 the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Deng Yu Xu. Could you please give him a big hand for being here? Thank you. And Deng Yu, there are people in the virtual world from across the SDSN network globally watching as well. So we have both an in-person greeting for you and a worldwide greeting for you. The Director General of FAO is really a remarkable leader. We're going to learn a lot. I always do. Every time we sit down, I was just learning in the back about wetlands. I maybe he'll tell us a bit about that. But he is a terrific, really a great scientist. And he was the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He's been a senior figure in China's agriculture, which has got stupendous successes, many of which he has developed and promoted. And Deng Yu Xu became the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2019. And he did it because he won a worldwide campaign saying, we can bring scaled changes to agriculture for sustainability, for food security, for nutrition, for environmental biodiversity, sustainability, for quality of life. So a holistic vision at scale. And I've watched him put that into effect because his management style is to think big and bring everyone together. We had before you, starting in the morning, Gerd Mueller from UNIDO. He said he wants UNIDO to help on the food and agriculture sector. And I said, of course, that's the natural partnership with you because they do the industrial transformation side of things. And I thought that was very exciting. And then President Shisaketti, who was here an hour ago, said that agriculture scaling up for the DRC is absolutely essential. So we're going to hear a phenomenal lesson I guarantee you in the scaling up of sustainable agriculture and solutions to the world's challenges of poverty, hunger, rural livelihoods, and agricultural production and food security. So thank you so much for being here. By the way, when he ran for re-election, of course, it was overwhelming support for being re-elected in 2023 because of his tremendous success as Director General. So we're very honored that you're here. Thank you for coming. Thank you, Professor. You know, Professor Jeff Saks, not only famous in Colombia, he's the famous in the world. You can trust me. Because not only from the media and from the ground and a lot of politicians and farmers and scientists that knows Colombia through him. So that's a real legacy asset for Colombia. And I'm honored to be friend with Professor so many years. I learned from him, from his vision, his critical point. It's very important because we are scientists. Before joining AFL, I was a natural scientist on genetics and breeding for about 25 years. So I really enjoy my previous life. Of course, I enjoy my current life to have the more people through our enabling policy, science, innovation, and a responsible investment. So I will share with my sword how many minutes I will give. No, we are professors. You gave me five minutes. I talk five minutes. You gave me 50 minutes. I talk 50 minutes. How about the minutes? OK, thank you. Thank you for your generously. I will stay here and they have some slides to follow. Dear my professor, Jeff Sucks, so exciting to come to this famous university as my humble AFL director general. So it's my first time to stand at the stage to give some kind of academic lecture since I become an AFL DG. So I made a special reservation for Columbia University for my friend because I got so many invitation together. I said, no, I wanted to give my first most to you and to this university. I wanted to start with a small review or memory, small history tools. You know, why is a food and a culture so touch America, American government and American people? Because the only UN special agency was initiated by the president of America, that time President Rossfer. And it was established the first meeting United Nations Conference of Food and Culture in Hard Spring, Virginia, 1943, May 19 to June 3. Of course, during the war, the war, and so many people suffer from starvation. That time, I think, 90% of the population. And that's why it's so important that President Rossfer was other founding members from China, from Canada, from Latin America, from South Africa, Europe, Asia. And so an AFL was officially established under the UN. It's become a first UN Spanish agency. So that's why the AFL Buster is October 16. And now maybe some of you are famous to know now for the World Food Day. Let's pick it up, AFL Buster, official Buster. And that's what we should not forget. And then, of course, fortunately, we start the first, the DG is also renowned scientist on the nutritionist. That's why the AFL, we always talk about the food security and the nutrition security. And from earlier, he said that the tone of AFL mandate and the beast. I'm so fortunate to become a number nine AFL DG back to another scientist. I'm a scientist on the genetics and the brilliant culture in general. So it's some one cycle after 75 years. And agro-food systems, where we are and where we need it to be. That's why I wanted to share my thought freshly, shortly with this, 50 minutes. And you see over actually driving of agro-food system, population, dynamics and urbanization, industrialization, and also digitalization. This is above all, not only about the culture, about the economy. All the sector of economy and social and, in fact, globally by urbanization, industrialization, and digitalization. So all we have to transform agro-food system based on that bigger scenario. Otherwise, we lost our self on the middle way. But also, what food is a critical reality is we, especially pandemic, heat, and other crises, and also the man-made crisis, the natural crisis, the war in Ukraine. So maybe they reversed or economists always say off-track. But actually, still a lot of people, I don't want to repeat all these numbers because you can search on the web from FL Flexing Publications online. Because since I come to FL, I established a digital FL. Everything, including the photo with your dean, with Professor Jeff Sachs, I think 30 minutes later, you can download from FL website. And annually, we publish several articles, Sofia, Sofa, Kofia, all related