Tag Archives: Croplife International

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FORGING NEW PARTNERSHIPS TO FOSTER INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

By: CropLife International

A perspective from Robert Hunter, Chief Operating Officer, CropLife International

The spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and partnership is a core value for CropLife International and our industry. Throughout the year, we continued to challenge ourselves to advance innovation in agriculture for a sustainable future and find new opportunities to work with stakeholders in a more integrated way. This is not only with our members and our global CropLife network, but also by forging new partnerships to foster innovative solutions to the pressing challenges of food security, biodiversity, and climate change.

Over the years, our commitment to collaboration has provided us with great opportunities to work with stakeholders such as FAO, USAID, GlobalG.A.P., the Rainforest Alliance, the World Bank, and GIZ. CropLife International and our global network are well-known for building more than 300 partnerships with international organizations and local NGOs to build capacity and train farmers on integrated pest management (IPM) and responsible use of plant science technologies.

This year presented new opportunities for us to establish partnerships and gain momentum in bringing our vision for sustainable food systems to the forefront of the discussion. Key activities are summarized below.

  • To kick off 2021, CropLife International served on the advisory committee of a new Global Agriculture Innovation Forum, a joint undertaking between the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) and Purdue University’s Office of International Programs in Agriculture. The Forum consisted of a series of virtual events held throughout the year that brought together innovators and stakeholders within the public and private sectors to discuss innovations that enable sustainable agriculture globally, ranging from reducing postharvest losses to making improved animal genotypes available to smallholder farmers.
  • With support from CropLife International, the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) and Africa Harvest developed a coalition of African academic scientists who are interested in promoting the benefits of genome editing as an essential element of plant breeding in Africa. The nascent and loose coalition is in the early stages of formalizing its mandate under NASAC, and should be able to expand the number of scientific advocates based in Africa beyond those who have been active in the genetically modified crops discussion.
  • Planning for the UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) in September and Pre-Summit in July heightened the global conversation around systems-based approaches to sustainable food systems. By engaging with a diverse group of stakeholders, ranging from academia and civil society to finance and government, we elevated the imperative of continuing or accelerating agricultural innovation. It was also an opportunity to highlight the important role our technologies play in delivering sustainable food systems. We also helped galvanize our industry and global network to mobilize in the Food Systems Summit Action Track working groups and engage with member state delegations in the lead-up to and during the Summit events.
  • As a result of conversations and coalitions emerging from the Summit, we recognized that soil health – and its importance in achieving the SDGs – was an opportunity to catalyze real action and demonstrate the value our industry can play in improving soil health and mitigating and adapting to climate change; therefore, we’re proud to support the Private Sector Call to Action for Soil Health, which includes agricultural input companies, food companies, financial institutions, and other organizations. The Private Sector Call to Action for Soil Health evolved to support the goals and objectives outlined by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), a multi-stakeholder coalition built to facilitate the implementation, adoption, and global coordination of soil restoration practices, and to recognize the need for private sector participation and engagement of farmers, acknowledge tangible outcome-related goals and solutions, highlight the work that is being accomplished through existing initiatives and alliances, and emphasize the need for science-based approaches and measurements.
  • Launched at the UN Food Systems Summit in September, we joined with like-minded countries and organizations in supporting the formation of the Sustainable Productivity Growth for Food Security and Resource Conservation, recognizing that a Coalition of Action focused on sustainable productivity growth could help break silos and deliver on agricultural productivity growth’s potential to accelerate progress in meeting the world’s growing nutrition needs without bankrupting farmers, consumers, and nature. The Coalition includes a wide range of partners, ranging from governments and NGOs to industry and academia.
  • Originally announced at the UN Food Systems Summit, the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C) coalition was officially launched alongside 31 countries and 48 non-government partners at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). The initiative aims to accelerate investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems innovation and has already raised more than $4 billion in innovation investments.As an Innovation Sprint Partner, CropLife International will work with AIM4C to make agriculture more climate-friendly through our Sustainable Pesticide Management Framework (SPMF). This $13-million plan will improve access to and uptake of climate-smart crop protection innovations to smallholder farmers in nine different markets in Asia, Africa, and Central America over the next six years by:
    • Increasing access to newer crop protection chemistries (including biological pesticides).
    • Training extension officers and farmers on the effective and safe use of crop protection products and the importance of integrated pest management solutions.
    • Supporting policy and regulatory reform that enables access to these innovations.
      Implementation of the framework is already underway in Kenya, and additional projects will be launched in Thailand, Morocco, and Vietnam in 2022.
  • Also at COP26, we collaborated with groups as diverse as the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Farmers’ Organization, USAID, and World Business Council for Sustainable Development to continue to elevate the importance of agricultural innovation in delivering nature-positive, carbon-neutral food systems.

