FAO Event: Sustainably feeding 10 billion people in 2050

“Sustainably feeding 10 billion people in 2050 – A multidisciplinary Science & Innovation Agenda for Agrifood Systems Transformation”

Keynote presentation by Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, the Chief Scientist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

With SDG2* and other goals of the 2030 Agenda being off-track, we need to urgently transform our agrifood systems. Science, technology and innovation (STI) can bring opportunities to accelerate this transformation. STI will also allow the agrifood systems to cope with tremendous pressure to produce more in order to meet the growing demands for food of the growing world’s population – which is estimated to reach 10 billion in 2050; alongside the need to produce more nutritious food more sustainably, with less input and less harmful impact on the environment.

Guided by the first ever FAO Science and Innovation Strategy, FAO developed new products and initiatives including the Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook (ATIO); Gene Editing and Agrifood Systems issue paper; FAO Innovation Fund; horizon scanning and strategic foresight exercise; development of digital capacities to foster agripreneurship for rural communities; facilitating e-Agriculture Community with over 20 000 members; and introducing behavioural science in projects that involved farmers and slaughterhouses. Potential collaboration on science, technology and innovation between FAO and EPFL will be explored.

*United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero hunger by 2030