Transformative and Equitable Agricultural Technology for the 2030 Agenda and a sustainable future

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to join you today.

Let me start with a paradox that should trouble all of us in this room.

We are living through the most remarkable period of agricultural innovation in human history. Genomic tools are compressing decade-long crop breeding cycles into a few seasons. Artificial intelligence is predicting pest outbreaks before they happen. Robots are planting, monitoring and harvesting with a precision no human hand can match. Satellites and sensors the size of a coin are reading soil health, crop stress, and water needs in real time. Digital platforms are connecting smallholder farmers to markets, credit, and knowledge they could never previously access.

And yet - 673 million people faced hunger in 2024. 2.3 billion - nearly one in three people on this planet - do not have regular access to adequate food. And if current trends continue, 512 million people will still be hungry in 2030 - and almost 60 percent of them will be in Africa.

That contradiction is not a failure of science. It is a failure of the systems we have built - or failed to build - for scaling innovation and delivering it to those who need it most. And resolving that contradiction is the central challenge before us today.

The Technology Landscape

Before we discuss what is holding us back, let us be clear about what we have to work with - because the landscape of agricultural technology is broader, and more powerful, than any single headline technology.

In biotechnology, the advances are extraordinary and span a wide front. Genomic selection and phenomics are enabling us to identify the best-performing plants and animals with speed and precision previously unimaginable. Speed breeding is dramatically compressing crop improvement timelines - transforming what were once decade-long breeding programmes. Gene editing, synthetic biology, microbiome science, and systems biology are opening entirely new frontiers for sustainable production and nutrition. This is not one tool. It is an expanding biotechnology toolkit - and it is maturing rapidly.

In digital technology and data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, remote sensing, digital twins, and advanced data analytics are transforming how we understand and manage agricultural systems. Precision farming platforms are optimising inputs and reducing waste. Early warning systems are giving farmers and governments decision-critical lead time on climate shocks, disease, and market disruption. Digital finance platforms are reaching producers previously invisible to formal financial systems.

In engineering and mechanisation, robotics, automation, and sensing technologies are reducing drudgery, cutting post-harvest losses, and making farming economically viable. Large-scale field experimentation platforms are accelerating the translation of research into real-world practice at speed and scale we could not manage before.

These are not technologies of the future. Most are deployable today. The challenge is not whether they work in controlled conditions. The challenge is whether we have the systems to make them accessible - to a smallholder in Malawi, a rural woman in Bangladesh, a young farmer in Guatemala.

Honest About the Gap

The failure to make faster progress toward the 2030 Agenda and many of the SDG targets is not simply a technology supply and access problem. It reflects failures of governance, of investment prioritisation, of political will, that are compounded by conflict, climate shocks, and deep structural inequalities that technology alone cannot dissolve.

Technology is critically necessary. But it is not sufficient. What delivers systemic change is the right technology paired with the right institutions, incentives, and enabling environments - innovation bundles: coherent combinations of technological, institutional, financial, and policy innovations, deliberately designed for specific contexts, and built on robust scientific evidence of what actually works.

Four Imperatives

In these Opening Remarks, I want to put four imperatives on the table for this event to engage with.

First: reinvigorate national agrifood science and innovation systems. Many National Agricultural Research Systems are under chronic stress - shrinking budgets, funding volatility, and an ageing researcher workforce that is both a crisis and a renewal opportunity. We need mission-oriented national innovation systems that deliberately connect research institutions, universities, the private sector, and farmer organisations around shared priorities, using open innovation principles and shared research infrastructures. And where budgets permit, fundamental research remains critical - it feeds the pipeline on which all else depends.

Second: build transformative STI partnerships from national to global scales. No country, institution, or sector can do this alone. We need genuinely goal-oriented partnerships - structured around defined food security outcomes, not institutional mandates - connecting research institutions, innovation hubs, policy labs, entrepreneurship ecosystems, and global research networks coherently, not coincidentally.

Third: strengthen science-policy interfaces and anticipatory governance. STI foresight, horizon scanning, and technology assessment must move from the margins to the mainstream of agrifood policymaking and planning. National science advisory systems must be fit for purpose in an era of rapidly emerging technologies - capable of identifying opportunities, assessing risks, and giving governments the evidence base for wise, timely decisions. This is especially critical for AI and advanced biotechnologies, where the pace of development is outrunning governance capacity in most countries.

Fourth: fundamentally reform how we finance agrifood innovation. Global agrifood R&D investment growth has slowed from 2.7 percent annually between 1980 and 2015 to around 1.9 percent in recent years, while the private sector's share has risen from around one third to nearly half. We need polycentric governance of who sets research priorities and who benefits. We do not just need more investment. We need smarter investment: outcome-linked financing models that create real incentives for research actors, farmers, governments, and business to work together toward measurable, equitable goals. Finance must drive collaboration, not competition.

Closing

Excellencies, the question of whether agricultural technology and innovation matters for food security is settled. It does - profoundly and demonstrably.

What is not settled is how we build the science, technology and innovation systems, the partnerships, the governance, and the financing to make it work for everyone - not just those already well-served.

Today's two panels draw directly on the Secretary-General's report on Agricultural Technology for Sustainable Development and contribute to the vital objectives of this STI Forum. The first panel will showcase concrete advances in agricultural technologies for agrifood system transformation. The second panel will address the enabling environments needed to accelerate adoption equitably and at pace.

I want to close with both a challenge and a conviction.

The challenge to us all: at every point today, we should ask ourselves three questions. Who is this innovation actually reaching? How quickly is it reaching those furthest behind? And what would it take to change how rapidly it can reach those who need it most?

The conviction: we have real grounds for optimism. The science is extraordinary. The technologies and tools exist. Inspiring examples of technology delivering for the most vulnerable - AI-powered advisory services for smallholders, genomic innovations reaching dryland farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, digital platforms unlocking credit for rural women - are multiplying. The knowledge of what works is growing.

What this room represents - scientists, policymakers, Member States, and innovation leaders united around a shared agenda - is precisely the kind of goal-oriented, multi-stakeholder partnership that can turn that knowledge into impact at scale.

Transformative and equitable agricultural technology for the 2030 Agenda is not just an aspiration. It is an achievable imperative. Let us use today to move decisively toward it.

Thank you.