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2. Innovative Partnership and Financing Approaches for Agricultural R&D Around a third of calories consumed in Africa are imported from outside the continent. Low productivity of major staple crops is at the core of Africa’s food security challenge and the non-competitiveness of its agriculture. The discussion around this topic focused on the need to foster the relationship between national agricultural institutions and regional agricultural institutions, and it looked at some existing solutions with potential for scaling up: - Establish a (sovereign) Regional Research for Development fu... Read morend to invest in shared agricultural research priorities and address the questions and challenges that would arise as technologies are scaled up and rolled out across Africa. The AfDB and IFAD will work to set up the aforementioned facility. - Capitalize on the Technologies for Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program: TAAT brings together scientists from international and national agricultural research systems, governments, and the private sector to deliver agricultural technologies to farmers, at scale. Its implementation reveals that increased investments in Agricultural Research & Development and adoption of technology can help in boosting agricultural productivity, with important results for the overall strength of the food system. However, funding for regional and sub-regional research and development institutions has declined, limiting opportunities for investments in innovation and research and development. - Develop a new partnership capitalizing on the complementary roles that both the AfDB and IFAD have in enabling agricultural transformation in Africa, to revamp existing Africa’s Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure (RTDI), and ecosystems for regional and sub-regional research and development, with the potential to push technologies beyond borders and support strong regional agricultural value chains. Read less

1. Successful Policy Interventions for Scaling Technologies The discussion focused on the need for political will to scale up the role of technologies in agriculture, as well as governments’ capacity to take up technologies. The following emerged as game-changing interventions from a policy standpoint: - Stronger mechanisms for political accountability for hunger and food insecurity - Digitalization and the provision of bundles of digital services to farmers (e.g. digital micro-forecasting data and digital curriculums) - Policies that promote the emergence of a local private sector, which in... Read more turn will produce employment opportunities and innovation - Policies and national investments in line with the commitments of the Malabo declaration, in order to make technology affordable and available - Institutional innovation and regional alignment as an important basis for a strong science-policy interface (capitalizing on the strong interconnectedness of African Food Systems) - Encourage a shift of development partners from subsidies to markets expansion - Support school feeding programs at scale, as well as investments that are cognizant of climate change and the pandemic recovery needs The Head of States session and the communique mentioned a financing facility for food and nutrition security to support this. The AfDB and IFAD will work to set up the aforementioned facility. Read less

The key conclusions of the dialogue highlighted the need to strengthen collaboration, establish new partnerships and agree on shared commitments to help modernize and strengthen African food systems. The dialogue culminated with the announcement of a coalition of multilateral development banks and development partners to pledge over US$17 billion in the financing, in a bold bid to address rising hunger on the African continent and to improve food security. In addition, 17 African Leaders committed to concrete actions to boost agricultural production by doubling current productivity levels thro... Read moreugh the scaling up of agricultural technologies, investing in the development of agro-industrial processing zones to boost national and regional food markets for value-added and nutritious foods, expanding economic opportunities for rural economies through the transformation of agriculture, expanding support to smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, and increasing support for agricultural research and development. They highlighted the following seven areas as those requiring the highest attention: 1. Accelerate agricultural production by doubling current agricultural productivity levels; 2. Increase financing for global, national, regional research and development systems; 3. Enhance support for climate-proofing agriculture in Africa to boost the ability of farmers to adapt to climate change, especially through drought-tolerant crops and livestock, digital weather information and climate advisories, irrigation, better water management, and crop and livestock insurance products; 4. Support infrastructure for the development of special agro-industrial processing zones, to support private sector processing and value addition, logistics, and transport for market development and competitiveness; 5. Expand access to finance for farmers and food systems’ actors, through reducing risks of lending to agricultural value chains, and attract greater private sector financing into agriculture; 6. Build a stronger partnership between the public, private sectors, farmers’ associations, civil society, research, and universities, to ensure that inclusive approaches are used across the agricultural value chains; 7. Accelerate greater access of African countries to more concessional financing resources to support the development of the agricultural sector. The attached Communiqué summarizes the discussions and commitments made during the dialogue. Read less

