b'International Year of Plant Health / Year in ReviewWRAPPING UP A YEAR OF PLANT HEALTHAs the Year of Plant Health winds down, we look back at the Sustainable Development Goals and ways the industry is working toward them.Melissa ShipmanWHILE 2020 HASbeen a year filled with many things, one thing that has still continued to be celebrated is the Year of Plant Health. And although celebrations of the year are coming to an end, plant health is something that wont die down in the seed industry.To celebrate the end of the year, Seed World dives into some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the Year of Plant Health celebrated, and how the seed industry is working to meet those goals. Partnering for ProgressOur global food system is highly complex. It relies on multiple elements and actors: seed, soil, water, technology, farmers, traders, retailers, regulators, consumers and many more. Seed is at the beginning, the primaryDue to a complex food system, all perspectives need to be taken into account when looking input to all food production. Healthy soils,to better it. Organizations such as the World Seed Partnership see the importance to meanwhile, sustain all biological activitiespartner to reach goals.on the planet. And of course, none of this would be possible without the farmers We have great diversity of views, but who grow the crops. At the same time,the goals are the same in many ways, the policies in each country determineKeller says. In the end, we all have one how all of these activities take place. Withgoal in common and that is sustainability all these moving parts, one might wonderitself. We have to produce more with less if the various pieces of this vast agricul- and in a sustainable manner. tural community are moving in synchro- The United Nations General Assembly nicity, driving towards the same goals. declared 2020 as the International Year Michael Keller, secretary general ofof Plant Health and in doing so, the the International Seed Federation (ISF),International Plant Protection Convention believes this is precisely the reason why(IPPC) helped outline six of the UN the seed sector must engage. Seed is justSustainable Development Goals to go the starting point, but to build a well- along with the year, including No. 17: functioning food system, all the other per- strengthen the means of implementation spectives have to be taken into accountand revitalize the global partnership for because they are the key to answeringsustainable development. many of the problems we face in feedingWe have to accept this is somethingMichael Keller serves as secretary general the world.we have to do together, Keller says.of the International Seed Federation. 46/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2020'