Agriculture and agrifood systems offer the best path to create a sustainable world with inclusive prosperity, the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu stressed today in a keynote address to the Members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.
“Our agrifood systems need a paradigm shift, and must be transformed,” stressed Qu, who was invited to outline his vision for how to end hunger and poverty and create a better world, particularly through the Four Betters (better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life) embedded in FAO’s Strategic Framework 2021-2030.
“Freedom from hunger is a basic right,” Qu said. “In the 21st century, we have all the necessary conditions, knowledge and capacities to eradicate it.”
The Nizami Ganjavi International Center was established in 2012, in Azerbaijan, with the mission of promoting learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding in the world.
Among the participants in the Board of Trustees of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center were numerous former heads of state and government from around the world, such as Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia and Co-Chair of the Center, and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, former President of Croatia, –as well as former top officials of international organizations and UN bodies, such as Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former President of the UN General Assembly and formerly a minister for her home country Ecuador.
“We live in challenging times,” he noted, pointing to the 811 million people hungry today and the additional 2 billion people who will need to eat by 2050, as well as the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising food and fuel prices, both coming while many household and government budgets are squeezed. Rising fertilizer prices, as well as prices for seeds and animal feed, are also a concern, as lower use of such agricultural inputs point to “the real prospect of lower food productivity resulting in even higher food prices” and possibly further rises in the number of undernourished people in the future, he added.
Problems can drive progress
Qu recalled the lean times of his childhood in China and said science-driven breakthroughs such as Yuan Longpin’s innovations in the 1970s with hybrid rice - which now account for more than half the country’s cultivation - made him realize that “problems could also be the drivers of progress.”
Agricultural technology holds the power to produce enough food for all people, he said. Not only are agrifood systems key to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, but “agriculture is the most inclusive tool to end poverty and hunger,” the Director-General said.
FAO’s Strategic Framework for the next decade aims to support FAO Members to transform agrifood systems, which requires holistic approaches to minimize trade-offs using data, science, technologies, innovation and enabling policies.
The Four Betters are the core of FAO’s road map:
Better production means increasing farm incomes, yields, productivity and optimizing resource utilization, as well as reducing food loss.
Better nutrition means steering agricultural productivity to produce safe and high-quality food through sustainable methods and fostering balanced consumption as well as zero food waste.
Better environment means developing precision and circular agriculture to optimize the use of agrochemicals, fostering green and climate-resilient farming and promoting the sustainable management of forest and marine resources to protect biodiversity.
Fourthly, a better life for all means assuring inclusive rural transformation, especially for vulnerable peoples, by scaling up investment and facilitating access for the rural poor to assets, services, finance, decent jobs and business opportunities and improved livelihoods.
All of the above, the Director-General emphasized, requires removing constraints faced by women both in participating in and benefiting from the transformation process, and empowering youth, so that no one is left behind.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Kateryna Yushchenko, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Ambassador Susan Elliott and Ambassador Robert Cekuta discussed impact of the armed conflicts, especially Ukraine war on food security. “Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe” and is among three exporters of grain in the world. If food prices will continue rising as it is, then it will create potential hunger. Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Zlatko Lagumdzija and Ismail Serageldin, extended invitation to the Director-General to join upcoming IX Global Baku Forum, as well as to look for a partnership of Nizami Ganjavi International Center and Food and Agricultural Organization.
The Director-General also answered questions from the Trustees on how to promote the role of science across the Organization’s work. “I hope we all agree on the potential of Science and Innovation to help us move forward to a better world for all,” said FAO Chief Scientist Ismahane Elouafi, who moderated the discussion.