The event aimed to identify ways to expand activities, financing, and partnerships to further leverage technology and innovation for the transformation of agriculture food systems in Africa to improve food security and nutrition, help recover from the current crisis and build long-term resilience to climate change and other shocks in the continent. It placed particular emphasis on ways to increase agricultural production, proposing ways to facilitate investments in research, sustainable technologies, and infrastructure, leveraging the private sector to accelerate progress. The Dialogue provide... Read mored African Leaders a unique opportunity to contribute to the global discourse and to share success stories on home-grown strategies and achievements in scaling up successful innovations. The outcomes of this dialogue laid the foundation for Africa to present a unified voice to step up efforts and partnerships towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and they will be presented as Africa’s shared commitments within the UN Food Systems Summit. Read less

For the most part, participants aligned around the priorities that exist around innovation; however, they flagged a number of nuances based on the context within which these innovations need to take place. For instance: - Several regional breakouts flagged the disconnect that exists between consumers’ stated preferences and their actual behavior. (Most consumers still purchase based on affordability, access and habit more than any other factor.) - Different breakouts discussed where the locus of decision-making actually existed within the agri-food chain, but many flagged both consumers and ... Read morefarmers are the most important stakeholders. - Several breakouts discussed the need for regulation to keep up with innovation, especially around topics like plant biotechnology. - Innovations must also reflect both the socioeconomic and agroecological contexts of the food system to which they are being applied. “As a farmer, what I need is a motorcycle but you give me an airplane.” - More developed markets tended to talk more about sustainability issues (such as water use, soil fertility and carbon mitigation) whereas less developed markets prioritized the need to boost yields (consistently), support farmer livelihoods and improve consumers’ access to affordable, diverse, safe food. Read less

South Asia: - Innovation needs to be focused around farmers’ needs. “There is still a huge gap between the lab and the land.” - There is still a lack of post-harvest processing and storage, lack of access to advanced agricultural science, lack of access to equipment and infrastructure, and poor access to market for many farmers. - Trade barriers need to be further broken down and regulatory environments harmonized. - The private sector needs to be mobilized to rise to the challenge of delivering on the transformations required. - Covid-19 accelerated the use of digital platforms for farm... Read moreer extension and diagnostics. Read less

North Asia: - “Communication is just as important as innovation.” Consumers need to better understand the benefits, trade-offs and synergies of different innovations. - Behavioral changes are needed both for consumers and producers. - Producers need to engage more with policymakers and the general public. - Digital agriculture is helping educate young farmers and help them to problem solve issues in real time. - Artificial intelligence is guiding new systems for farming, observing many factors simultaneously like climate controls, water etc. all remotely. - E-commerce is redefining agri-fo... Read moreod value chains (accelerated by Covid-19) and is helping more farmers to cut out the middle man. Read less

Africa and the Middle East: - The yield gap in Africa remains high, which continues to put pressure on food security on the continent. - There is a need for stronger farmer voices from the field. They need to be better organized to do so. - Training and extension materials are often unavailable in all languages nor “translated” to make complex concepts like climate change understandable. Farmers learn best from other farmers. - Farmers need to be supported as business people and their work treated as such. Uptake of innovation cannot happen if farmers cannot make a profit from doing so. - ... Read moreResearchers need to work more closely with farmers, not in isolation, in order to align their work with farmer needs. Read less

Europe: - Information on food systems is often currently sensationalized, and farmers struggle to keep up. “I’m a farmer, I can’t spend 10 hours on communicating every day.” - Consumer perceptions need to be addressed head-on with more science-based communication. - Educating consumers from a young age about food systems (including farming practices, diets and nutrition) can help them be more informed into adulthood. - Retailers’ marketing efforts to consumers is highly competitive, and different issues can be portrayed as “the enemy” as a way of creating differentiation.

