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Realizing the Potential of Digitalization to Improve the Agrifood System – Proposing a New International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture - GCP/GLO/029/GER

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 2

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Project

Synopsis (short abstract) The global agrifood system faces considerable challenges in providing enough food of adequate quality to feed an ever growing, aging and migrating population. The world is also changing at a fast pace with the emergence of an array of technologies. Digital technologies offer unique opportunities to improve food production and trade, especially for smallholder farmers, and to help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The agrifood system has undergone changes that have increased efficiency and profitability, yet it lags behind in terms of digitalization, which could play an increasingly important role in achieving the global goal of improving food security and rural livelihoods. However, digitalization can also have significant drawbacks. It may increase digital divides across the system, cause workforce displacement or be misused, as can be the case with data protection, data ownership, privacy rights and cybersecurity. Digitalization can also make it harder for smallholder farmers as they struggle to compete with new technologies, making the digital divide even more pronounced. In response to the request from 74 Ministers of Agriculture at the Global Forum on Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2019, a concept note for considering the establishment of an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture was prepared, and financially supported by Germany. The proposed role of the Digital Council, hereafter the International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, is to enhance international cooperation and the exchange of ideas and experiences across borders, creating synergies and avoiding the duplication of efforts. The International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture will support the rapid development of the digitalization of agriculture by ensuring expertise in using new digital tools, providing structured and strategic agricultural policy recommendations on digitalization to governmental and non governmental actors, and strengthening international cooperation within the agrifood system to better confront challenges and develop plausible solutions.

Language English

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    Realizing the potential of digitization to improve agri-food system – Proposing a new International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture
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    This concept note has been produced in response to a request by 74 agriculture ministers in January 2019 during the Global Forum on Food and Agriculture (GFFA) and supported financially by the Federal Republic of Germany. It proposes the creating of a new body, an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture, to enhance international cooperation, the exchange of ideas and experiences across borders, creating synergies and avoiding duplication of efforts. It will strive to keep pace with rapid developments in digitalization, working with new digital tools and the highest expertise available. In line with this, it will help to tackle challenges of food security, hunger, health, inclusiveness and sustainability in the agri-food system at national, regional and international levels. With this approach, the Digital Council would provide structured and strategic agricultural policy recommendations on digitalization to governmental and non-governmental actors, strengthen international cooperation in the agri-food system to identify the challenges and solutions. Examples of activities include the organization of international forums to share best policy practices, and promoting interaction among farmers associations from different countries and national- and international-level stakeholders. The scope and function of the proposed Digital Council are summarised herein for consideration by government ministers, international organization members, donors and other stakeholders. It was highly noted amongst all stakeholders involved in the process of producing this concept note that the proposed Digital Council would have significant impacts on increasing the positive benefits of digitization in the food and agriculture sector, contributing to improving rural livelihoods.
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