IAEA and FAO Celebrate 60-Year Milestone in Advancing Nuclear Techniques for Agriculture

The IAEA and FAO celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture at the 2024 IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications and the Technical Cooperation Programme. The two organizations, together with high level country representatives, reflected on the Joint Centre's achievements and charted the course for its future.

In a world grappling with the dual crises of food insecurity and climate change, the longstanding partnership between the IAEA and FAO continues to leverage nuclear science to tackle agricultural challenges and promote global food security.

High level representatives from around the world, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Minister for Agrarian Development and Irrigation of Peru and Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives from China, Italy, Sudan and the United States of America gathered at an event at the IAEA Ministerial to discuss how nuclear science has reshaped global agriculture and food systems over the past six decades and how new initiatives, such as Atoms4Food, aim to address emerging challenges.

Opening the event, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke about the transformative nature of the partnership. "This collaboration is more than an alliance; it is a testament to the importance of nuclear science for the transformation of food systems," Mr Grossi said. His words underscored the achievements of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, which since 1964 has developed and applied nuclear and related techniques to address global agrifood challenges.