World Food Forum: Science, technology and innovation as drivers of climate action in agrifood systems

The second edition of the World Food Forum’s Science and Innovation Forum opened at FAO’s headquarters on Wednesday with a focus on enhancing the accessibility to the most appropriate and updated climate technologies, innovative practices and local knowledge in agrifood systems for climate change adaptation, resilience and mitigation.

Under the theme Science and Innovation for Climate Action, the gathering, which takes place in hybrid form until 20 October, will allow thousands of partners from around the world to offer their perspectives during a series of roundtables and panel discussions.

High-level speakers at the forum’s opening included FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, Ameenah Gurib Fakim, a former President of Mauritius, as well as government officials from Honduras, Lebanon and Slovakia.

"Science, technology and innovation can be a powerful engine to end hunger and malnutrition, as well as boost climate action, but knowledge alone does not drive change. Transformative governance and strengthening the science-policy-society interface is critical," the FAO Director-General said in his opening remarks.

Gurib-Fakim, who is also a biodiversity scientist, spoke about the need for greater investments in new technologies from both the private and public sectors, and placed her focus on the vastly untapped agricultural potential in Africa.

Abbas Hajj Hassan, Lebanon’s Minister of Agriculture, said networking and capacity-building among nations should be prioritized, and noted that many farmers in his country still rely on traditional practices.

Laura Suazo, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras, focused on the need to ensure that the benefits of science and technology are made available to all.

Martin Kovac, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Slovakia, was invited to share his country’s experience with water management.

Also providing their contributions to the discussions was Chavonda Jacobs-Young, the Chief Scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture, who called for immediate action on context-specific solutions, and SUN Qixin, a professor at the China Agricultural University in Beijing, who provided a glimpse of China’s efforts to use technology and innovation to address climate change, including innovative solutions such as new farming and breeding techniques.

The forum then hosted a second event, entitled Future Forward: Advancing Climate Solutions through Science, Innovation and Technology, in which academics, government officials, private sector members and non-governmental organization innovators shared examples of science-based evidence of climate change adaptation and mitigation, technological advancements and innovative solutions suitable for agrifood system actors.

These include such ground-breaking innovations as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and biotechnology, as well as FAO’s flagship Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook.

Notable speakers at this event included FAO’s Director-General; Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri; Gabriel Mbairobe, Cameroon’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Christina Gravert, a behavioural economics professor at the University of Copenhagen; and Zimbabwe’s Science Ambassador, Sicelo Dube.

Sobering times

The three-day forum hosts dozens of events designed to facilitate the sharing of experiences and lessons learned on implementing concrete solutions to step up climate action, supporting Members to accelerate efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the FAO Four Betters, leaving no one behind.

Topics up for discussion include innovative solutions to address and assess loss and damage in agrifood systems, artificial intelligence and digital tools for climate-resilient agrifood systems, the bioeconomy as a catalyst for agrifood systems transformation, as well as ways of strengthening science-policy interfaces in support of effective decision-making.

This year's forum, a prominent part of FAO's flagship World Food Forum, is taking place at a sobering time.

An estimated 735 million people faced hunger in 2022, while more than 3.1 billion people in the world were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. Meanwhile, millions of children under the age of five continue to suffer from malnutrition.

And although agriculture is the cornerstone of numerous economies around the world, it continues to absorb 26 percent of the damage and loss brought on by disasters, especially droughts and floods. Farmers, fishers, forest-dependent people and pastoralists bear the brunt of these repercussions.

At the same time, agrifood systems produce a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, further intensifying the climate impacts.

Forum's aims

Against this background, FAO sees science and innovation, including innovations stemming from traditional and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, as game changers. The challenge is to identify and develop evidence-based solutions.

FAO is already working with such solutions to enhance productivity, curb methane emissions, improve value chain efficiency, reduce food loss and waste, and restore ecosystems, among many other important actions.

The agency recently convened two Global Conferences on Sustainable Livestock Transformation and on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization, as well as the Rome Water Dialogue. Through such events, FAO is providing a professional platform for all actors across all regions to highlight available knowledge and ensure equitable access to the latest information and innovation for all.

According to FAO, the fundamental goal of SIF 2023 is to explore the applications of innovative science and technologies to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems to ensure they are better able to withstand and adapt to, as well as mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.

Partners are invited to share their science-based experiences and lessons learned, and to come up with science- and evidence-based solutions for concrete actions going forward.