Agricultural Research Unties the Gordian Knot

CGIAR News – Jan 4 2021

In October, Germany hosted the launch of the CERES2030 study, which found that zero hunger can be reached by 2030, if financial investments are scaled up. What lessons has One CGIAR learnt in 2020 about what is needed to reach SDG2 by the end of the current decade?

We need a broad approach to SDG2. CGIAR is working across all 5 SDG sub-targets. This means our selected impact areas focus on universal nutrition – affordable, safe, diverse food – as much as zero hunger; on small-scale farmers’ incomes and purchasing power; and on the environmental foundations of food security. This includes substantial research on water, and addressing both wild biodiversity and agrobiodiversity, including maintenance of the world’s network of regional gene banks for crops and their wild relatives.

For CGIAR, the CERES2030 study was both a reminder and validation. A reminder that a portfolio approach to food systems research is required. And a validation of CGIAR’s efforts through targeted research – delivering benefits through partnerships focused around knowledge and empowerment, innovations that can be easily implemented from fields to markets, and policy recommendations that are supported by science.

That said, as CERES2030 noted, evidence-based policy and interventions are only as good as the evidence base available. Investments in research and innovation, through public institutions like CGIAR, are well positioned to deliver the results we need on SDG2.

2020 has had a huge impact on many fields of progress, with SDG2 thrown back by years. What effort is needed on the part of agricultural research to catch up?

Agricultural research and innovation to transform our food system is the only way to cut the Gordian knot entangling food security, climate emissions, biodiversity collapse and human health.

https://www.weltohnehunger.org/full-article/interview-with-j%C3%BCrgen-v%C3%B6gele-weltbank.html