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Means for improving global food security by ensuring smallholder farmers have access to the latest innovations in crop genetics will be explored in a 2024 World Food Prize panel discussion cosponsored by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
The event takes place Oct. 29 alongside the World Food Prize’s premier event in Des Moines. BIO is cosponsoring the panel with USAID, the U.S. agency supporting international development, and 2Blades, a BIO member whose mission is “to advance plant science discoveries into safe, effective, and long-lasting solutions to crop losses caused by diseases, insects, and weeds.”
“The widening production gap between commercial and smallholder farmers stems from the highly fragmented nature of the path that connects innovations in the lab with farmers in the field, referred to as the Agricultural Innovation Chain,” explains an announcement for the panel.
Ensuring smallholder farmers can access the latest innovations is essential, according to organizations whose members are part of the panel.
“Commercial growers rely on improved seeds and crop chemicals to protect their harvests, but these methods are struggling to keep up with threats that are evolving and expanding to new parts of the globe,” according to 2Blades. “Smallholder farmers tend to fare far worse. Unlike commercial growers, they often lack access to resources like improved seed varieties, and chemicals are potentially expensive, potentially counterfeit, and harmful to human health and the environment.”
“Approximately 97 percent of the world’s farmers farm on less than 10 hectares (about 25 acres) of land,” according to Bayer Global, a BIO member contributing to the panel. “They represent approximately 550 million smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially across Asia and Africa. These farmers, many of them owning under 2 hectares (about 5 acres), feed more than half of the population in these regions.”
Who is speaking on the panel?
The 2024 World Food Prize panel cosponsored by BIO will feature speakers including:
- Marc Ghislain, Former Global Leader, International Potato Center (CIP), a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweet potato, and Andean roots and tubers. CIP delivers innovative science-based solutions to enhance access to affordable, nutritious food, fosters inclusive, sustainable business and employment growth, and drives the climate resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems.
- Sofia Tesfazion, Director of Resource Mobilization, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which was created in response to the need for an effective mechanism to support access to technology for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Margaret Karembu, Director, ISAAA-AfriCenter. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) is a not-for-profit international organization that shares the benefits of crop biotechnology with various stakeholders, particularly resource-poor farmers in developing countries. The AfriCenter has a mission to share knowledge on agricultural biotechnology and biosafety through strategic communications and outreach for informed policy and choice.
- Kamil Witek, Group Leader, 2Blades, which seeks to help smallholder farmers “access to innovation for environmentally sustainable food systems that use less land, water, and chemicals.”
- Stella Salvo, Head of Breeding Partnerships for Smallholder Farmers, Bayer Crop Science. “In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we are committed to contribute to feeding the growing population while respecting planetary boundaries,” according to Bayer. “We start at the farms of those who form the backbone of food security in many rural regions of the world. Smallholder farmers’ efforts to escape poverty and feed their families are our efforts as well.”
2024 World Food Prize’s Borlaug Dialogue
The panel is a side event of the 2024 World Food Prize’s annual Borlaug Dialogue, focused on food security and agriculture, and will include the awarding of the coveted annual World Food Prize on Oct. 31.
“The World Food Prize is awarded for a specific, exceptionally significant, individual achievement that advances human development with a demonstrable increase in the quantity, quality, availability of, or access to food through creative interventions at any point within the full scope of the food system,” according to World Food Prize.”
