In November 2021, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized the ‘Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries’, with many prominent speakers and lively panel discussions.
In his opening remarks, Dr QU Dongyu, Director-General of the FAO stated that the world needs to produce 50 per cent more food to adequately feed everyone, and the only way to achieve this target is by increasing crop productivity, through science and innovation.
“With innovative technologies and new business models we can do so in a sustainable manner, to protect our planet, our limited natural resources and biodiversity. And ensure profitability and social equality,” he added. In his view, it would be necessary to adapt our agri-food systems to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis, and to reduce our environmental footprint.
He mentioned that all the SDGs could be achieved, including SDG1 ‘no poverty’ and SDG2 ‘zero hunger’. But we would need to do things differently. Business as usual is no longer an option.
Qu noted that an improved and resilient crop variety can deliver a good and nutritious yield. “We need green innovation for sustainable agri-food systems — and to lay the path to green agriculture, which is a fundamental approach for sustainable agri-food systems. It will ensure food security, improve human wellbeing, create opportunities for employment and decent work for all, and protect the planet, now and in the future.
The Global Conference focused on the green development of the seed industry, with four major objectives:
- Increase awareness of the contributions of the seed industry to green innovation for sustainable crop production.
- Promote cooperation among sectors, especially to enhance public-private partnerships and international cooperation to enable greater access to resources and sharing of knowledge and information.
- Commit to setting new priorities and targets for mobilizing scientific, technical, and financial resources to strengthen seed systems; and
- Encourage constructive debate on innovation and to share updated knowledge and evidence-research and development are key drivers for improved crop varieties.
To support this work, Qu explained that they had identified five key themes:
- advanced technologies: including modern biotechnologies, such as gene editing and genetic improvement, are important tools for generating superior crop varieties.
- conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, both in nature and in gene banks, and relevant data must be made available for research and breeding programmes.
- crop varietal development and adoption: plant breeding should be encouraged as it generates progressively superior crop varieties adapted to different stress environments and requiring fewer external inputs.
- seed systems: fit-for-purpose seed systems for delivering context-specific cropping systems solutions to farmers should become the norm; and
- policy and governance effective policies, legislation and regulations must be in place to enable all relevant stakeholders to engage beneficially in the seed value chain.
According to Qu, governments are the key drivers to eradicate hunger. “They should launch national seed actions to strengthen the seed value chain, and FAO will continue to support governments to develop and implement national policies, regulations and laws to create predictability and foster confidence in seed systems.”
Qu explained that there were only nine harvests ahead before we reach our 2030 agenda. “Let us sow the new seeds for promising future now! FAO is committed to leverage the momentum generated by this conference to transform the evidence provided into action on the ground.”
