Purpose of the conference

To progress towards sustainable and just food systems, Agri4D will bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to engage with the challenges of food systems. The conference aims to provide a platform to take stock of the current knowledge frontier, connect science to policymaking and practice, and spark new collaborations.

The organizers of the conference are looking to foster change and transformation by providing the participants with new perspectives, necessary knowledge and tools to go back in their own organizations and be the seed of change. The purpose of the conference Agri4D is to create space for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to touch base on the state of food systems in the world – to identify what is working and where the gaps are.

Background

More than 800 million people in the world are undernourished, despite the growing scientific knowledge and decades of international aid. Natural resource conflicts, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly push more people into poverty and hunger. At the same time, obesity is an increasing health problem in almost all countries in the world. While the majority of existing food systems are drivers of biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions and water insecurity, they also provide livelihoods to a majority of people.

Just and resilient food systems can contribute to all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At this year’s Agri4D conference, we ask the participants to specifically address the core question: ‘How can we shape sustainable and just food systems, resilient to the new realities of changing climates, ongoing transformations in food production, supply and demand, health threats and pandemics?’

The Agri4D platform

The objective of the conference is to present and integrate knowledge about potential solutions and outcomes, while identifying how those solutions might provide incentives and enable the social and economic transformations necessary to advance and achieve the goal of eradicating hunger in the world.

With the ongoing pandemic, we will hold the conference online enabling wide international participation creating a great potential for open and dynamic conversations. We divide the three days conference into 6 topics.

The conference is a learning opportunity for all involved, from young researchers to stakeholders, to raise awareness based on scientific knowledge.

Conference topics

Abstract submissions in the following 6 topics are welcome:

Topic 1 – Justice in food governance: calls for work on social and environmental justice in food systems with special attention to questions of gender, social marginalization and intersectionality.

Topic 2 – Towards improved food and nutrition security, from smallholder-inclusive food systems: focuses on the role of smallholders within inclusive food systems to enable food and nutrition security for producers and consumers in cities and rural areas.

Topic 3 – Agroecology: focuses on economic, environmental and social sustainability of food production. The topic will cover resource use and ecological interactions in agriculture as well as interactions between different actors in the food system, notably consumers and producers.

Topic 4 – Closing the loop – making food systems circular: looks closer into management approaches and technologies that can reduce waste generation and create new products from waste, like insect protein or fertilizers, including the drivers for change in the management from linear to circular systems.

Topic 5 – Innovation & innovative approaches: focuses on technical, social and organizational innovations that enable development towards the Agenda 2030 goals.

Topic 6 – Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress: focuses on making food systems more resilient and better prepared for future shocks and stressors. These stressors can be climate change, energy demand, recovering food system post-pandemic or access to and management of water.

For more information and guidance for abstracts submissions visit the conference website