Second Meeting of the G20 Agricultural Chief Scientists

The Second Meeting of Chief Agricultural Scientists (MACS) within Russia's G20 Presidency was held in Moscow on 24-25 July, 2013.

Among the MACS participants were high-level agricultural research officials from the G20 member countries, representatives of international agricultural research organizations, international organizations and development agencies such as World Bank, CGIAR, GFAR, OECD, FAO, IFAD.

During the meeting participants discussed the progress achieved in the implementation of the existing G20 initiatives, in particular, Tropical Agricultural Platform, Wheat Initiative, the Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEO-GLAM), and exchanged experience on the national agricultural research priorities.

The main outcome of the meeting is approved MACS Terms of Reference, which states common objectives, scope of work, participants and working arrangements.

The initiative of holding meetings of this kind on the annual basis with the aim of identifying global research priorities and targets, facilitating collaboration between public and private sector organizations on the key agricultural issues was launched by the Agriculture Deputy Ministers in Mexico in 2012.

The main objective of MACS is to strengthen and expand research priority areas for collective G20 action in coherence with the existing initiatives to sustainably intensify agricultural production, in order to meet increased and changing demand for healthy, safe and nutritious food.

Full text of the Final Communiqué of the Second MACS can be found here