Resiliency: Feed the World and Grow Exports. Heritage Crops and Localized Innovation
WTO Centre William Rappard (Room D), Geneva, Switzerland
June 27, 2024 | 09:00-10:00 CET | 3:00-4:00AM EDT
The session on ‘Crop Diversification and Resiliency: Feed the World and Grow Exports’ discusses how farmers in developing economies have begun using modern breeding technologies and management practices – to engage in “next generation” crops and showcase the United States’ investments in programs such as the Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, and the Harvest for Health Challenge, which aims to accelerate the development of underutilized crops and to improve food security by increasing the diversity of climate resilient nutritious foods in the global marketplace. The US Government is partnering with scientists and stakeholders around the globe to develop tools, technologies, and methods in crop improvement that build on local knowledge and biodiversity. The session will also discuss how developing countries have integrated into the global trade in high value planting seeds for vegetables and other crops, leveraging their endowments in land, labor, and climate. Countries that have succeeded in this sector have strengthened their SPS and trade facilitation systems to become reliable partners in global agricultural value chains. The expected outcome of this session is twofold: (1) to increase awareness among WTO delegates and development community about how these tools and methods can improve food security; and (2) to shed light on how the implementation of trade facilitative WTO measures in a more streamlined and transparent way can enable pathways to market for innovative research and technical investments.
Speakers:
- Ravi Khetarpal, Executive Secretary , Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions
- Susan Ndung’u, Agricultural extension specialist , Farm Input Promotions
- Samuel Crowell, Senior Director, International Programs and Policy, The American Seed Trade Association
- Joe DeVries, President, The Seed Systems Group
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