Youth Voices for Smart Farming: Shaping Priorities for the Next Generation of Change Makers

Youth Voices for Smart Farming: Shaping Priorities for the Next Generation of Change Makers

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, dear young innovators, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my honour to welcome you on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to this side event - a conversation about how youth voices, as the next generation of changemakers, can and must shape the priorities of smart farming.

I would like to begin by thanking H.E. Ambassador Pereira Marques for setting the scene and for reminding us why this discussion matters - and why it matters right now.

The Moment We Are In

This event comes at a pivotal moment for global food security.

Our agrifood systems are facing a polycrisis of conflicts, climate shocks, economic volatility, biodiversity loss, and the absence of decent work - and together these pressures are driving hunger to unacceptable levels.

In 2024, almost one in ten people - 673 million - were chronically undernourished. Almost one in four faced moderate or severe food insecurity. By 2030 - less than four years from now - 512 million people are projected to be chronically undernourished. That is not a distant warning. That is a deadline. And we are not on track to meet it.

It has been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. This crisis is not inevitable. It is the result of choices - and choices can be transformed. The question is who will lead that transformation. And that brings me to the most powerful and most underutilised asset we have - our global youth.

The Youth Opportunity

There are 1.3 billion young people aged 15 to 24 in the world today. Nearly 85% live in low- and middle-income countries - precisely where food insecurity is most acute and transformation most urgent.

44% of working youth globally rely on agrifood systems for their livelihoods - a higher share than working adults. In many parts of the world, young people are the backbone of our food systems - yet a backbone bending under systems not designed for them.

An estimated 395 million rural youth live in areas projected to experience declining agricultural productivity due to climate change. They are the least responsible for this crisis and the most exposed to its consequences.

Young women face barriers most acutely. In sub-Saharan Africa, agrifood systems account for 66% of women's employment. If smart farming is not designed with and for young women, it will not reach the majority of those who need it most. That is not a side issue. It is a central issue.

The Economic Case

This is not only a moral argument - it is also an economic one.

FAO's latest analysis shows that eliminating unemployment among youth aged 20 to 24 currently outside employment, education, or training could boost global GDP by 1.4% - equivalent to $1.5 trillion - with agrifood systems contributing nearly half that gain.

The question is not whether we can afford to invest in young people. The question is whether we can afford not to. But investment alone is not enough. We must ask: invest in what, and toward what kind of future?

Smart Farming - and Why It Must Also Be Wise

Science, technology and innovation offers unprecedented opportunities to transform how we produce food - and getting smarter tools into the hands of a younger, better-supported generation of farmers is central to that challenge.

At FAO, smart farming is our response - growing more, wasting less, using data to do both. But it must go beyond AI and precision technology. It must mean applying innovation responsibly - so farmers produce more with fewer resources, adapt to changing conditions, and reduce environmental impacts. And it must not widen the inequalities already present in our agrifood systems.

Smart farming must also be wise. Because while smart will optimise the harvest - wisdom asks who it feeds. Whose land. Whose data. Whose future.

Youth as Drivers - Not Beneficiaries

This is precisely why the two halves of this event's title belong together - Youth Voices for Smart Farming. Smart farming will only reach its potential if shaped by those who will lead our food systems into the future.

Youth are no longer simply beneficiaries of FAO's innovation agenda. They are increasingly central actors within it - bringing creativity, digital fluency, and entrepreneurial energy to the greatest food security challenges of our time. But we must resist placing on their shoulders the responsibility to solve a crisis they did not create. That responsibility is shared by all of us.

From Dialogue to Action

Today's dialogue will feed directly into our preparations for the Global Smart Farming Conference in Rome this July. We are committed to ensuring youth perspectives meaningfully shape that agenda - and this carries special weight in 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer. FAO's World Food Forum Global Youth Action Initiative is our vehicle for making that happen.

A Call to Action

I have three closing messages

(1) To the young participants: innovate, collaborate, make your voices heard. You belong in every room where these decisions are made - not as guests, but as key drivers of transformation.

(2) To policymakers and partners: listen actively - not to the loudest youth voices, but the most representative. Invest where needs are greatest: in rural areas, fragile contexts, and above all in young women.

(3) The future of our agrifood systems will not be secured by technology alone. It will be secured by empowered young people - equipped with both the smart tools and the wisdom to use them well.

With that, I look forward to hearing from those whose voices matter most today - the young people in this session.

Thank you.