The BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting is a high-level forum that brings together the Ministers of Agriculture from the BRICS member nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—to strengthen agricultural cooperation and address global challenges. The meeting is a recurring event, with the first declaration by BRIC Agriculture Ministers occurring in Moscow in 2010. The forum was created to leverage the collective strength of BRICS countries, which are major emerging markets and agricultural powers, to safeguard global food security and nutrition. BRICS nations are significant to global food systems, as they produce over one-third of the world's food commodities and are home to roughly half of the world's 550 million family farms.
The meeting functions as a mechanism to review progress, endorse strategic frameworks, and guide the work of technical bodies like the BRICS Working Group on Agriculture. A key mechanism is the adoption of multi-year Action Plans for Agricultural Cooperation, such as the Action Plan 2021-2024, which focuses on themes like food security, farmer welfare, conservation of agro-biodiversity, and promoting digital agricultural solutions. The meetings also result in a Joint Declaration that outlines strategic commitments, such as improving food production, enhancing overall agricultural productivity, and focusing on smallholders and vulnerable groups. The ministers also work to operationalize the BRICS-Agricultural Research Platform (BARP) to promote cooperation in agricultural research and technology transfer.
The meeting connects to the broader BRICS mechanism and its goal of promoting a multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. It also relates to international standards set by bodies like the Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention. A recent change occurred at the 15th BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in Brasilia on April 17, 2025, which marked the conclusion of the 2021–2024 Action Plan and the launch of the new 2025–2028 Action Plan. This meeting also saw the launch of the BRICS Land Restoration Partnership to address land degradation. The core focus on food security, sustainable agriculture, and farmer welfare has remained constant.