Mr. Shaaban Azouz & ACSAD Director-General /Meeting.
His Excellency, Mr. Shaaban Azouz, the member of the central leadership, the head of peasants and workers bureaus in the Syrian Arab Republic, and His Excellency, Dr. Nasr Edin Obaid, the Director-General of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands (ACSAD), discussed the cooperation among the ACSAD Organization, institutions, authorities, and bodies operating in the headquarters country the Syrian Arab Republic, the activation and enhancing the relationships in the frame of implementing the conventions and the memorandums of understanding in the agriculture sector field between the two sides.
His Excellency Mr. Azouz expressed his appreciation for the efforts exerted by ACSAD in the field of developing the Arab agricultural sector in general and the Syrian one in particular, which reflected positively and progressively to the farmers and breeders in current circumstances. He was proud of the fruitful and constructive cooperation given by the new administration of the Arab Center (ACSAD), alongside the academic, scientific research institutions in the Syrian Arab Republic; expanding the collaboration to achieve the joint goals and his gratitude for the important and distinguished role of ACSAD especially in the cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform through signing a comprehensive, outstanding qualitative cooperation convention; in addition to the active participation in the agricultural sector forum, “ Challenges and Opportunities.”, that would contribute to exchange and enhance the technical and scientific experiences, as well as, the signing of the high significant memorandums of understanding with the General Union of Peasants and the Syndicate of the Agricultural Engineers would push forward to sharing knowledge and settle the results of studies and distinguished scientific researches conducting by ACSAD, qualification and training the technical personnel, and all what would reflect positively on the agricultural sector development.
His Excellency also praised the achievements accomplished by ACSAD lately, especially in devising the developed genotypes of wheat and barley, which reached 77 varieties suitable for the arid and semi-arid regions; achieving high outcomes in the production of meat and milk, and twins percentage in livestock field, particularly the Awasi sheep and Shami goats. In addition to the distribution and water-harvesting conducted by ACSAD in the mountain regions, restoring the degraded lands and implementing several essential development projects in the Syrian Arab Republic that contribute to self-sufficiency and enhance food security.
He also expressed his gratitude to ACSAD to mitigate the effects of the environmental disaster represented by the fires that swept out the central and coastal regions and thanking it for providing the technical and logistical assistance to overcome difficulties the farmers and breeders faced inhabit those regions. He also highly appreciated the help provided by ACSAD in cooperation with the Action Against Hunger Spanish Organization to the residents in implementing the development and relief projects in the unsafety regions to mitigate the crisis effects in the local inhabitants in the amount of 10 million dollars.
In his turn, His Excellency Dr. Obaid expressed his appreciation and welcoming His Excellency, Mr. Azouz `s visit to the Arab Center headquarters (ACSAD); his gratitude to the Syrian Arab Republic concern in providing all forms of necessary support for the continuous work of ACSAD organization in the headquarters country, to achieve its goals that meet and upgrade to the level of ambitions both sides looking forward.
His Excellency, the Director-General of ACSAD, confirmed his readiness to employ all the efforts and studies, research`s results, guide them, and provide the necessary potentials to implement the conventions and memorandums of understanding to advanced the development process of the agricultural sector process that accomplish the sustainable agricultural development goals.
At the end of the meeting, His Excellency Mr. Azouz did a familiarized tour of ACSAD Organization`s different sections and laboratories, listening to a detailed explanation of its work, especially in the new and developed laboratories, expressing his great admiration of the progressing and improving level accessed by ACSAD.
