As part of the “Days of the Future” Congress in Ossiach, Austria, a group of prominent scientists and practitioners in agriculture, agribusiness, technology, information and communications from around the world met at the “AgriFutures Days” Conference, 17-19 June 2013. They debated contemporary trends and potentials for major transformations in the sector brought about by political, social, environmental and technological changes in agriculture, farming, food and nutrition.
The participants noted that:
- Almost a third of the world’s population remains vulnerable to poverty and malnutrition and a billion remain hungry. Another third have achieved food and nutritional security but remain deeply concerned about the safety of their food.
- Resource poor smallholder farmers, mainly in South and South East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South and Central America, are amongst the world’s poorest people and constitute 70% of all hungry in spite of their basic importance to agriculture and rural economies.
- The world faces severe environmental challenges and cannot continue to use natural resources and energy in an unsustainable manner.
- Information and communication technologies (ICTs), nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials and space technology, and many other technological advances in other fields are creating novel conditions for human progress and development. For agriculture, these advances are ushering in a bioscience- and biotechnologies-based economy that is transforming industry, business and services.
- The potential to feed the world, use natural resources and safeguard the environment must co-exist with judicious adoption, use and assessment of impacts of technology.
- The world’s poorest not only suffer the most but often miss out on benefiting from these economic, technological and social transformations.
The participants concluded that ICTs:
- Enhance choice through greater equity in distribution and sharing of information, though they do not change basic power relations.
- Contribute to offering new opportunities and options in the light of transformations in agriculture and agriculture-related activities.
- Are most effectual as a means of constructive change when integral to collaboration between and across the various stakeholders.
- Introduce new elements of flexibility in production, development of innovations and facilitation of adoption, application and implementation of these innovations.
There must be priority to providing appropriate ICTs tailored to the needs of the third of the global population without immediate access to and rapid uptake of new knowledge. Knowledge content must be focused on people, sustainability, equity, welfare and happiness. “Sustainability” in this context furthers economic development, lifelong learning, social justice and environmental integrity.
ICTs stimulate radical change through creative technological breakthroughs that can transform practices driven by tradition, obsolete technologies and the dominance of external interests. Enhanced ICTs offer the instruments needed to empower and motivate individuals in building and sustaining change in communities. Renewal of ICTs for smallholders will also contribute to providing choices and creating change through mechanisms for better partnership and collaborative leadership.
In conclusion, the “AgriFutures Days” participants emphasised that creative cooperation for sustainable and responsible agriculture can respect the earth’s ecosystems while still providing health and well-being for all.