New Delhi, Jun 6 (KNN) Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh will be participating in the thirty- ninth session of conference of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to be held on June 7 and 8 in Rome, Italy. The conference is the sovereign governing body of the organisation.

The main function of the conference is to determine the policy and approve the budget of the organisation and to exercise other powers conferred upon it by the Constitution.

This includes making recommendations to the member nations and associate members regarding review of issues pertaining to food and agriculture for their implementation through national action and making recommendations to any international organisation regarding any matter pertaining to the purposes of the organisation.

The conference functions through plenary and two commissions namely Commission I -Deals with the regional conferences, technical committees and Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and other substantive and policy matters and Commission II - Deals with programme and budgetary matters.

The Constitution of the FAO provides for “a Conference of the organisation in which each member nation and associate member shall be represented by one delegate”.

At present FAO has 194 member nations plus1 member organisation, the European Union and two associate members - the Faroe Islands and Tokelau. (KNN/ST)