commodities, fishery, forestry, and even last year, we first published a study of situations in rural areas. So we look at all the angles and areas related to agriculture and food and rural development. But the daunting situation is still we have more than 600 million people, even by 2030, suffering from starvation or hunger, in general, or malnutrition. And health deaths, even more people still not affordable, 2.4 billion. And of course, look the figures here, world prevalence and the announcement of the number and the announcement of people. It was somewhere between the year of 2011 to the 2018. It was the lowest during the past three years, about since 2000, this is 2015. So it's about the 20 years already. And it's climbing during the past three years. It's quite complex. And not only because the international bond or sanctioned disruption of the supply chain, but also the pandemic, and also whom may make the crisis, not only war in Ukraine and Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Haiti, you name it. So I think that all this and also the food is, in general, is available. So food availability in general is not a big problem, but food accessibility, food affordability, everywhere. Even in the richest country in the world, still have a big number of the people have no money to buy food, to access food, to affordable food. And that's the projection of the global number of the announcement of people. So you can see I hope that the scenarios will be, by 2030, it's less than 500 million. But most probably around 600 million will be still suffering from the malnutrition. And of course, we have to repeat, say, unsale food. I fact, one out of 10 high food laws should be, that's how expected. That's our target. By the 2050, I think Professor Jeff Sucks was very familiar with this also target, where you will be the special advisor to the Secretary of Panguimu at that time, I think. And so all the target is set in there, but the awful track and the reverse, even. And especially look at the health data. Still, it's not so much increase. But the others increased it too much. But it's not good, because non-communicable disease has come from the obesity and overweight. And starting among children should be needed to be decreased significantly. We should recover from lost decade in the rural poverty. So that's why on Monday, the SDG summit, it's a political digression that give the clear message to reach, cite, recharge, and re-emphasize. That's the common science now during this summit. And of course, agri-food system sustainability, we should examine holistically. And the holistically reaching come with a potential synergy between the dimensions and the trade-offs. Agri-food system excessive pressure on the environment. Of course, climate change is there, but agricultural is a sufferer from pollution and also is contributed to the gas emission. And especially from the subset of the livestock and some others. And also bad weather loss is so much, because best of all, professional assessment. As 80% of the threatened terraset species are in danger due to the land use chain driven by the agricultural. In general, agriculture includes the forest management and not only crop and fishing land and water management. And what scarcity. That's why the FAO last minister conference in July in Rome, we focus on the ward manager. Not only water scarcity and water flooding and water pollution. There's three areas we should have looked at at the same time. And pollution from the industry and the pollution not only to the land, lake, rivers, and also Maria for the long term. So that's we have to be more carefully look at the current situation. Just before this lecture, I had a very substantial discussion with Dean, how they map in the wetland. What is the emission, SNR emission, from the wetland globally? Because they have a man made wetland, like a petrious field. We have also natural wetland from riverside, from lakes, from a share of the coast regions. So all this we have to, it's a challenge, but also it's opportunity. Also again, because time limit, I don't want to read all the details information. If you like it, you can download it. And that's a homework for the students, for someone who interests. And the carbon neutralization is the only solution. I said the industrialization and urbanization, digitalization. But the first, we should aim into carbon neutralization. Improved the red dots and increase the blue dots or green dots, reduce the red dots. That's the solution. We needed a package of solution. Improved all the related areas. And the first strategy, what is we should go on? What is the real solution for? We need a growth, yeah? That's why with my colleagues, since I come through the international consultation with the different members, country, and academic people, private sectors, civil society, and we come up with the four betters. Better production, better nutrition, better environment, better life for all, leaving no one behind. That's covered all the different types of countries at a different stage of development. Let's hear. Great America, you are a developing country, but you need a better production to improve your productivity. Produce more with less, yeah? We need more food, definitely. But how? Produce more, more quantity, high quality, more food diversity. In Asia, especially, far East Asia, Southeast Asia, we enjoy so much food diversity. So let's produce more. And with less, less input, not only fertilizer, chemicals, water, you name it, and also less negative impact on the environment. So that means the better production, better nutrition. Also, not only nutritious food, we need a more edible fibers, vegetables, fruit, and also more balanced formulae and also good habits, or consumption patterns. And that's better nutrition, and not only for poor and also for rich people. That's, and then the better environment, not only for general environment, and also agri-environment, and also you are living environment, and that's really a better environment in which a culture of forest, a horticulture, you can name it, livestock, all this area officially. We can contribute to the better environment, and then end up with a better