Keynote Address at the Winter Conference 2021 of the Eco-Social Forum: How to build an advanced society with green, innovative, competitive and sustainable development

Keynote Address of Dr. QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at the Winter Conference 2021

21 January 2021

How to build an advanced society with green, innovative, competitive and sustainable development

As delivered

 

 

Thank you, moderator. It’s a great honour to accept the invitation from the Austrian government.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year!

1. I am pleased to participate in the Winter Conference 2021 of the Eco-Social Forum and extend my appreciation to the organizers for the invitation.

2. I would have certainly enjoyed visiting the beautiful and famous city of Vienna and explore its rich cultural history when condition is permitting and also learn your experience with best practices of agriculture and rural development.

3. My speech today will focus on two aspects:

• First, Austria’s rural and agricultural development and what other countries, in particular Land Locked Developing Nations and those situated in mountainous regions and areas, can learn from you.
• Second one is the role of innovation and digital technologies in the agriculture and food sector for tomorrow, for the future.

***

4. A Chinese proverb says that in order to gain new insights we need to study the past.

5. This is why I will start by reflecting on the elements that contributed to the impressive path of rural development Austria has taken since the end of World War II.

6. I firmly believe that solid and consistent policies are the backbone of agricultural and rural development.

7. Austria’s policies aimed to ensure preserving a viable, economically sound, farm-based sustainable agriculture.

8. This was combined with encouraging and supporting a diversified rural economy which provides income opportunities both on- and off farm.

9. The maintenance of family farms, a wide ecological orientation and further development of the competitiveness of agriculture also played a key role.

10. Infrastructure is the other side of the coin – and this goes beyond roads and train lines.

11. Driven by a strong will and political consensus to create equal living conditions in all regions of the country, together with investments in tourism, it is noteworthy how Austria ensures education, social and health infrastructure to its rural areas, resulting in prospering and steady development.

12. As a proud son of farmers, I am very well aware how life-changing the provision of adequate infrastructure in villages and towns is.

13. Rural tourism and Agri-tourism can play an important role as ways of celebrating rural cultural heritage and opening additional sources of income for the rural population.

14. Austria is a good example of how infrastructure development in rural areas attracts investments in tourism, building up the service economy.  And also, building up the township industry for decent jobs for rural women and the young.

15. The alpine regions of Austria with their high nature and landscape values make farming more challenging.

16. Preserving agriculture in mountain areas is important not just for food production and income generation, but also to safeguard cultural heritage, biodiversity and landscape management, and not least to sustain tourism attraction.

17. Austria has been at the forefront in developing support measures for farmers in mountain areas, already prior to joining the EU and since then utilizing the opportunities of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy, including support to organic farming and Geographical Indication (GI).

18. Consequently, farmers in Austria’s mountainous areas now often have mixed livelihood strategies, combining on and off farm income opportunities.

19. Strong rural institutions are also essential for the sustainable agricultural and rural development.

20. Austria has a long tradition of organizing agricultural interest groups. Since the demand for high-quality and healthy food can only be met through effective cooperation, famers are part of unions focusing on various product groups.

21. For example, the Austrian Farmers Association has 236 000 members, who are organized in national, regional and local farmers associations.

22. This nationwide network is based on bottom-up cooperation, which makes the flow of information and exchange of knowledge more efficient. Advisory services are also widely available for the members of the farmer groups.

23. Moreover, almost half of Austria is covered by forests and the country has a profound experience in sustainable forest management.

24. Clearly, Austria has a lot to offer in terms of experience, best practices and technical knowledge. It could serve as a model for other countries with comparable landscapes and similar challenges.

25. With the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, since I came to the office as FAO DG, we provide the ideal framework for such collaboration and partnership, in particular for the benefit of Land Locked Developing Countries and mountainous regions.

26. The Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which is evidence-based, country-led and country-owned, aims to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development to eradicate poverty (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1) and to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition (SDG 2).

27. In so doing, it contributes to the attainment of all other SDGs.

28. The initiative adopts a robust matchmaking approach that proactively brings together target countries with donors, the private sector, international financial institutions, academia and civil society to mobilize means of implementation that support accelerated actions.

