Tunisia aims at promoting an "Intelligent, rational, sustainable and profitable" agriculture. This was one of the motions adopted during the 14th Congress of the Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (UTAP), whose works closed on Sunday in Hammamet.
The motion which will take into account socio-economic balances, will also take into consideration of the fragility of the ecosystem and preserve the country's natural resources.
Other recommendations issued by the Congress, stress the necessity to provide new varieties of cereals, rejuvenate olive trees, identify varieties adapted to irrigated crops, take due interest in oases, update the national strategy for the promotion of citrus fruit growing, speed up the pace of traceability, reduce the cost of water in oases and exempt farmers from the value added tax (vat) applied to energy consumption.
Participants also recommended to take interest in environment and production through boosting research, popularization, investment, improving the financing of agricultural seasons, updating the implementation of the farms' upgrading program, as well as strengthening the farming insurance system, creating a system of insurance against natural disasters and reinforcing social welfare and industrial safety.
Recommendations of UTAP's 14th Congress commissions also focused on issues related to domestic marketing and exports.
They also addressed ways to develop organic farming in order to valorize production and guarantee its presence on external markets.
Recommendations related to fisheries and fish farming provide for the organization of a national consultation on the fisheries sector, in the light of which a middle and long term strategy will be set up.
Key recommendations also include boosting cooperation and partnership relations between Mediterranean organizations and stepping up participation and missions in external markets while setting up an international or Maghrebi project to fight against palm tree diseases.
Other recommendations focus on the interest to be taken in specialized information and publication of guidebooks in strategic agricultural activities to strengthen specialization.
© Tunisia Online News 2010
