assessment, fish stock estimation, marine fisheries environment, impact of climate change on fisheries,responsible fisheries and mariculture activities like cage farming, along with practical sessions.
African Asian Rural Development Organisation is an inter-governmental organisation in the field of agricultural and rural development with headquarters in New Delhi.
Currently 32 member countries from Africa and Asia are part of AARDO.
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