Small farmers need help to get better access to innovation - something that is crucial for sustainable food systems and to foster sustainable development, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation chief Qu Dongyu said Wednesday, according to an FAO statement.
"Innovation in agriculture is a way to enhance effectiveness, competitiveness and resilience with limited land and other limited resources," Qu said.
But Qu noted that smallholder and family farmers, especially those in small island countries and other vulnerable regions, are facing enormous challenges and often have problems accessing agricultural innovation.
To remedy this situation, Qu urged research institutions and academia to seek new pathways to transfer their innovative outcomes to people who most need them.
The FAO Director-General also highlighted the need to promote new business models to make innovation accessible to millions of farmers, citing as an example FAO's new Hand-in Hand Initiative.
Through "matchmaking" the initiative aims to support development efforts in the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, Small Island Developing States, many of which are affected by food crises, the FAO statement said.
The proposed new Office for Innovation to strengthen FAO's work in this field, noting that it will serve as an internal platform and reach out to member states and partners, Qu said. The Office for Innovation will focus on integrating modern science and technology in all FAO programmes to achieve better results at headquarters and in the field, Qu stated.
Qu was speaking during a discussion at FAO headquarters in Rome on improving access to innovation in agriculture to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
"The world needs to be able to feed itself. That is a really daunting challenge," said Mark Keenum, President of Mississippi State University (MSU), in his keynote address to the participants.
"It would take international organisations like FAO and the World Food Programme as well as countries, universities and academia crossing political, ideological and geographical boundaries to work together, to collaborate, to use open data, sharing knowledge and information."
FAO experts, member-countries and academics took part in the discussion and looked at action to improve access to innovation in agriculture to contribute to socio-economic growth, ensure food and nutrition security, alleviate poverty and support the achievement of the SDGs.
Innovation also means scaling-up existing, reliable solutions through international cooperation and multi-stakeholder engagement,creating the 'enabling' environment to ensure the transfer of innovative methods, technologies and solutions to those who are mostly in need of them, the FAO statement noted.
Wednesday's discussion built upon the themes of the earlier International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers, which recognized the central role of family farmers in agricultural innovation.
FAO and Mississippi State University (MSU) started their collaboration in 2010. The joint efforts focus on many different fields of research and development, such as animal and veterinary public health, fish health and capacity development for food security and nutrition, said the statement.
FAO looks forward to further expanding the existing excellent collaboration with MSU, which has also served as FAO-recognized Centre of Knowledge on Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostics since 2014, the statement concluded.
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