Quality seeds are crucial for sustainable agri-food systems

The Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries was convened virtually by FAO and enjoyed the participation of FAO Members, partners, industry and opinion leaders. The participants engaged at the two-day conference in focused dialogues on how best to make quality seeds of nutritious and resilient crop varieties available to farmers.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu opened the conference by stressing that “this Global Seed Conference will contribute to a better production, for which better seeds are fundamental”. He added that there can be no good crops without good seeds, emphasizing that good seeds are the foundation of sustainable agri-food systems.

The event generated evidence for actions to contribute to achieving the goals of FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 for the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life.

The conference enabled experts to put forward context-specific scientific and technological means for research and development. Participants discussed safeguarding desirable crop traits, enhancing farmers’ access to quality seeds and planting materials as well as creating an enabling environment for effective solutions. Interventions addressed the strengthening of institutional and human capacities in the scientific and technological advances in concert with an enabling environment of adequate policies, regulations and laws that facilitate the participation of all relevant actors as partners in the co-creation of solutions.

The Head of Unit for Biotechnology, Irene Sacristán Sánchez from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), attended the conference. In her intervention on policy and regulatory issues of new breeding technologies in the European Union, she underlined the shared commitment to sustainable agri-food systems embedded in the European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork Strategy. Sánchez added that biotechnology plays an important role in the transition to sustainable agri-food systems and that the European Commission is preparing a range of policy initiatives based on the recently released EU study on new genomic techniques. The study provides an in-depth look on new biotechnologies and their use in crops, animals and microorganisms.

Additional information about the event can be found here

You can read more about FAO’s work on genetic resources here.