Events

The International Affairs Institute (IAI), the OCP Policy Center, the Economic and Social Sciences Research Unit at the Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine Institute Hassan II of Rabat and the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy (CIFAP) at the University of Minnesota are organizing an international conference on Building Sustainable Agriculture for Food Security in the Euro-Mediterranean Area: Challenges and Policy Options in the framework of their multi-year strategic partnership. The conference will take place in Rabat, Morocco, on November 20-21, 2014. The program will include between 10-12 papers, with one or two discussants for each paper.

Sustainable agriculture and food security appear of particular concern for the countries of the Southern Mediterranean region, representing one of the biggest challenges facing the area. As a consequence of the region’s heavy reliance on food imports, the sharp increase in food prices since 2007 has had severe adverse effects in several countries, causing macro-economic problems (inflation, trade deficits, fiscal pressure), increased poverty and political instability. This challenge, coupled with the consequences of environmental degradation and water stress, call for the urgent need to develop sustainable agriculture and food systems. 

At the same time, the European agriculture sector is under stress. In light of the interdependence of Southern Mediterranean and European economies, Euro-Mediterranean relations take on particular relevance for food security and, more in general, for sustainable agricultural development. However, agriculture has been marginalized in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation so far and the EU continues to restrict agricultural imports in order to protect the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), fearing competition from the southern shore of the Mediterranean. At the same time, the EU and its Southern Mediterranean partners face common agricultural challenges such as climate change, food price volatility and water stress, which underscores the importance of reinforcing regional cooperation to build sustainable food systems.

Conference Program

Rabat, 20 - 21 November, 2014