UNDP & FAO’s first virtual dialogue on Youth Digital Innovation Solutions for Food and Agriculture

Singapore, 14 August 2020 — We live in a time of digital transformation and it is driving change in all areas. Agriculture is no exception. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased food insecurity globally, given the disruptions in our supply chains. There are many tools and technologies that can help farmers in developing countries adopt more efficient and sustainable production methods, reduce the burden of labour-intensive tasks, and manage their farms better to help build a more resilient, sustainable and productive food system.

The UNDP Global Centre in Singapore, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recently co-hosted the first virtual Digital Innovation Dialogue on Youth Digital Innovation Solutions for Food and Agriculture. The session showcased innovative technologies and business models from entrepreneurs that are solving agricultural challenges around the world, and sought to inspire FAO offices to look at how youth can drive digital transformation for agriculture.

As part of the Global Centre’s agricultural innovation initiative, Cultiv@te, we’re working with 31 promising agritech startups and R&Ds to work on implementing their solutions in 11 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. UNDP invited 6 out of these teams with strong youth engagement to pitch their solutions for this Dialogue, together with the winners of the FAO innovation challenge. These solutions included technologies for smart farming, food loss and waste, decentralized agricultural machinery networks, urban farming and more.

Bradley Busetto, Director of Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development, UNDP, said: “Youth have a tremendous to use digital technologies for food and agriculture, as the solutions showcased in this session show the exciting models possible that are poised to solve the problems identified within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework.” Busetto highlighted this collaboration as an example of a one-UN approach needed to solve the developmental challenge.

While this session was focused on youth, the UNDP and FAO will continue to work together in finding technologies and digital solutions for food and agriculture that can help developing countries accelerate towards sustainable development.

This press release is adapted from the FAO’s announcement and summary of the Digital Innovation Dialogue.