As the Global South reaches concerning food and nutrition security levels, experts say science will turn around the trajectory of extreme poverty and hunger. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Apr 8 2025 – Global food and nutrition insecurity levels are hurtling towards a catastrophe. To counter these problems, leading world experts say science is the ‘silver bullet.’ That science will build climate-resilient agri-food systems, improve livelihoods across the value chain, and ensure more affordable, nutritious food while safeguarding the environment.
“We want a positive impact on the global food security. Science is about bringing us insights into issues so that we can then have an impact. Food security cannot happen without science, without research, without data, without analysis, without information, without intelligence, and without thought,” said CGIAR Executive Managing Director Ismahane Elouafi.
“CGIAR scientists will present to you our new research portfolio for 2025-2030, which we believe will really tackle the challenges that we are talking about in the Science Week. We have an incredible team of scientists who really envisioned what the organization can achieve in the coming years. We grow our robust research in high-risk systems and context-specific settings to achieve effective solutions.”
“The most important aspect is the ongoing work on the ground and in the industries, in the field and laboratories, and it is why we need our scientists and partners to come together. Our science research program can provide solutions but those solutions have to be made by people. For this reason, we need to meet in person and virtually and engage so that we live up to set goals.”
CGIAR Executive Managing Director Ismahane Elouafi on the first day of Science Week. Credit: CGIAR
During the second day’s plenary session, there was a special focus on the CGIAR’s new research portfolio and on exploring strategies for effectively scaling innovations to ensure they reach farmers and consumers worldwide. With a focus on addressing the major challenges to food, land, and water systems sustainability, participants were given insights into how CGIAR’s work aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals and contributes to global efforts for agricultural transformation.
Dr. Sandra Milach, CGIAR’s Chief Scientist, told participants where the organization’s scientific revolution all started. Nearly 50 years ago, CGIAR turned to science for solutions by building centers to address segregation in countries still dealing with the effects of centuries of colonization. The organization built farms and lifted millions from hunger in Africa, Asia, and many parts of Latin America.
“However, the world today is different, very different. Yes, we still have global food and water emergencies that we need to address, but we are also facing climate change, biodiversity loss, and new conflicts. Very difficult indeed. Once again, we need and must build capabilities to address these new problems. We have done it before. I’m very confident we will do it again. In 2021, we refocused our strategy to rebuild and do so around five important impact areas, including nutrition, livelihoods, gender, climate, and biodiversity,” Milach said.
Over the years, CGIAR’s mandate has been shaped by an evolving global crisis and they have developed their capabilities to match contemporary problems. She talked about CGIAR’s cutting-edge research and initiatives designed to tackle these pressing issues and discuss the pathways for translating scientific discoveries into tangible benefits for communities on the ground.
By highlighting the intersections between CGIAR’s research and broader international development agenda, she said the organization aims to underscore the importance of collaborative efforts in driving progress towards a sustainable and food-secure future. Emphasizing that the new research portfolio 2025-2030 is big and ambitious, as it for instance, seeks to reduce the number of people affected by extreme hunger by 26 percent and that is 1.82 million people, by 2030. Saying that this is nearly the size of her native country, Brazil.
“Our scientists know how to produce more crops and even more new crops. Our green fields are large and well-established, but we will need to look critically at all the staple crops, bio-fortified crops, and forgotten crops to understand what needs to be done tomorrow. Our scientists also have the knowledge and innovations to empower livestock keepers and fishermen and make sustainable animal and animal food production a core offering. But we will make sure not to design our research programs solely to produce more food. Equally important, better diets and nutrition are central to our work,” Milach.
“By 2030, it is our mission to lift 31 million people from extreme poverty and it will be the foundation of what we do. We hope also to create 92 million jobs, a number equal to the workforce of any nation, just to give you a perspective. Indeed, by improving farms and helping farmers, we will also benefit the environment so that jobs are created around the environment. And we will do it while increasing the average income by 87 percent. This is our pledge.”
Another priority goal will be to prevent 500 million tons of emissions by 2030. Milach said the innovations are just as important as the knowledge and that CGIAR will also build on indigenous and traditional food practices and that knowledge created through these systems will travel across borders. The issue of gender and social inclusion will feature prominently in the new portfolio and specifically towards increasing women and youth employment in the agri-food system and sector.
“Importantly, technologies can be adapted and developed beyond the communities they were designed for. In a more fragile world that we live in today, we have a duty to the smallholder farmers. But not only that, to the communities that they serve. We will need our science to adapt to new food frontiers and security contexts. Especially food producers in urban areas, in islands, and in conflict zones that exist across the world,” she reiterated.
“Our reform was designed to tackle the biodiversity crisis. One million species are at risk of extinction. By 2030, we want to deliver an innovation that will protect 20 billion hectares of land for expansion. This represents 25 percent of the size of the Amazon forest. But we cannot focus on one parcel of land, one waterway, one specific crop, or one biome. We need to use less land and we need to build a bigger land and this can be achieved through environmentally sound solutions.”
Panel discussions in plenary buttressed her remarks by emphasizing the critical role of science in promoting climate-smart agriculture and in proper diversification, soil health, better conservation and conservation practices, and in addressing water scarcity. Overall, CGIAR is designed to prioritize the organization’s impact within their global mission. While also setting the tone for the global science community so that science can serve people and communities.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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