Oman participates in 38th Ministerial Meeting of GCC Food Security Committee in Manama

Manama: Represented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, the Sultanate of Oman today took part in the 38th Ministerial Meeting of the GCC Committee for Agricultural Cooperation and Food Security. The meeting was hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The Omani delegation was led by Dr. Saud bin Hamoud Al Habsi, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

The meeting discussed a proposal to establish strategic GCC storage zones for food, medicine and essential commodities. The initiative aims to consolidate the food security system and enhance the GCC states’ preparedness to deal with emergencies and crises. The meeting also approved the GCC Food Security Strategy as a guiding principle.

The meeting dealt with regulatory frameworks, guidelines and operational mechanisms for using certain plant genetic resources banks and discussed ways of updating GCC legislation related to pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural products. It approved proposals to extend the implementation of the executive regulations for the system of agricultural fertilizers and soil conditioners. It also ratified the unified law for organic products.

In addition, the GCC Committee for Agricultural Cooperation and Food Security exchanged views about executive regulations for the veterinary quarantine law, the unified procurement programme for veterinary medicines and vaccines and the central registration mechanism for veterinary preparations.

It was also agreed to extend permissions to adopt a GCC unified study on permissible fishing of certain fish species of specific lengths.