This forum is an opportune platform to sustain dialogue, exchange ideas, and establish greater cooperation between and among our countries concerning the utilization of hybrid rice to meet our food security targets.
I hope through this initiative, the countries around the world can adopt measures to ensure proper functioning of rice commodity markets and facilitate timely access to market information, reserves, in order to help limit extreme price volatility of rice.
I am sure that through this Forum, the scientific research institutions and rice processing industries of China and Pakistan, would collaborate for enhancing hybrid rice production and processing in Pakistan, which will facilitate in modernizing our agriculture sector, alleviating poverty, and improving standards of living of our citizens.
On Nov 15, an opening ceremony for the autumn semester was held to welcome 49 international freshmen to the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) at Peking University in Beijing.
By merging cutting-edge and forward-looking technologies with traditional agricultural methods we can enhance cooperation and strengthen global food security for all, especially for rural households and women farmers.
This Forum provides an important opportunity to understand the state of the art on hybrid rice, and to see how we can work better together towards reaching the SDGs, especially SDG2 Zero Hunger.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to express sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural affairs of the People's Republic of China for their kind assistance in finding specialists in the cultivation of hybrid rice in Uzbekistan by the technologies of the "father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping.
Indeed, by sharing crop cultivation techniques with African countries, China has been empowering the local communities allowing them to improve their productivity, secure the food self-reliance and fighting poverty.