PHNOM PENH: The Minister of Agriculture, Veng Sakhon, presided over the meeting to review the annual work of 2021 and the work director for 2022, which was also attended by the Secretary of State, Undersecretary of State, other representatives of relevant ministries, institutions and capital-provincial administrations, representatives of the private sector, and development partners of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 24 capitals and provinces. In total there were 200 people who attended the meeting, and another 250 attending online via Zoom.

The main goals of the meeting included: to plan and implement key activities aimed at utilizing existing production processing technologies to enhance productivity, diversify and commercialize agriculture to create jobs and increase incomes, to ensure food security, based on the Roadmap on "Sustainable Food System in Cambodia 2030". The roadmap includes improving nutrition, increasing agricultural exports to improve livelihoods through agricultural modernization, crop diversification, supporting infrastructure development competitive production, processing and export, strengthening the efficiency of service delivery, transfer of modern agricultural techniques, strengthening the capacity of farming communities to ensure stable supply of products for domestic and foreign market demand, implementation of contract agricultural production to increase entrepreneurship and professionalism in agribusiness, as well as the development of technologies on the production chain in response to the effects of climate change.

On behalf of the Ministry's leadership, Minister Veng Sakhon stated that he believes that the food sector is facing a number of problems, the main ones being related to a lack of investment in processing, climate change, water-saving irrigation systems, use of agricultural land, crimes related to forestry, fisheries and illegal imports, product sales market and illegal logging.

The Minister appealed and requested all stakeholders, especially the leaders of the Ministry, specialized units, civil servants, civil servants of the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, to provide more comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in regard to these identified problems. He said stakeholders must take responsibility to fulfil their individual roles and responsibilities, especially the implementation of policies and development plans for the agricultural sector 2019-2023 to achieve the vision of the Royal Government by 2030 and 2050.

Minister Veng Sakohon requested those in attendance at the conference to hold in-depth discussions, exchange experiences, explore ways to solve challenges and help orient a number of priority topics related to inter-ministerial interventions, relevant subordinate units and the private sector, to discuss in detail the key measures of economic recovery in the context of Covid-19 in order to promote a sustainable, environmentally friendly and highly efficient agricultural sector in line with the trend of rapid growth of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, especially the Royal Government of Cambodia's Digital Economy and Digital Policy Framework 2021-2035.

The closing ceremony of the 2021 Conference on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the implementation direction for 2022 will take place on Wednesday, 23 March, under the high presidency of Prime Minister Hun Sen.