Minister of agriculture Dr. Fahd Balgunaim arrived here yesterday to lead the Saudi delegation to the Twenty-Ninth Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC) of the UN Food And Agriculture Organization (FAO). The participants of the conference will discuss a number of Global and Regional issues including the socio-economic impacts of transboundary animal diseases in the Near East with a particular emphasis on Avian Influenza, and Near East Agriculture Towards 2050: Prospects and Challenges. The two-day conference will start today. The Minister was received at Cairo International Airport by Egyptian Minister of Agriculture & Land Reclamation Amin Abaza.