Kathmandu, Oct 16: Director General of the Food and Agriculture QU Dongyu has said that investment for access of innovation is essential.
Issuing the press release, Dongyu has said that the challenge is not a shortage of innovation, but a shortage of adoption at scale: turning proven solutions into locally adapted, affordable and investable options that farmers and agrifood enterprises can use,sustain and scale.
At a time when scientific advances and new technologies are reshaping entire economies and societies, innovations that can help people around the world better produce and access nutritious foods, improve livelihoods and build resilience remain out of reach
The press release stated that for generations, farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have conserved and developed crop varieties, harvested and managed scarce water, cared for soils, and managed landscapes and biodiversity.
Yet too many proven innovations remain unavailable, unaffordable or insufficiently adapted to local farming conditions. For millions of small-scale producers, particularly women and young people, limited access to finance, technologies, infrastructure, information, markets and connectivity continues to constrain adoption and scale.
Closing this gap requires stronger links between science, innovation and delivery, working with institutions, governments, the private sector, producer organizations and communities. FAO is also innovating through institutional design, including shared digital platforms, public extension systems, cooperatives and other delivery models that can lower access costs and expand coverage.
Co-creating solutions with users helps ensure that innovations respond to local needs, are technically and economically viable, and are more likely to be adopted, sustained and scaled.
Agricultural research is widely considered one of the highest-return investments in rural development. Greater investment must be matched by the infrastructure, institutions, skills and partnerships needed to take successful innovations to scale. Adopting innovative practices will be critical to reducing the environmental footprint of agrifood systems, which account for around one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and more than an estimated 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals. It is also critical to helping farmers and other producers adapt to climate extremes.
Innovations must be adapted to local realities and needs, supported by appropriate policies and backed by investment over time. Governments can create enabling conditions and invest in research, infrastructure and extension services; businesses can turn ideas into affordable products and services; and producers and communities can provide the knowledge needed to make them work in practice and impact.
This agenda matters just as much to major industrialized economies. Better data and analytical tools can help anticipate supply disruptions and emerging risks in increasingly complex food markets.
Innovation can strengthen supply chains, support competitiveness and help protect consumers when shocks in one part of the world affect prices and availability elsewhere.
But innovation delivers impact only when it can be translated into investable and bankable projects. That requires linking science and technology with sound project design, viable business models, risk-sharing instruments and public and private finance, so that promising solutions can move from pilots to commercial scale and generate measurable economic, social and environmental returns.
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