by
Mariano Ruiz-Funes Macedo and Kenneth Smith Ramos
INTRODUCTION
Ever since the so-called 2008 “food crisis” occurred, the agricultural and fisheries sectors became relevant to the G20 discussions1 due to several countries' increased interest in adopting measures to address agricultural product price volatility and increase food security, the latter defined not only as an increase in production, but also the availability of, and access to, food by the population. This G20 concern increased in late 2010 and early 2011 as a result of a new period of volatility in commodity prices. For this reason, in June 2011 the ministers of agriculture of the G20 member countries agreed to an ambitious Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture2with specific measures in the areas of research, information, risk management, investment, sustainability and training.
In December 2011, Mexico took over the G20 presidency with the challenge of consolidating the Action Plan strategies and defining priorities for the agricultural and fisheries agenda. In this regard, it is foreseeable that the Group's efforts will focus on the definition and implementation of long-term policies to promote a sustained increase of agricultural and fisheries productivity, with the aim of mitigating the problems faced by the sector worldwide.
The objective of this document is to provide a brief summary of the G20 objectives and achievements in the fields of agriculture and fisheries during 2012, and outline some of the strategies to be promoted by the G20 Mexican presidency.
1The G20 countries account for 85 percent of the global economy and two thirds of the world population. They are: Saudi Arabia, Germany, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Korea, China, the United States of America, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the European Union. Spain participates as a permanent guest.
