The need for innovative approaches to agriculture that make crop production efficient and resilient to shocks and disruptions came under the spotlight today at the opening of the first Global Conference on Sustainable Plant Production organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Under the theme Innovation, Efficiency and Resilience, the hybrid event held at the FAO headquarters will focus on how to produce more food, sustainably, with less of an environmental impact and ways in which to strengthen local and diversified agrifood systems. 

The conference which runs from November 2-4, comes at a time when global demand for food, feed, fuel and fibre is increasing, with estimates that the world will need 50 percent more food by 2050 to feed the increasing global population. Currently some 828 million people face hunger and a third of the world’s population - 2.3 billion people – do not have access to adequate food.