20 November 2009                                                                                                                              Rome, Italy

Madame Chair,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,

Allow me first of all to that thank the Director-General and his able team for the comprehensive report on the “State of Food and Agriculture”. This report, together with the outcomes of the High Level Forum as well as the commitments reflected in the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, four days ago; provide an agreed road-map to address the challenges of food security and poverty. The FAO can successfully fulfill its role in tackling the issues of world food security if reformed to adequately address these challenges. As seen from the report, the Immediate Plan of Action for FAO Renewal, inaugurated last November, is being successfully implemented despite some shortfall in funding.

Ambassdor J.Enkhsaikhan

Madame Chair,

Mongolia fully supports the Strategic Framework 2010-2019, which provides the broad principles and specific guidance regarding the results-based programs of the Organization as well as the proposed reforms of the Committee on Food Security (CFS). Likewise it welcomes the Medium Term Plan 2010-13 and the proposed Program of Work and Budget 2010-11 which would link means to ends, connect resources to expected results.

Madame Chair,

Mongolia has agriculture-based economy, mainly livestock breeding and some farming. It is highly dependent on the climate. With the climate change and increasing desertification, it is facing daunting challenges in this vital sector of its economy. Hence it is placing high hopes on the productive outcome of the Copenhagen summit on climate change next month. To address this challenge and at the same time reduce and eradicate poverty, agriculture needs to be transformed into a viable and thriving commercial sector.

To this end a number of important programs has been launched recently. Thus last month the Government of Mongolia has launched a National Program for Food Security (NPFS) with the technical assistance of the FAO. It is a concrete, time-bound program with an overarching goal to provide the nation with secure supplies of accessible, nutritious and safe food. It has four pillars: enhancing the enabling environment, commercial and household food security, improving food safety and promoting nutrition and public health. This 7 year program is expected to be implemented with investments from the private sector, the national government, local governments, NGOs as well as development partners.

One of the important components of the program is attaining self-sufficiency in basic farming produce. With this in mind the 2008-2010 Crop-III national campaign is being successfully implemented. Thus, weather allowing, this year Mongolia was able to harvest about 80 % of its wheat needs, 60 percent of vegetable needs and the country’s entire potato needs, reducing thus to a certain extent its dependence on import of farming products.

In the long term, we are convinced that reversing desertification, introducing modern technology and successfully implementing the NPFS can radically change the food situation. The reason is that with 2.7 mln. population, the country has 50 mln. heads of livestock and still yet un-tapped land resources suitable for farming (around 800 thousand hectares of land). As of today only 7 % of livestock products and less than 4 % of milk are industrially processed. If these natural resources are fully processed, as envisaged in the program, the country will be able not only to satisfy its national needs, but also to contribute to world food production and food security with healthy, safe, organic food. We believe that with right technology, organization and management and international support, Mongolia can become an important producer of high quality livestock food products. With this objective in mind Mongolia is prepared to work with other countries, the FAO and other partners.

Thank you for the attention.

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