The new director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), José Graziano, said on Thursday (15) that the organisation is going to open three new offices in Brazil in early 2012.

According to him, the decision has already been negotiated with the ministry of Planning, Miriam Belchior, with the objective of accompanying sustainable development in different regions of the country. A proposal will be presented for opening of an office in the state of Paraná, one in the Northeast and another in the Amazon.

"We want to open them as soon as possible, already considering Rio + 20,"said Graziano to Agência Brasil, referring to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled for June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro.

Currently, FAO has only one office in Brazil, in Brasília, which has been operating for 32 years. Graziano said that an agreement has been made with the Planning Minister, at her suggestion, for the offices to be opened in public buildings, either in universities or even in a unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) in the regions chosen. According to Graziano, Paraná was chosen due to the strength of family farming in the state. The states in the Northeast and in the Amazon region are yet to be defined.

Graziano, who will become the head of the FAO in January, based in Rome, introduced himself to the minister of Agriculture, Mendes Ribeiro Filho, and invited him to head the Brazilian delegation at the FAO's Regional Conference, to take place in Buenos Aires in the last week of March next year.

"This is the first autonomous conference, to take decisions and report to the FAO," said Graziano. According to him, the meeting will also define the work plan for the region up to 2019. During his campaign to the top post at the FAO, Graziano defended decentralization of the organisation, with more decision-making power in the hands of regional offices.

15 December 2011