The defining challenge of our time is meeting the food demands of nearly 10 billion people by 2050, while maintaining economic growth and protecting the environment. It’s an extraordinary act of balancing priorities. AI and robotic farming will play a crucial role in this act.
Author: Maximo Torero
Podcast: Ending Hunger Is a Great Balancing Act
Hunger is a complex problem. This podcast interview explains what the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is doing to tackle this complex challenge, while protecting the environment and empowering vulnerable people.
Video: Centroamérica sin Hambre — ¿Cuál debe ser el enfoque para hacerlo realidad?
This 10-minute video — “Central America without Hunger: What is the Best Approach to Make It Happen?” — highlights the food and nutrition challenges facing the region and how they can be addressed.
If We Want to Save Earth, We Need to Change How We Eat
Decades ago, improved seeds and chemical fertilizers doubled or tripled crop yields and helped save millions from famine. But the pursuit of higher crop yields at all costs is what got us here today.
Food Waste: A Moral and Technical Failure
FAO’s close review of what we know about food loss offers a reminder that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. For example, cassava, a staple in much of the tropics, perishes much more quickly than potatoes in temperate regions do.
Data Is Everything When It Comes to Food Loss and Waste
The lack of data has been a major cause for inaction. Without knowing how much food is lost where, we can’t know which interventions would be effective.
First End Hunger to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
If we want to envision a world free of hunger and malnutrition, we need sustainable trade with clear rules. Incentives for agricultural producers must change, too.
Linking the Dots: A “Food System” Approach to End Hunger and All Forms of Malnutrition
Unfortunately, countries keep subsidizing products of low nutritious content, favoring staple foods over fresh produce. This has a negative effect on nutrition and dietary diversity, often where they are most needed.
It Is Time to Improve Nutrition and Fast-Track Food Security for All
SOFI 2019 begins to track a new indicator, FIES, that goes beyond hunger and includes those affected by “moderate” food insecurity. Given the broader scope, this indicator will help make the report more useful for policymakers in reducing food insecurity and malnutrition.
Policy Brief: Sustainable Prevention of Food Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa
Food crises and distress migration will continue to plague the African continent in the decades ahead, unless massive investments are made to make the region’s agriculture and food systems more resilient.
Kid Power: Spurring Positive Change Through Children
While the interest in using Information and Communication Technologies to provide farmers with agricultural advice has been growing, the low level of computer literacy among the farmers in developing countries has been a major barrier.
Policy Brief: Promoting Competition in the Fertilizer Industry in Africa
Not much has been said about the market structure or competitive behavior along the supply chain in the highly concentrated fertilizer industry, nor about how this affects fertilizer uptake in the region.