Latin America: - Farmers must be supported and capacitated to adopt new technologies. - Innovation should also focus on ways of collaborating more effectively and widely. - New digital platforms can help connect farmers to markets and to other agri-food chain actors more easily. - Proper legislation and regulation are important to create an enabling environment for innovation. “If that’s right, the investment will follow.”

North America: - Farming has made great improvements over the past decades – “We have a success story to tell.” - Innovation needs to reach the whole agri-food chain. - The gap between innovation and regulation needs to be bridged. - Consumers need to be brought back into the conversation so that they feel connected to where their food comes from. - Focusing on agricultural transformations will help trigger further innovations all along the food chain.

Some key areas of consensus from the Dialogues included: - Food systems are not a zero sum game: Innovation can create win-win opportunities for people and planet. - There is an urgent need for more innovation to help future food systems meet the ever more complex set of expectations that society places on them – from food security and nutrition to livelihoods, ecosystem services and climate mitigation. - Farmers are the foundation of our food systems and have demonstrated time and again that they can rise to the challenge if they are equipped and supported to do so. - Innovation can take ma... Read moreny forms – from researching new technologies, to scaling up of existing approaches and applying new ways of working, partnerships and practices. - Facilitating a better connection between farmers and consumers is essential in order to better understand innovative approaches in the food system. - Young people need to be supported to go into careers in agriculture and get engaged with new technologies and approaches, especially given rural youth unemployment and the ageing population of farmers across many regions. - Scaling existing innovation is as important and will require better communication with farmers and other agri-food chain actors to accomplish, for instance conservation agriculture to improve soil fertility and capture carbon. “Success is contagious so when farmers see the results on the ground, they will adopt it also.” Read less

The theme of the CropLife International Independent Food Systems Dialogue was “Unleashing Innovation to Transform Local Food Systems”. It was organized around six major agricultural regions, which allowed us to identify the challenges, opportunities, synergies and areas of divergence that exist across these regions – in other words to identify both the common global needs as well as region-specific foci. Each of the regional breakouts discussed all of the Action Tracks, with some key insights summarized below. Participants were invited to participate based on their regional and professio... Read morenal focus. Facilitators first invited participants to introduce themselves, then to present the specific challenges and solutions they see from their individual perspective, and finally to discuss broader regional priorities, successes and lessons learnt. Innovation was defined in a broad way to not only include new technologies but also new approaches, including through novel forms of collaboration and by harnessing new digital tools. Read less

1) Food security: The extent to which farmers and agricultural producers are responsible for the degradation of Florida’s Everglades and the emergence of “toxic” blue-green algae blooms following discharges of water from Lake Okeechobee. Participants agree that nutrients found in fertilizer and septic tanks contribute to the blue-green algae; however, there was debate over whether these nutrients come from agricultural producers or if they’re mainly the result of leaking septic and sewer tanks. This discussion gets at a broader debate over what amount of Florida’s resources - especia... Read morelly water and land - ought to be used to support human populations. How much land should be urbanized vs. used for agriculture vs. restored or conserved in its “natural” state? What amount of nutrients, if any, is permissible in water? Who should be held responsible for the excess, and should they be made to compensate in some way? 2) Food waste: Packaging: This was an area of contention because packaging makes food last longer but also adds to waste in landfills so, participants suggested consumer groups/NGOs study which packages expand the life span of a product (and can be re-used) and which can be phased out. Participants also suggested considering a tax on food packaging that reflects the product’s true cost based on its environmental footprint. A ‘packaging tax’ (that can partly subsidize municipal waste disposal services) might also encourage consumers to switch away from processed foods to a healthier fresh diet. A scientist in the group suggested continuing to promote innovation/research on products designed to increase life span of produce without packaging. 3) Climate change: There is still denial in the general population about climate change. We must create awareness, education and a call to action. It will not be sufficient to get people facts, and it will be more important to teach people to discern what is important. Critical thinking is a must: what is relevant and what is not. Education involves connecting the dots and showing the consequences of taking action, or lack thereof will show how everyone is affected, some to a greater degree than others. Politicians/elected officials must hear from citizens – it is not enough to just vote. Regulation has very limited reach as business is profit-driven. Outside pressure (e.g., from civil society) is needed. We need to sensitize politicians and CEOs. Advocacy is important beyond vote. Read less

