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0:00
Hello everyone.
My name is Maral Mahdad
and I am an Assistant
Professor of
Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at
Wageningen University and
Research in the Netherlands.
Today I'm going to
talk about the role of
digitalization in combating
hunger and malnutrition.
0:20
Lets start with
realizing a bit more of
Sustainable Development
Goals Number
2 Zero Hunger by 2030.
Starting from 2015,
the number of
human beings suffering from
hunger started to
increase again,
currently around 619 million.
Around 9 percent of
the whole world
population are hungry.
If this trend continues,
we are far from achieving
zero hunger by 2030.
135 million people suffer
from acute hunger due
to man-made conflicts,
climate change, and
economic downturns.
Therefore, the need
for radical change of
the global food and agriculture
system is undeniable to
fight the current hunger
crisis and feed their
additional 2 billion people
the world will have by 2050.
One big onus is therefore
an agri-food to become
more sustainable and
productive in its
practices to help mitigate
hunger and all forms of
malnutrition crisis.
1:27
Food and Agriculture
Organization of
the United Nations also
agrees with this trend.
In this vein, FAO recognized
digital technologies,
information communication
technology,
and investment on
innovative technologies
in the agri-food system have
positive impacts on
rural development
and poverty reduction
in line with the SDGs.
For example, FAO is creating
digital innovation ecosystem to
gather together UN experts,
entrepreneurs, public
actors, researchers,
and citizen to find
innovative solutions
for the global agri-food
system current challenges.
In addition, FAO acknowledges
the need to transform
current agri-food system
toward a holistic
food system such as
climate-smart agriculture and
conservation agriculture.
Climate smart
agriculture addresses,
on the one hand,
the reduction of the
environmental and climate impact
of agricultural activity.
On the other hand,
the developmental food
production methods and
crops that are well
adopted to changing
weather conditions.
Conservation agriculture
is a farming system
that encourages minimum
soil disturbance,
maintenance of a
permanent soil cover,
and diversification
of plant species.
These examples of transformation
have direct effect on SDGs.
For instance, research by
Arouna and colleagues showed
adoption of improved
rice varieties
through adoption of
new technologies,
increase the income
on average around
four US dollar per capita
and reduce poverty
between been 18,
24 percent of small-scale
farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
