Moscow – PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev participated in the launch of a regional network of soil laboratories in the Middle East and North Africa (RESOLAN NENA) as part of a joint project with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
RESOLAN NENA will be part of a global network of 368 soil laboratories launched in November 2017 in order to facilitate the exchange of experience between laboratories from all around the world and to implement a programme to develop soil science.
At the regional level, the network will facilitate interaction between new and existing laboratories created within the project with the aim of providing support to farmers on sustainable agriculture, as well as collecting information for the development of global standards in this field.
The regional network will include 53 laboratories from 19 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Other states in the region will join the network in the future.
Eduardo Mansur, Director of the FAO’s Land and Water Division, noted that the creation of RESOLAN NENA is a very important step that will help coordinate actions to ensure sustainable land use at the regional and global levels.
“Given the environmental problems associated with global warming, as well as the socioeconomic problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the best time for all of us to come together and take part in this global sustainable agriculture initiative”, said Mr Mansur in thanking Mr Guryev and PhosAgro for their assistance in implementing initiatives related to the creation of RESOLAN.
PhosAgro’s CEO, in turn, thanked the FAO for the honour of being the first Russian company selected to implement a global soil protection initiative.
“The goals of PhosAgro and of the FAO are in complete accord: to guarantee populations access to safe, high-quality food; to give farmers the opportunity to make effective use of their land by growing environmentally friendly products; and to protect the soil from degradation and destruction”, said Mr Guryev in his opening remarks to the heads of regional laboratories.
He noted that, guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, PhosAgro helps ensure food security in Russia and around the world: PhosAgro’s high-performance, environmentally friendly fertilizers are in high demand in more than 100 countries spanning all of the world’s inhabited continents.
“Given the project’s potential, PhosAgro will continue to support the FAO in creating a single global mechanism to promote technology and knowledge in the area of sustainable agriculture.
“We will make every effort to ensure that the project continues to make headway, thereby helping farmers grow clean crops efficiently and without accumulating pollutants in soils”, said Mr Guryev.