We will carry this momentum forward into 2022 as we continue to develop and drive a thought leadership program by engaging in open dialogue with various stakeholders around innovative, sustainable food systems. We recognize our work is not without its challenges, but we are committed to listening and working in partnership with all key stakeholders to achieve our shared ambitions.

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FOOD SECURITY AND BEYOND: THE INTERSECTION OF AGRICULTURE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

By: CropLife International

It’s been 50 years since Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to global food security. Over the last half-century, agriculture has leveraged science and innovation to continue the Green Revolution that Dr. Borlaug started to help grow rural communities and agricultural economies, and sustainably feed our population. This year’s recognition of the World Food Programme for the Nobel Peace Prize shows us that there is still much work to be done to achieve Zero Hunger. Farmers globally are challenged with sustainably growing safe and nutritious foods while adjusting to climate change conditions and working to preserve biodiversity and the environment.

Agriculture is moving beyond just improving food security and can significantly help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A new generation of agriculturalists, environmentalists, and changemakers will help shape how agriculture will intersect with not just climate change, biodiversity, and livelihoods, but also social rights including how agriculture can improve equity and access.

The 2020 World Food Prize and International Borlaug Dialogue is taking place in 2020 from October 12 – 16. This year’s theme is “Breaking New Ground: Building Resilience Today for Improved Global Food Systems Tomorrow.”

CropLife International organized a virtual side event to recognize the achievements of Dr. Norman Borlaug and his impact of farming today, with a panel discussing the journey agriculture will take in the next 50 years. Featuring a welcome from CropLife International President and CEO Giulia Di Tommaso, the panel was moderated by Christine Gould, founder and CEO of Thought For Food and member of the Advisory Committee for the UN Food Systems Summit. Panelists included Michael Doane, Global Managing Director for Sustainable Food and Water at The Nature Conservancy, and Cassia Moraes, Founder and CEO of Youth Climate Leaders.

Don’t have time to watch the full event? Please see a summary below of the panelists’ contributions; their respective fireside chats have also been pulled out into separate videos.

Conservation & Sustainable Agriculture: A Discussion with Michael Doane
Creating a balanced, sustainable relationship with nature is critical for feeding a growing global population today and for future generations. Finding that balance is no easy task, but Michael Doane has spent his career working to ensure agriculture can thrive through a sustainable lens.

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to conserve the land and water that sustains all life on our planet. Michael’s role with The Nature Conservancy is to find ways to scale up conservation outcomes across productively managed farming, ranching and agroforestry landscapes.

CropLife International invited Michael to participate in a virtual fireside chat moderated by Christine Gould. In this interview, Michael highlights that a sustainable relationship with agriculture and nature is not only completely possible, it’s become more mainstream through the adoption of “regenerative agriculture.”

While there is certainly a long way to go, the spark to jumpstart a sustainable restoration agenda exists and is ready to ignite. Watch Michael recount his experiences in advocating for sustainability and share his thoughts on the impact of Dr. Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution:

Youth Fighting Climate Change: A Discussion with Cassia Moraes
In order to meet our goals in implementing sustainable agricultural practices and mitigating the effects of climate change, we need a grassroots movement. Cassia Moraes’ job is to connect and mobilize youth to grow that movement to fuel progress toward a more sustainable future.
Cassia Moraes founded Youth Climate Leaders, a global youth leadership network dedicated to connecting and organizing youth to fight climate change. Inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Cassia has dedicated the better part of the last decade to finding innovative ways to fight climate change.

Cassia sat down with Christine Gould to talk about what the Youth Climate Leaders organization does, how Cassia empowers young people to become climate leaders, and what the plant science industry can to do curb the effects of climate change.

Cassia emphasizes that even though the issue of climate change may seem daunting and overwhelming, anyone can make a difference on the individual level to help mitigate its effects — and this growing movement is cause for optimism. Watch Cassia recount her experiences in advocating for sustainability and share her thoughts on the impact of Dr. Borlaug and the Green Revolution:

Farming Perspectives: Looking to the Future
The side event was organized in partnership with the Global Farmer Network (GFN) and featured a short video interview with two young farmers who work with the Global Farmer Network: Ruramiso Mashumba, Farmer in Marondera, Zimbabwe and Diego Guigou, Agronomist in Dolores, Uruguay. They spoke about the major challenges facing food and feed production today, and what steps can be taken to ensure agriculture continues to flourish in the future.

Click here to read the full interviews with Ruramiso and Diego.