29. It prioritizes countries and territories within countries where poverty and hunger are most concentrated or where national capacities are most limited.

30. The Hand-in-Hand Initiative provides an opportunity to develop solutions tailored to the specific situations in the beneficiary countries.

31. The partnership with Austria could include technical areas such as:

• Sustainable agricultural and rural development in mountainous areas;
• Diversification of the rural economy, both on and off farm, with focus on rural tourism and agri-tourism;
• Sustainable forest management;
• Effective farm advisory services;
• Strengthening cooperation among farmers and with other rural businesses and key players;
• Support to smallholders and family farms with focus on the most vulnerable; and
• Youth employment and empowerment of rural population.

32. I look forward to translating this into concrete collaboration with well-defined results. I really highly value and applaud the experience of the Austrian agriculture and rural development during the past 70 years or more.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

33. Turning to the future, we need to take stock of the global situation of food and agriculture today.

34. A situation that was already highly critical prior to the pandemic: Worldwide, almost 690 million people were undernourished in 2019. Three billion could not afford a healthy diet.

35. COVID-19 then brought about a crisis of a magnitude without parallel in modern times.

36. The pandemic laid bare the fragility of our agri-food systems, the frailty of our food supply chains, the precarious nature of the agricultural labour force and the thin line that separates many families from poverty.

37. The livelihood of vulnerable groups deteriorated in many countries, including smallholders, as well as women and youth in rural areas.

38. This pandemic has re-emphasized the importance of local food production and the sustainable use of local natural resources to ensure food security for all.  That means we have to take all the holistic tools to get all food security sustainable. We have to keep the international trade open, functioning, free trade, and also we have to enhance the local production for locals because different regions have different special flavours and preferences. So those two aspects is no contradiction, as my friend, Minister of Germany [Julia Klöckner, Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection] said, we have to keep all those elements together, balanced. Different countries and different regions have different solutions to  keep a sustainable supply for food security. That’s what we learned from the pandemic.

39. FAO launched a comprehensive COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme, for immediate and medium to longer-term actions to prevent the health crisis becoming a food crisis.

40. This holistic programme is designed not only to help countries for recovery, but also to build back better and greener and stronger towards transforming agri-food systems in the world. 

41. The pandemic has also demonstrated the importance of innovation and digital technologies and their potential to ensure resilience against such crisis in the future.

42. The pandemic reinforced an already existing global trend towards innovation and digital transformation.

43. The emergence of the digital era has redefined the ways we work, communicate and experience the world.

44. I personally give speeches, attend events and participate in discussions around the world every day, without leaving my desk.

45. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have advocated for turning the crisis into the opportunity to embrace the digital world.

46. At FAO, we have done so much where we are now incorporating more and more innovative digital tools in our work.

47. The Hand-in-Hand Initiative that I had mentioned earlier, for instance, builds on state-of-the-art tools such as:

1. The Hand in Hand Geospatial Platform, which is a geographic information system (GIS) data platform that supports all stakeholders with rich, shareable data (such as agro-ecology, water, land, soils and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)), respecting the proper protocols of data confidentiality.
2. Another tool is the Data Lab for statistical innovation that is implementing the combined use of non-conventional data sources, big data, data science and text mining methods for decision-making and impact assessment.
3. And last September, together with Google, we launched Earth Map, an innovative, free and open-source Big Data tool, developed by FAO. It provides efficient, rapid, inexpensive and analytically cogent insights, drawn from satellites, as well as FAO's considerable wealth of agriculturally relevant data, accumulated during past decades, with a few clicks on a computer. So information collection and analyzing and processing, and sharing – that’s a new way of the digital economy. And also the sharing economy which is emerging globally from North America, East Asia, now comes to Europe, and also Africa and other regions like Latin America. So, you can see the Digital World, we are now one small village on the planet. So, One Health, One Destiny and One Future.

48. Globally, innovation and digital technologies in the agriculture sector need to be an essential element in building back better and greener.

