On Monday, 26^th of February, 24, at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, H.E. Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, opened the Agricultural Ministers’ Conference of the Date Producing and Processing Countries, andwhich was organized by the General Secretariat of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in the presence of 15 ministers and undersecretaries of agriculture, from friendly countries, and 6 directors and heads of regional and international organizations, to determine the outcomes of the regional program to eradicate the Red Palm Weevil, which was implemented by date-producing countries, under the supervision of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and with the participation of more than 20 experts and academics, specialized in date palm cultivation and production, to evaluate the outcomes of the regional program to eradicate the Red Palm Weevil, as Her Excellency Dr. Al Dahak, confirmed that the United Arab Emirates has spared no effort in supporting the date palm sector, at the local, regional and international levels. Thanks to the guidance and support of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and the continuous follow up of H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation. The UAE has worked to implement a large number of projects and programs to combat the Red Palm Weevil, in cooperation with international organizations and relevant state parties. On this occasion, we appreciate the importance of establishing the Trust Fund for the Eradication of the Red Palm Weevil, which was established in 2019, with the aim of developing a framework strategy to combat the Red Palm Weevil, where we meet today after five years of hard work to review everything that has been precisely accomplished by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with all concerned ministries in date-producing countries, within the regional program to eradicate the Red Palm Weevil.

Her Excellency Dr. Al Dahak, also expressed her thanks and appreciation for the efforts made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and to their Excellencies Ministers of Agriculture in the brotherly date-producing countries, and to the heads of the regional and international organizations participating in the program, especially the General Secretariat of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, on their ongoing efforts, in cooperation with the FAO, in organizing and hosting the conference for the second time, with the aim of eradicating the Red Palm Weevil, reducing its damage, and avoiding the spread of the pest to new sites.

FAO's Efforts

From his side, H.E. Dr. AbdulHakim ElWAER, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative, Regional office for the Near East and North Africa, FAO, praised the efforts of member countries and organizations participating in the regional program to eradicate the Red Palm Weevil, and their fruitful cooperation in implementing the requirements of the program, while ensuring achieving the desired goals, as the RPW is considered a Cross-border pest, and which has a serious impact. This meeting is considered a continuation of the first ministerial meeting held before five years, where the organization established the “Regional Program for the Eradication of the Red Palm Weevil in the Middle East and North Africa” for a period of five years, in order to continue working on developing and implementing the framework strategy. Which includes the organization’s support to countries in control mechanisms, raising farmers’ awareness, training national trainers, and expanding frameworks of South-South cooperation between countries of the region, especially with regard to controlling transboundary pests. Separate strategic framework plans have been developed for each country based on the current situation and the needs of each beneficiary country. To eliminate the RPW, the organization launched a regional initiative to implement it in the Near East and North Africa, and established a trust fund for this purpose to which a number of countries contributed. The project can be extended to exceed five years depending on the extent of donor commitment. H.E. Dr. ElWaer also added that the FAO has increased the pace of its efforts to combat the Red Palm Weevil, and announced a global and regional strategy to combat it, through the launching of the regional program and the credit donors’ meeting, our steps are accelerating towards implementation and action.

The Award’s General Secretariat

Dr. Abdelouahhab Zaid, Secretary General of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, pointed out that this (second) high-level ministerial meeting of Their Excellencies the Ministers of Agriculture of the date-producing and processing countries, comes after five years, as a continuation to the first meeting organized by the Award’s General Secretariat at the Emirates Palace hotel, on the 09^th of March, 2019, in parallel with the Award’s Winners Honoring Ceremony, in its Eleventh session, 2019, where he stressed that despite everything that has been accomplished by all parties in combating the Red Palm Weevil at the national, regional and international levels, it could not have been achieved without the great cooperation of Their Excellencies Ministries of Agriculture in date-producing countries, and their keenness to implement and provide all needed services and facilities to make the program a success. But it does not match the size of the problem, and hence the importance of this meeting, which we made sure to have on a regular basis to determine what has been accomplished and what we can do in the next stage. Moving towards strengthening cooperation frameworks between countries, the first ministerial meeting issued the Abu Dhabi Declaration on the Red Palm Weevil, in which a framework strategy was developed to eradicate the Red Palm Weevil and the establishment of a trust fund to implement the strategy with contributions from countries affected by the Red Palm Weevil.

Regional Red Palm Weevil Eradication Programme

Dr. Thaer Yassin, Director of the Regional Program for the Eradication of the Red Palm Weevil, in the Regional Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), reviewed the results of what was achieved from the program during the Ministerial Conference of Agriculture Ministers of the date-producing countries, where he added that the FAO has made distinguished efforts and we are proud of these results in less than two years in the life of this project and with financial resources less than 1/6th of the resources allocated to implement the goal (which was 20 Million USD, while the amount paid reached 3.1 Million USD) while the project period was supposed to be five years, ending in October 2024. Dr. Yassin pointed out that the results of the social and economic studies of the project showed that the annual cost of the RPW control program in Egypt exceeds 5.7 million USD and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exceeds 34.4 million USD. This means that date producing countries are incurring huge losses in fighting the RPW with traditional methods, which means the importance of building bridges of regional cooperation between date producing countries to eliminate this dangerous pest. The program achieved a number of objectives, most notably: at the policy level, the RPW control programs were reviewed and amended in most countries of the region (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Tunisia), and three regional standards for coordinated phytosanitary measures within the region. A regional protocol/standard on a protocol for establishing Red Palm Weevil-free zones, in line with the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) has been finalized. A regional protocol has been drafted to treat cuttings and ornamental plants before they are traded in order to prevent the spread of the pest, and developing the certification system related to the production, preservation and use of approved propagation materials for date palm trees in the Near East and North Africa countries.

Participating Ministerial Delegations:

Participating in the conference was H.E. Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahhak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, H.E. Dr. Mohammed Sadiki, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, in the Kingdom of Morocco, H.E. Eng. Wael bin Nasser Al Mubarak, Minister of Municipal Affairs in Kingdom of Bahrain, H.E. Eng. Khalid Musa Hanifat, Minister of Agriculture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, H.E. Mr. Abdullah bin Hamad bin Abdullah Al Attiyah, Minister of Municipality - State of Qatar, H.E. Mr. Hussein Atiya Al-Qatrani, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Marine Resources, in the State of Libya, H.E. Engineer Mansour bin Hilal Al-Mushaiti, Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi, Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States, H.E. the Minister Major General Muhammad Al-Zamlot, Governor of AlWadi AlJadeed, Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E. the Minister Major-General Ashraf Attia, Governor of Aswan, Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E. Dr. Ahmed bin Nasser Al-Bakri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agricultural Wealth, Fisheries and Water Resources in the Sultanate of Oman, H.E. Mr. Ahmed Salem Ould El-Arabi, Secretary-General, Ministry of Agriculture, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, H.E. Taklab Masgna Katima, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, State of Eritrea, and representative of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of the Arab Republic of Egypt,  and representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lebanon.

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