On behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Agriculture Dr. Fahd bin Abdulrahman Balghnaim opened here today the ministerial meeting of the general assembly of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development. The minister delivered the King's speech on this occasion. The speech stated, "One of the firm beliefs and policies of the Kingdom is to promote Arab and Islamic coordination, cooperation and integration and to strengthen international solidarity and cooperation and human brotherhood. So, the joint Arab work in all fields and at all times enjoys all our support. "The meetings of this session are held at a time in which the world and its various regions including the Arab region are subjected to accelerating, intertwined and major economic, social, political and climatic changes. These changes, which are a source of concern, include an unprecedented, increasing high expenses as a phenomenon that has hit most countries of the world and has been reflected in major increases in the prices of food commodities especially the agricultural ones with various percentages ranging between 47% and 85%. "This increase in the prices of food stuff threatens the achievement of the goals of eradicating poverty and hunger in the world especially in poor countries. The inclination of some major food crops producing countries to produce bio-fuel from these crops led to a shortage of supplies of these food crops which will negatively impact the lives of humans on this planet especially in our Arab world. This was exacerbated by the world climate changes which greatly harm agricultural production. --More
