Building resilience for Zero Hunger – FAO sheds insight on how technology can benefit agriculture and rural development

“Technological innovation will be key to facing the challenges of today and tomorrow to feed a population that is expected to top 9 billion in 2050,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the United Nations, during the event “Farmers of the Future: Building resilience in rural areas” on 29 January at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Organized by the Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the event sought to encourage multi-stakeholder partnerships in the field of agriculture and rural development to positively impact the wellbeing of vulnerable communities living in rural areas and contribute to poverty eradication.

Participating in a panel for the event, Mucavi noted the need to increase food production by around 60 per cent to feed the world’s population, with 90 per cent of such increase coming from higher yields rather than the expansion of arable land. Mucavi also informed that innovative technologies can be used to ensure access to better data, allow farmers to more quickly and efficiently harvest crops, and reduce food loss. She cautioned however, that technology, per se, will be of little use for farmers if it is not accessible, affordable, or responsive to their needs and realities.

Hosting the event on behalf of DESA was Daniela Bas, the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development, who noted that ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition is one of the most ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that creating decent jobs and investing in agriculture and rural development is critical to ensuring that no one is left behind.

Delivering the opening remarks, Elisabeth Pape, Minister Counsellor for the European Union Delegation to the United Nations, observed the backdrop of rapid urbanization, in which migration from rural to urban areas has outpaced migration between states.

“Increasing the resilience of a country,” Pape noted, “therefore requires putting the right incentives and the right support to allow farmers choose a different resilience response, a response that allows then to maintain their functions as farmers in and for the society.”

The event was part of the “Expert Discussion Series: Towards inclusive, accessible and resilient societies,” which seeks to function as a platform to share best practices, identify emerging issues and encourage global partnerships between the public and private sector, academics, and civil society, to achieve the social dimensions of the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.