MIKTA PANEL “Digital Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture”
It has been nine years since the Foreign Ministers of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia gathered in New York in September 2013 as five democracies that benefit from open economies with robust growth rates and a significant level of economic power. Coming from diverse cultures and regions, which they are strongly linked to, MIKTA Foreign Ministers declared their will and capability to contribute to protecting public goods and strengthening global governance. In the face of a rapidly changing world the rationale for the creation of MIKTA remains as valid as in its beginning.
Türkiye, as Chair for 2022, aims to keep this momentum of collaboration and solidarity in MIKTA as a cross-regional and flexible consultative platform and explore further common grounds for deepening cooperation –particularly against the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic– and for contributing to better global governance.
With the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the international community has committed to ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition. Yet, there is still a long way to go to reach this sustainable development target (SDG2) as food insecurity and malnutrition continue to threaten millions of people in the world. Global agriculture faces multiple challenges. Besides, there is increasing competition for alternative uses of limited land; food, fuel and fertilizer prices are on the rise; and we need to adapt to climate change.
Due to disruptions related to Covid-19, the number of starving and malnourished people had increased to 828 million in 2021, demonstrating the importance of ensuring food security and meeting nutritional standards once again. Now the war in Ukraine is likely to cause a further rise in global food prices and food security risks for countries around the globe that rely on imports from Ukraine and Russia with no viable substitutes.
With this understanding, Türkiye has put food security among its core priorities of Türkiye’s MIKTA Chairmanship of 2022. Much time, money and efforts have been spent in policy-making to address the multi-faceted and protracted nature of today’s food security crisis. While continuing the emergency assistance to those who are in need, the focus should be on the search for long-term solutions such as transforming the agriculture and food systems.
The ubiquity, portability and mobility of digital technologies are transforming agriculture and food production. Specifically, in the agriculture and food sector, the spread of mobile technologies, remote-sensing services and distributed computing are already improving smallholders’ access to information, inputs and markets, increasing production and productivity, streamlining supply chains and reducing operational costs.
However, the ‘digitalization’ of agriculture and the food value chain has certain challenges to overcome. Issues such as cybersecurity and data protection, labour replacement and re-education and the risk of creating a digital divide between economies, sectors or individuals with differing abilities to adopt new technologies. Despite these points, there is no doubt that digital transformation in agriculture is here to stay.
EVENT
On this background, the Turkish Embassy in Rome is organizing a MIKTA panel titled “Digital Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture” on 13 October 2022 in the margins of the World Food Day, at technical level and in collaboration with esteemed MIKTA members. The objective is to share the experience and expertise in the field of digital agriculture of MIKTA countries with developing and under-developed countries.
For practical purposes, the event will take place on at 14.00 hours CEST. (Rome: 14:00, Mexico City: 07:00, Ankara: 15:00, Jakarta: 19:00, Seoul: 21:00, Canberra: 23:00).
It will be moderated by Mr Dejan Jakovljevic, Director of FAO Digitalization and Informatics Division, who will bring in the FAO perspective to enrich the debate further as well.
The panelists are:
- H.E. Miguel García Windee
Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN Agencies in Rome
- Dr. Nyoman Adhiarna
Director of Digital EconomyMinistry of Communication and Informatics, Indonesia
- Jehoon Sung
Director General of the Department of Digital Agriculture
Rural Development Administration (RDA), Republic of Korea
- Dr. David Henry
Research Leader, Digital Agriculture
CSIRO Agriculture & Food
- Yasin Hakkı Kocaman
Deputy Director General of Information Technologies
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Türkiye
Register to the Webinar link here
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