Here is my submission for the FAO OIN HLPE panel who are preparing the report on "From Foresight to Field: Exploring regional and multistakeholder perspectives to implement a foresight on emerging technologies and innovations in agrifood systems"
My response to "Anticipating approaches as well as contributions to a global discussion about the potential of technologies and innovations to transform agrifood systems of the future."
USAID has failed in their mission to show extremely poor people in underdeveloped countries how to have food security and make a living in their own country. This is one reason for the border crisis in the US. USAID is encouraging extremely poor people to plant the wrong crops. Dr. Booker T Whatley informed the US public and the US Government what crops poor people should plant. He made a huge improvement to the lives of small farmers in the US and especially black farmers. USAID did not listen to his advice, but others did listen. In particular, the former CEO and founder of Domino’s Pizza, Tom Monaghan, listened. He created a statue for Dr Booker T Whatley to commemorate him and put it on the Booker T Whatley farm https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/small-farms-zmaz88jazgoe/
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTTHXPnIZ.
A copy of Dr. Whatley's book shows Dr. Whatley's statue and provides more information on Dr. Whatley’s food security and small farm development efforts.
The FAO may be able to help efforts to aiding extremely poor farmers in African countries in their quest to have food security and make a living in their own country by reviewing the seed policies that they have recommended to African countries. The biodiversity of seed availability in many African countries is poor except in South Africa. Current policy has the appearance that Dutch South African garden hobbyists were instrumental in ensuring that a robust selection of seeds were available in South Africa and that Europeans do not care about the availability of Native African seeds that were grown locally in Africa or imported from Ethiopia and other African countries. For more information on the problems associated with the strict import requirements for seeds to African countries see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2023.2210005 and https://www.thenation.com/article/world/new-colonialist-food-economy/
The FAO’s Office of Innovation (OIN) in collaboration with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), needs to work with the Cameroon Government organizations MINEPAT, MINIRES, and MINADER to implement the ideas in the report “Harvesting change: Harnessing emerging technologies and innovations for agrifood system transformation”. In addition, the FAO and the French government working on the Emergency Food Crisis Response Project (Pulcca) and the Cameroon Rural Food Security Support Project (Secal) need to ensure that the proper seeds are available for implement my "Three Sisters Garden Food Security" project ideas as well as other food security food production resiliency, nutrition, biodiversity, and economic improvement concepts
الدكتور Paul Rigterink