Statement by Shenggen Fan
Director General, IFPRI
(as prepared)
G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina
27 July 2018
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to commend the G20 Agriculture Ministers for their continued commitment to achieving sustainable development, eliminating hunger and malnutrition, and combating climate change—largely under the frameworks of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.
Despite progress, human and planetary health are at risk. The number of undernourished people worldwide rose from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. Almost 151 million children are stunted, and more than 650 million adults are obese. Under business-as-usual, the agriculture sector alone will almost reach the 2-degree target emission levels for all sectors in 2050.
Global trends such as rapid urbanization, new technologies, food safety concerns, and antimicrobial resistance, as well as a notable rise in antiglobalization sentiments—particularly with regard to international trade—are posing challenges to food systems everywhere.
These trends and challenges are complex and intertwined. Ensuring a sustainable food future for all will therefore require an integrated food-systems approach that seeks multiple wins and minimizes tradeoffs. Soil health, food loss and waste, information and communications technologies (ICTs), anti-microbial resistance (AMR), and trade must be priorities in any such approach.
Healthy soil is essential to food production and sustainable agriculture. It is also closely linked to land restoration and serves as a carbon sink, making it critical to climate mitigation. Technologies such as CGIAR’s Soil Organic Carbon App, which calculates carbon sequestration levels in soil, can help to inform farmers, researchers, and policy makers as they strive to achieve soil mitigation goals.
Reducing food loss and waste will help to relieve pressure on the environment, mitigate climate change, and promote food security. Moreover, reducing losses from food spoilage, for example, will increase producers’ efficiency. Improvements in infrastructure—especially roads, railways, and electricity—and post-harvest technologies should be complemented by efficiency-enhancement measures along the value chain, including better storage facilities, access to credit, and food-safety regulations.
Finally, investing in information and communications technologies (ICTs) can bring many benefits. ICTs, such as e-commerce, can be instrumental in connecting rural producers to expanding urban markets. Mobile apps can track farm performance, providing small farmers, especially young ones, with data to demonstrate their credit-worthiness. Furthermore, ICTs can improve surveillance, tracking, and testing of cross-border diseases and food-safety issues.
As I mentioned, antimicrobial resistance—or AMR—is a critical problem that must be addressed. AMR is threating nutrition, health, and livelihoods. It could cause an annual loss in global GDP of up to 5% by 2050, as well as lower productivity, less world trade, and more people living in extreme poverty. To protect humans, livestock, and the environment from AMR, we must promote evidence-based policies and cooperation across ministries and sectors.
Despite the trend toward trade protectionism, promoting open, fair, and transparent trade systems is critical. Trade in better-functioning markets and responsible agricultural investments can help to reduce price volatility, foster inclusive economic growth, and increase agricultural productivity, thereby supporting food security in a sustainable way. It is therefore important to eliminate distortionary trade policies, such as import tariffs and export bans, and strengthen trade facilitation at the global and regional levels.
The G20 should lead the charge in promoting actionable, multiple-win solutions in each of these priority areas. The solutions must be underpinned by strong evidence. In this regard, IFPRI and CGIAR will continue to advance knowledge on carbon sequestration, food waste and loss, ICTs, AMR, and trade policy, among many other topics. We remain committed to supporting the provision of global public goods—especially the G20’s efforts to ensure human and planetary health. We look forward to continuing to work together with partners and stakeholders from across sectors to foster sustainable, nutritious, and healthy food systems.