FAO and Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley forge agrifood systems innovation partnership

Molondin, Switzerland - Director-General QU Dongyu has signed, on behalf of FAO, a Letter of Intent with the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) to promote innovation and safeguard global agrifood systems for the future. 

The signing ceremony took place at an event held today at Agropole, a campus in the Swiss town of Molondin dedicated to shaping the future of food. Also in attendance at the event were Marie-France Tschudin, the President of SFNV's Steering Committee, and Christina Senn-Jakobsen, SFNV's Chief Executive Officer. 

The SFNV is a not-for-profit network of Swiss food innovators spanning universities, large enterprises, innovation accelerators, SMEs and startups with the aim of reshaping agrifood systems to drive better human and planetary health. Swiss startups were in attendance and offered the Director-General first-hand experience of some Swiss innovative solutions.

The agreement signed today underscores the critical importance of strengthening collaboration between the public and private sectors, in line with FAO's Strategy for Private Sector Engagement. 

"We are excited to embark on this collaboration with the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley as it is an important partnership for us as we work together to ensure healthy diets and nutrition for all," Qu said. "By collaborating and leveraging innovative solutions and Swiss expertise, we can be more optimistic about some of the most pressing challenges currently facing global agrifood systems." 

The Letter of Intent will create mechanisms to develop innovative solutions to address the root causes and mitigate the consequences of the challenges facing our agrifood systems, such as the climate crisis. 

The FAO-SFNV collaboration will focus on identifying innovative solutions in agrifood systems. This includes addressing healthy diets and nutrition, as well as food loss and waste. The collaboration will leverage Swiss leadership in science, technology, innovation, business, and sustainability. Additionally, it will promote inclusivity with solutions that can be implemented in low- and middle-income countries, benefiting marginalized groups such as family farmers, cooperatives, and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The signing ceremony capped a three-day tour of Switzerland that saw Qu visit a number of Swiss centres of agricultural excellence. Today’s schedule took him to a Gruyère dairy farm and cheese production and Agroscope, an agricultural research centre.