Several game changing ideas for reimagining India’s Agriculture like agro- climate based farming, agro-ecology based farming, farmers owned and managed value chain systems were discussed.
The United Nations Secretary-General has called for the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit to be held in September 2021 to strategise the actions for positive change in Agri-food systems in the World to realize the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Summit will focus on levers and pathways to shape food systems nationally and globally to accelerate progress in the SDGs. The Summit 2021 is planned to be essentially participatory and consultative and needs the game changing ideas from the experiences through the National, Sub-national (State) and independent consultation for the five Action Tracks related to safe and nutritious food, sustainable consumption patterns, nature-positive production, advance equitable livelihoods, and resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.
The first National Level Dialogue on Agri-Food Systems-Advancing Equitable Livelihoods has been conducted on 12 April, 2021. The National Dialogue was facilitated by the Inter departmental Group constituted by Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare and the representatives from UN Agencies in Delhi. The day long deliberations were attended by farmers’ organisations, farmer producer organisations, civil society organisations, research institutions& experts and the government agencies.
Chairman of the Group and National Convenor for the dialogue Prof. Chand urged the participants to share their ideas, experiences, success stories, transformative innovations, evidence based suggestions relating to policies, infrastructure, institutions, and the commitments India should be making to align food system to achieve SDGs towards 2030. He added that we should plan for the elimination of poverty, zero hunger, nutrition security and health for all, raising incomes across food value chains, and ensuring economic, social and environment sustainability. Several game changing ideas for reimagining India’s Agriculture like agro climate based farming, agro-ecology based farming, farmers owned and manged value chain systems, statutory backing for sustainable innovations, adopting best practices from the states, linking production incentives to nutrition goals, nutrition sensitive production and diets, regulatory framework for food safety of low income consumers, selective bio fortification, FPOs of women farmers etc. were suggested by participants.
