TUNISI (TUNIS) (ITALPRESS) – Today, on the occasion of World Biodiversity Day, the new farmers market was inaugurated in Tunis, part of the Campagna Amica circuit and the global Farmer Market Coalition, in the presence of the Tunisian Secretary of State for Agriculture Hammadi lahbeeib, the Italian Ambassador to Tunis Alessandro Prunas and the former Minister of Agriculture and President of the UniVerde Foundation, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. The ambassadors of Senegal and Egypt were also present.
“I am particularly proud of this organic market – said Pecoraro Scanio – because it represents a concrete result of the agricultural orientation law that I signed in 2001 in Italy, thanks to which many young people and women have returned to being protagonists in the relaunch of agriculture, protecting biodiversity and promoting organic farming”.
The new market hosts exclusively local farmers, promoting organic and sustainable production in the Tunisian territory, and is a model of agricultural multifunctionality, supporting farmers’ income and promoting social cohesion.
“I spoke about it today with the Tunisian Undersecretary of State and the President of the farmers’ association Moez ben Zaghden – continued the former Minister – because we believe that the Italian law on agricultural orientation can also be an inspiration for Tunisia. It is an opportunity to consolidate international cooperation and to extend the multifunctional agriculture model also recognized by the FAO to new countries”.
The initiative is part of a network of farmers’ markets promoted by the Farmer Market Coalition that already includes positive experiences in Nairobi, Tyre (Lebanon) and Alexandria, Egypt. “The Tunis market – underlined Pecoraro Scanio – takes on a strategic significance, due to its position as a hinge between Africa and Europe.”
Finally, Pecoraro Scanio launched a proposal in the spirit of UNESCO: “Tunisia must become one of the countries recognized for the Mediterranean Diet as an intangible heritage of humanity. The Tunisian food tradition is fully part of that diet that is good for health, the environment and local agricultural economies. We must fight the industrial food of multinationals that threatens food cultures and impoverishes family agriculture”.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS)