Community building: How to foster collaboration between food system stakeholders to focus and strengthen collective action? Actions urgently needed: 1) Build the next generation of farmers – critical actors- by educating students and providing them with real-world experiences in farming, community building, and advocating for food rights and sustainability. Integrate food sustainability and security as a component of the political agenda for local elected officials so that they are accountable and connected with the interests of this topic alongside organizations driving for change. The crea... Read moretion of a formal Committee with stakeholders across the ecosystem will yield the greatest returns -- Faith-based organizations, educators, youth, non-profit orgs, relevant special interest groups, and elected officials. Most pressing is ensuring that the actual groups affected most by this challenge have a voice and are a part of this Committee. They should be valued and present at the table for solutions. 2) Give more visibility to mental health and well-being as components of the need for food security, nutrition, and access. The ecosystem of advocacy on this topic should also include mental health professional’s voices. 3) K-12 engagement is critical to building a pipeline for food system advocacy, including future farmers. 4) Integrate the systems approach with the end-user being the community member. Critical to engage them to learn about their pain points in order to create solutions (don’t assume). 5) Encourage, fund, and educate traditional farmers on new technologies to yield higher nutritional crops by using hydroponic and aquaponic. Read less

Youth Power: How young people can help shift help shift food systems towards increased sustainability and climate resilience Actions urgently needed: 1) Increase Youth knowledge on gardening 2) Use technology (social media, apps) to integrate youth into the agri-food system 3) Have young people talking to young people helps engage younger generations 4) Have organizations led by young people to partner with school districts to engage high school students 5) Create a community education component on food systems and community growing in higher education 6) Work on aquaponics system with youth 7... Read more) Use waste from tilapia growing system to grow lettuce 8) Education initiative to get young volunteers involved—incorporate lifestyle (example fishing) into food system education 9) Increase communication on opportunities in food system: market, job opportunities, financial perspectives Read less

Making food systems more inclusive: The role of minorities in food systems Actions urgently needed: 1) Increase funding • State level funding could give opportunities to community gardens for access to food. • Give opportunity to growing food locally and distributing, rather than outsourcing foods (ex from California to Miami). Food that travels leads to food waste • Fund local farmers to avoid this issue • Funds (16 bil) weren’t given to rural farmers, only to a select few. Funds weren’t used to increase wages for farmers. 2) Give control back to communities. Rural communities sho... Read moreuld have access to land for community farming focus on people of color Co-op farming to support real resilience. Actionable Step #1: Make SNAP available to ex-felons in state of Florida. Introduce new legislations. Step #2: Farm to food model, create entrepreneurship opportunities to teach children to grow and give access to food in local communities. Step #3: Initiatives started to have farming Co-ops. Address supply chain model issues and give control back to rural communities. Farms are in rural communities but they have least access to it. Step #4: Give farmers contracts for funding, example farmers in Davie, getting them contracts with the USDA Step #5: What every day consumers can do: Go to city council meetings, make elected officials more involved, grow our own food. Unless city governments can see financial impact, they won’t be as open to being involved to give communities more power over land. Ex. Instead of X would make people healthier, X would lower how much money is spent on X people negatively impacted by X. Step #6: Educate people and give them resources to tools needed. 40% of college students are food insecure, so that students have access to SNAP. Step #7: Consumers can buy local. On an individual level, you can educate people about it. Step #8: Involve people in rural communities and farmers in solutions to food insecurity, don’t exclude them from the conversations. Read less

