In recent years, governments across the Middle East have developed a robust food security strategy for their nation to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round. Improving the local production has been one of the top priorities for these authorities and this has been complemented by the innovations in the aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and livestock farming that have helped farms to improve their quality of products. Having said that, animal health & disease control, food safety, and cost of production have been the prime importance to the producers.

The current lockdown due to COVID-19 has increased the need for the MENA region to be self-dependent and is rapidly reforming food security readiness. This has fast-tracked the move by the aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and livestock sectors towards implementing new technologies and methodologies. The UAE recently announced that the department of food security will remain a priority through two ministers, The Minister of State for Food and Water Security to follow up on national food stock, investments in food technology and international relations in this field while the Minister of Climate Change and Environment to support farmers and developing UAE’s fish and animal wealth. Authorities across the MENA region are offering incentives on all aspects of farming to encourage farmers, operators, and food producers to adopt innovations that contribute to the nation’s food security strategies.

The Second DigiConference of the MENA Food Security Forum series will focus on the latest trends and innovations in aquaculture, poultry, dairy and livestock farming, and the opportunities in improving the quality and quantity of local production. This DigiConference will bring together C-suite executives from government, non-government organizations, private sector and consumers across the Middle East and North Africa along with global tech players involved in the development and adoption of farming innovation to engage in thought-provoking discussions and share latest best practices, challenges and thought leadership on ways to improve the local production.