The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) has participated in the 2"d Africa-Arab Economic Forum, Kuwait 11-12 November 2013,where H.E Dr. Tariq Moosa Al- Zadjali, the Director-General of the Organization presented a presentation on the African- Arab cooperation in the field of food security. The presentation addressed the food security situation in the African and Arab regions , showing the status of the production of food commodities to be relatively high for the Arab population compared with their production in the sub-Saharan African countries, with the productivity of food crops being below the international levels for most crops in both regions. The food losses and waste are estimated at around (1.3) billion tons /year worthing US$(1.0) trillion, with the postharvest waste for cereal crops estimated at (13%) of the total cereal production in the Arab countries and ranging between 10-20% at the storage stage in the sub-Saharan African countries. It further reflected on the developments of foreign trade of food commodities, undernourishment situations, food gap and self sufficiency rates in the two regions. The presentation has also focused on the fisheries sector including fish production and the main challenges facing the sector in the two regions, fish trade and its marketing systems and fish processing systems and the challenges they face.

 The presentation has also included the proposed areas of joint Africa-Arab cooperation to enhance food security and development of fisheries, the most important of which being : Cooperation in the implementation of the Joint Action Plan (JAP) for Agricultural Development and Food Security in the two Regions, as approved by the Africa-Arab Summit, Sirt, Libya 2010. The JAP calls for the intensification of agricultural production through the establishment of joint projects and strategic reserves, development of storage systems, establishment of Africa-Arab Network for strategic food reserves, development of field irrigation systems, rationalization of the use of irrigation water, development of rural infrastructure, facilitation and boosting of Afro-Arab agro-trade. It has also emphasized the importance of considering the feasibility of establishing Afro-Arab companies for grain production, vegetable oils, sugar as well as agricultural imputs , machiary and equipments .

In the field of fisheries the proposed areas of cooperation included assessment of fish stocks, development of infrastructure, manufacturing of boats and fishing gears, development of fish industries ,fishing and aquaculture , research and technology transfer and capacity building in the area of sustainable fisheries development. Emphasis were also made for the importance of considering the establishment of joint Africa-Arab companies for marine fishing, aquaculture and fish processing.