BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6. It is food security which is important now for every country, maybe more than several years ago. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said during reception of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director General Qu Dongyu in a video format on May 6, Trend reports.
"We are very satisfied with a level of partnership between the FAO and Azerbaijan. And the agreement which was signed seven years ago actually created a new format of our cooperation and we hope that in the coming years we will continue this fruitful partnership. Especially now in this difficult times when issues related to food security become more and more important for every country, including Azerbaijan. Because despite our growth in export of agricultural products we are still recipients of agricultural products. Therefore, our future plans and general regional development with respect to food security, I think, should be important to discuss, to address the new challenges. Also one of the issues which I also wanted to raise during our meeting is our plans with respect to the agricultural development in the liberated territories. As a result of the liberation of territories of Azerbaijan, we are now in active phase of development of those lands with respect to infrastructure, including agricultural development. Because the agricultural potential in the liberated areas are really very impressive. It is a very diverse nature, climatic zones and opportunity to increase significantly out production and for domestic consumption and for export. We are now in the phase of planning of agricultural development in the liberated territories. And therefore your valuable recommendations will be highly appreciated.
In general, agricultural development in Azerbaijan is one of the priorities for our government. Because first, it is food security which is important now for every country, maybe more than several years ago. And second for us it is important part of our non-energy related export which is growing. Three months of this year growth in non-energy export in Azerbaijan was 45 percent. Of course, it is important for employment, because almost half of our population live in rural areas. Therefore, agriculture for these people is a main source of their income. Probably you know about our reforms, about the subsidies, about the support the government provides to farmers. Farmers are free from any taxes, including land tax. And also soft low interest loans which we provide to farmers. All this creates opportunities for rapid development of agriculture but of course, we need to plan everything properly, especially now after the liberation of territories and to apply modern technologies. So, there will be a lot of things to discuss and I am really very glad that we have this opportunity to talk and to see what else we can do jointly," said the head of state.