KHARTOUM, Sudan

Turkey and Sudan signed an agriculture cooperation protocol Tuesday. 

Turkish Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mehmet Hadi Tunc and an accompanying delegation first met with Sudan’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Al-Tahir Mohamed Harbi.

Following negotiations at the level of deputy ministers, Tunc and his Sudanese counterpart Abdurrahman Abdurrahim Hater signed the cooperation protocol.

The agreement includes articles on a pilot farm, seed growing, agricultural research, agricultural diseases, increasing production and education.

Speaking at a press conference after the signing ceremony, Tunc said the articles of a 2014 agreement between the two countries were reviewed and that they had turned the agreed issues into a memorandum of understanding during the two days of meetings.

"We will be happy to share our knowledge and experience with friendly and brotherly Sudan," he said.

Underlining that countries should be in more solidarity to ensure food supply security, he said: "We have to move our agricultural relations with Sudan to a better point than in the past."

Hater also wished that the agreement would be beneficial to the peoples of the two countries.

In 2014, Turkey signed an agriculture cooperation agreement with Sudan which gave the Turkish General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises and Turkish companies several options to operate in the North African country.