The features of this effort are articulated in Technical Document No. 6 which has been distributed to the delegates. From policy to technology to environmental management to poverty reduction, we are committed to a holistic approach to promote, through research, sustainable agriculture for food security in the developing countries. We need to identify complex agricultural production systems sustainably while preventing damage to the natural resources of biodiversity, and while contributing to the improved welfare of farmers and consumers. We must focus especially on smallholders and the landless, and particularly on women who remain the primary agents of positive social change in the world and who are sadly discriminated against in most societies. These are formidable challenges especially as we also address the needs of the fragile ecosystems and marginal areas.
Global challenges require global efforts.
Its objective was to engage scientists and decision-makers in both national and international organizations to work with all other actors in the emerging global system of agricultural research, including NGOs, farmers' groups, the private sector, local and national governments, each of whom have something important to contribute. This forum, whose core will be the national agricultural research systems of the developing world, should help to lay the basis for enhanced cooperation. The Declaration and Action Plan that emanated from this group are available here in this room for the Delegates. They can, while conducting cutting edge signs for the benefit of the world's poor, serve as platforms for the exchange of ideas and the development of new technologies. The agenda I have outlined is challenging.