49. The information needs of farmers are increasing as they must take more complex decisions on land use, crop selection, choice of markets and other areas that impact the livelihoods of their families and communities. That’s why I always say many times, since ten years ago, mobile phones are a pleasure for people who live in cities but mobile phones are a new farming tool for farmers, for agriculture companies and for agricultural dealers because they can offer you information from the environment, production, processing, and marketing - covering all the production lines, supply chains, and value chains. They are a direct connection between producers and consumers.

50. Having access to the right information at the right time and in the right form is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. This includes early weather warning and farming advisory services. I think you have a good foundation, fundamental advisory services in Austria. So if you transfer quickly from the traditional business model to the digital model, that is your new value-added service.

51. This is why I strongly believe that the mobile phone is the most important agricultural tool, not only for agriculture itself, and also for the whole value chain and creates a direct connection. This can be a new form of the C2C or C2B business model today and in the future.

52. The enhanced communication opportunities offered by the digitalization of Information and Communication Technologies are of particular relevance to family farming. 

53. They enable producers and consumers to be part of more sustainable agri-food systems and they directly impact on the way of farming and the way of consumption.

54. With appropriate virtual marketing approaches, farmers can be in close contact with their consumers, taking advantage of e-commerce platforms. And also to transfer the value of the protection environment to the farmer’s field to improve their way of farming.

55. I know that Minister Köstinger presented just a few days ago the newest edition of the Austrian Broadband Atlas, which shows the status of national coverage by 5G and high-speed internet. I think if you can manage to do that, you will be number one in Europe. That is your historic opportunity as a landlocked developed nation. You will be another new champion, for those types of nations, on the planet. I really applaud your speeding up the action and accumulating new experience that you can share with the world through the FAO. FAO is a big platform for you  to interact with other members globally.

56. The fact that the digital portfolio and agriculture are managed by the same Ministry in Austria has synergy potential for innovation and digital transformation in the agri-food systems.

57. Developing a digital strategy to ensure that all citizens receive adequate connectivity even in rural and remote areas is crucial.

58. Embedding digital literacy in the education system is also of great importance for the future.

59. FAO is recognizing the power of this future in its 1 000 Digital Villages Initiative. I said 1 000, it’s just a slogan. I think, in the world, we need millions of digital villages or small towns.

60. We are identifying 1 000 villages and small towns across the world that could progress through the various stages of a genuine digital transformation – from near digital isolation to connection, and to becoming digital players in their town and in their own right.

61. This effort will be implemented by FAO in collaboration with Microsoft, IBM, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other platforms, e-commerce platforms, and stakeholders.

62. I invite Austria to join this initiative and nominate a few villages which is really crucial for you and for Europe at large. So, I always say, you are a small country in population and in territory, but you can play a big role in transforming agro-food systems and rural development for Europe and for the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

63. A coherent and integrated approach to rural development is crucial also for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals because there is a big inequality in the world between rich and poor, between urban and rural areas, of course between genders. So, we have to take concrete action to narrow down this inequality. And Austria, your experience, even your lessons, are very valuable for the rest of the world. Especially for the landlocked countries and also how to set good examples for green, inclusive, sustainable and competitive agricultural economy.

64. The global challenges we face call for international cooperation and solidarity.

65. The world needs bold, transformative, sustainable solutions that are holistic, equitable and inclusive.

66. We need to harness the potential of innovation and digital technologies and share knowledge, experience, and best practices for the benefit of humankind.

67. FAO will continue to work hand-in-hand with all partners to scale-up innovation and disseminate promising technologies, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life. Not only for livelihood improvement, also for a better life, life quality, no matter if you’re a farmer or resident in a city, nor if you are rich or poor. We need a better life.  

68. And we look forward to an even stronger cooperation with Austria in the future. Because you have so much experience and the values was ignored, frankly speaking, by other big members in Europe or in the world even. I will be your volunteer ambassador to promote your experience and best practice in the agricultural, environment, and rural development. It’s not only for myself, for FAO, as I said, for human being, for humanity, for the people who we offer this service.

69. I wish you a successful continuation of this important conference.

70. I wish you try with your open, innovative approach to change and transform your agro-food system and rural development. Keep the rural development for your cultural heritage for the high quality of food and for the environment which we can sustain for generations to come. I thank you all. Thank you for offering me this chance to share my thoughts and my expectation from you.

71. Thank you, over to you moderator.