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This document has been made available in electronic format
by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)
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February, 1997
(Source: ICA in Asia and the Pacific -Annual Report 1996)

29th Meeting of the ICA Agricultural Committee
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The 29th Meeting of the ICA Committee on Agriculture for 
Asia and the Pacific was held in the premises of the Co-operative 
College of Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, on 12th June 1996.  17 
members from 8 countries attended the meeting.

The meeting was presided over by Dr. Virendra Kumar, Vice 
Chairman of the Committee, in the absence of Mr. Nai Soo Lee 
who was unable to attend the meeting.

Haji Mahmud Yusof, General Manager of ANGKASA, extended 
a warm and cordial welcome to the members on behalf of the 
Co-operative Movement of Malaysia.  He informed the meeting 
that ANGKASA has already nominated a member for this 
Committee from this year onwards.

Mr. G.K. Sharma, ICA Regional Director for Asia and the 
Pacific, welcomed all members of the Committee on behalf of 
ICA.  He also extended his sincere thanks to ANGKASA and 
the  Co-operative College of Malaysia for making all arrangements 
for the meeting.  He said that more than 60% of the membership 
was from agriculture and most of them were small farmers.  He 
also said that this Committee is the oldest Committee of the ICA 
Regional Office and four strong countries (China, India, Japan and 
Korea) were very active members of this Committee.  Hence this
Committee can be useful to bring all the agricultural co-operatives 
together. 

The country papers on Recent Trends and Developments in the 
field of Agriculture were presented by the members followed by
discussions.

A paper on "Food Security and Family Farming" which is one of the 
vital issues currently facing human kind was presented by 
Mr. Churll-Hee Won, Vice-President of International Co-operative 
Agricultural Organisation, ICA and Chairman and President of 
National Agricultural Co-operative Federation (NACF) of Korea.

The World Food Summit is scheduled to be held in Rome (Italy) in
November 1996.  The objective of the World Food Summit is to 
renew the commitment of world leaders at highest level to the 
eradication of hunger and malnutrition and the achievement of lasting 
food security for all.  The ICA is among a selected member of 
NGOs which have since been given the opportunity by the FAO 
to present a paper for inclusion in the World Food Summit process. 
Therefore, the meeting discussed in detail some common concern 
with the food security issue and unanimously adopted the a 
Resolution on Food Security and World Food Summit 

The member for Sri Lanka extended an invitation to hold the next 
meeting in Sri Lanka.  The members unanimously accepted the 
invitation and agreed to hold the next meeting of Agricultural Committee
sometime in May 1997 in Sri Lanka for 3 days.