We can live without energy, without phones, without technology but we cant live without food with Ismahane Elouafi CGIAR
Description
There are currently 350 million people globally living with extreme hunger, with a plus 2°C rise in global temperatures this is forecast to rise to 539 million people, and with a plus 4°C temperature rise it is predicted that 2.1 billion people worldwide will be living with extreme hunger. Failing to adequately address this rise in extreme hunger will be a growing national security and global security issue as food insecurity is linked to increased migration and clonflict.
Ismahane Elouafi is the Executive Managing Director of CGIAR here she is building on her experience leading agrifood research and advocacy to deal with some the world’s most pressing environmental and human challenges. Her work focuses on the urgent challenge of providing nutritious food for all by ensuring that small-scale farmers across the global South have access to the science and technologies they need to adapt to a growing number of challenges, including climate change.
In low income countries most recent agricultural production gains have come from clearing more land, there have been no improvements in efficiency. This provides a huge opportunity to provide existing technology so the 500 hundred millions small holder farmers can increase productivity. Ethiopia has successfully achieved significant increases in productivity over recent years through the adoption of technology.
I recently caught up with Ismahane to discuss how our food systems are broken and whether we have realistic expectations of farmers across the world. The big question that arose is whether it is realistic to expect farmers to fix the issues of agriculture's impact on climate, biodiversity, the environment, and resource use, while addressing the growing issues of malnutrition and producing affordable food, and contributing to local and global economies.
You can listen to our conversation here.
Additional Links:
Periodic Table of Food Ingredients: https://foodperiodictable.org/
Virginia Tech Report: https://globalagriculturalproductivity.org/2023-gap-report/
IFPRI: https://www.ifpri.org/
Bezos Earth Fund: https://www.bezosearthfund.org/
United States
