FAO Director-General: sustainable agri-food systems cannot be achieved without digital technologies

20 September 2021, Rome – Better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life cannot be achieved without digital technologies, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said Sunday at the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development Annual Fall Meeting 2021.

The Director-General noted that all the initiatives to foster digital transformation need to be inclusive and safeguard basic human rights.

He highlighted the need to leverage digital technologies in rural areas to address multiple market failures, facilitate smallholder farmers’ integration into markets, and drive rural demand.

Among critical bottlenecks in the adoption of digital technologies in rural areas, the Director-General cited the lack of digital infrastructure, including digital networks and digital public goods. He also called for closing the digital divide, stressing that the digital gender divide in particular poses multiple disadvantages for rural women.

In his address, Qu also spoke of the vital role of reliable data to help mitigate risks, increase resilience for the most vulnerable, provide digital financial services, attract start-ups, and improve digital rural transformation.

The recent study on innovative financing models of the Broadband Commission indicates that an estimated $428 billion investment is needed to provide universal affordable access to digital networks to all by 2030. 

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to promote the use and adoption of digital technologies to facilitate agri-food systems transformation.

The Organization is already contributing to the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation by championing Digital Public Goods.

Its Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform serves as an example of a digital public good to create interactive data maps, analyse trends and identify real-time gaps and opportunities.

Moreover, FAO has launched the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative, which seeks to identify 1000 villages across the world to convert them into digital villages, the International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, and signed the Rome Call for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics.

FAO also co-leads the Data and Digital Coalition of the UN Food Systems Summit.

Established in 2020 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),  the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development aims at boosting the contribution and importance of broadband technologies in the international policy agenda, and expanding broadband access in every country, as key to accelerating progress towards national and international development targets.