CARTHAGE - The elaboration of a Joint Maghrebi strategy to face food challenges and achieving self-sufficiency in this field, was the focus of the meeting that interim President Moncef Marzouki had Wednesday with presidents of the Farmers' Unions of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya a statement of the Presidency of the Republic reads.
President of the Algerian Farmers' Union and the Maghrebi Farmers' Union (UMAGRI) Mohamed Alioui underlined the importance of elaborating an agricultural strategy allowing to overcome food deficit in the different Maghrebi countries and achieve complementarity in this field in such a manner as to meet their needs in matters of cereals, milk and seeds.
He also stressed the importance to adopt a clear policy in matters of buying these products whose production in the Maghrebi countries remains in deficit.
Mr.Alioui, cited by the Presidency of the Republic, asserted that the second UMAGRI congress, held in January in Algeria, emphasised the importance of the creation of a Maghrebi agricultural market, boosting investment in this field and overcoming the difficulties impeding creation of an agricultural group likely to guarantee self-sufficiency to the Maghrebi peoples.
The meeting was attended by Messrs. Ahmed Abou Jalala, President of the Libyan Farmers' Union, Ahmed Hnider Jarrallah, President of Tunisian Agriculture and Fishery Union (UTAP) and Khaled Selmene, Vice-President of Moroccan Agriculture Union.
Tunisia is to host late March the next congress of the Arab Farmers' Union.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2013