The environmental impacts of Food: How can we eat more responsibly? Actions urgently needed: Developing and providing access to affordable healthier food options that are also sustainably grown: 1) using Patch concept - community gardens in urban areas of low social-economic status; 2) engaging community in garden developments; 3) providing subsidies for fresh local seasonal produce; 4) partnering up with local grocers, supermarkets and farmer’s market to provide access to foods, funding for gardens, employment and volunteer opportunities; 5) promoting Meatless Monday campaigns along with ot... Read moreher plant-based options for healthier humans and the Planet; 6) urging school districts to implement sustainable nutrition education components, engaging community on ongoing events and educational sessions on sustainable nutrition. Read less

Partnership: Game-changing Solutions for transforming Food Systems Actions urgently needed: 1) Increase coordination efforts – necessary to partner and scale up the action 2) Increase clarity and transparency by formalizing partnerships - a way to help simplify some of the challenges that take place when building collective impact efforts. 3) Avoid duplication of work: let others know what each organization is good at, and let other actors do their part 4) Create policies - needed to have an official way of coordinating actions with clarity 5) Staffing/Capacity of partners is an issue: incre... Read morease collaboration to make up for the capacity issues, to leverage staff time, expertise, diversify programming, etc. Increase multi sector partnerships and collective impact collaborations 6) Create a universal database for food system non-profit database to share data 7) Have more “shared used kitchens”, increase number of food hubs Key stakeholders: • Foodsavers.Org • Feeding South Florida • Humana educational seminars on healthy eating on a budget • Publix is socially responsible and can educate and help out through their grants. • The organization should be responsible for advocating towards education… collaboration with businesses to support these businesses • Dietetic association (Miami and Florida) those members would offer their time: anything about education. Read less

Food Waste and Recovery: What supply chain solutions can help ensure responsible use of resources, reduce and recover food waste from farmers to consumers? Actions urgently needed: 1) Expand composting efforts 2) Start with an education campaign at a state level and simultaneously develop a municipal based pick up and drop off system for composting facilities 3) Have municipalities to first provide services to primary education centers, then restaurants, and then households 4) Have municipal governments also incentivize local farmers to create their own composting facility on site to process l... Read moreocal food scraps 5) Have local farmers diversify their production based on local demand. 6) Food access needs to be improved to avoid surplus food going to waste by: • Providing research grants to identify food deserts in South Florida • Advocating for zoning policy to allow mixed use • Incentivizing the creation of small local fresh produce only stores within walking distance of food deserts • Subsidizing the purchase of storage equipment for those stores • Accepting food stamps at those stores • Eliminating strict quality standards based on the weight, size and appearance of the fresh produce (fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy) sold • Ensuring the transportation/delivery of locally produced items to above mentioned stores. Key stakeholders: • Local government can carry out public awareness campaigns at the consumer level to encourage a movement away from impulsive to rational consumption patterns. Working with employers to provide free days for workers to attend health/wellness classes (provided by organizations such as; the UF IFAS extension program or local nutritionist) on a healthy diet, purchase planning, making a grocery list (based on daily needs), creating an inventory of supplies, and buying less. • NGO’s can continue their efforts to divert food from landfills by delivering it to food banks and sending scrap for animal feed or to Industrial Use sites (to recover energy). NGO’s can also press for legislation that encourages markets to sell ‘sub-standard’ products that are still safe and of good taste and nutritional value. • Municipal governments can help by developing linkages between farmers and local restaurants, food banks and supermarkets so they better understand local demand and diversify their production accordingly. • Restaurants, the amount of available food per person in restaurants has increased. In addition to providing restaurants with free food waste audits, NGO’s can continue to help them divert their food from the landfill while municipalities set up the composting system. We suggest research be conducted to find ways to address the bi-product waste/packaging created by restaurants providing takeout options for clients. Ways in which progress could be assessed: • Post-secondary education institutions and NGOs can continue to carry out research designed to identify food waste along the value chain of locally produced food. • Universities and NGOs can provide free waste audits at the retail and restaurant level and see how things have improved. Read less