life, not only livelihoods improved, better life quality at a different stage, yeah? Professor, we are a little bit senior, but not, but each, but we're still young at heart, right? And we need the health life, and what is health life based on the science, based on nutrition, based on the proper consumption, and with others. So, and we need to accelerate innovation, technology, data, compliments, governance, human, capital, institution. If you are interested, you can visit the FA website. We have released this document about two years ago. But you look at all the linkage between four beds with SDGs, and SDGs 16 and 17 is partnership. So, we build up the handy, handy initiative. We include all the key partners from the public, private, academy, civil society, not only UN system and the international cooperation. We need to work all the key partners together, and then each SDGs, we need a holistic design, and how to work with other SDGs, because the natural is not divided by SDGs 17 or 20. It's even in the small community, you need the holistic design. And of course, COVID-19 pandemic come and other crisis, war in Ukraine, all this, it's really early warning for this planet, for our human being, but we have found the solution based on science, based on the scale deliverable, not based on the demonstration pilot project. That's what the scientist or professor interested. We need to start that pilot and the small demonstration, but for the social, economic, environmental movement, we need a scale deliverable tangible results. That's why I always strengthen collaboration with the local government and the national government. And FAO, it's ready to work with all the key partners with the university, with the academy, with the private sector, with the civil society, of course with the government and others, your agencies. Why FAO is now become more and more important, because our funders and our funding members, we started build on the food security and the nutrition and also look at the agriculture at large. It means relate the environment, relate the life. And we can do more together. And that's why since I come, I started to change FAO, restructure FAO, we established three layers. First is the functional divisions. It's a pillars of FAO and all the related and their office to call it an internal external. And then we have all this platform. I established a Water Food Forum for welcome all the partners and the key players that come to debate, to share your experience and knowledge and also bring the resources and capacity buildings to the members. And all the members, ministers and relevant partners come to FAO to promote their own project initiative, whatever. So FAO become a knowledge sharing center and become the open platform to advocate the new science, new technology and also new partners to beauty. It's a matching, making place for you. So welcome all the students, great from Columbia University, others to use the FAO not the last internship as a resource of knowledge products. Thank you. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for showing us how FAO is being really made into the central integrative hub for all of the issues around farming, nutrition, land use, biodiversity, because we need that integrated vision and the UN system sometimes either leaves out major areas or parcels them out in a way that they don't get integrated and FAO is doing exactly what is so vital which is bringing together all of these different components. So I really congratulate you and also say that at Columbia University we have tremendous interest and capacities in this area. My colleague Glenn Denning whom I think you know are lead in teaching food policy and agricultural policy in the School of International and Public Affairs. And we would love to support you in every practical way and to engage in all of this really thrilling work. I wanna ask you from your perspective as Director General of FAO and your previous leadership in China. I know you were assigned the challenge of upgrading agriculture in one of China's poorest regions and you made a major contribution there and a lot of your members are asking you in very poor settings, well, what can we do? And you did that in Ningxia. So could you say a few words for in a low income setting where the people are in agriculture and perhaps just subsisting, what is the right approach and what institutions, government, the farmers' associations, the individual farmer and FAO, how can we put the pieces together to tell these poor regions? Here's how you can approach this scaling up problem. Okay, I have it. So thank you, thank you Professor. It's a complete question, but I want to make it simple and mention several key points. First, of course poor, different region, different even countries, different country. Poor, they have a root cause. Some member, some country, some are dependent on the natural resources for agricultural and food production is not so ideal like near East. But when I went to the poorest province in China, Ningxia is a Muslim autonomous region. The weather is harsh, the rainfall annually is 200 millimeter. So, a lot of people look, I'm a scientist. So I look the whole scale way. Drought is not good for cropping for sure. Even not good for grass, but drought, one advantage. Also not good for disease to grow, right? And then you can divide the livestock because you have no disease infection. The first, most, we encourage them to divide the livestock. Yeah, livestock, you need the buildings inside that give the limited water supply and then keep the march clean. But the tropical, sub-topical, ring, fat areas, it's not good for that because there's so much microorganism also growing flourish. So we have to change the way of thinking. Jumping out of the transistor box. And then water saving. Because years and years, transition want to have enough wheat supply. Wheat is, in that area, it depends on the irrigation. It's a lot of water consuming crop. So, first, change the mindset. Second, find the proper commodities which are value-added, complemented to other regions. Not that you are not allowed to use your disadvantage, condition, compete with some variable. It's, it might be another way, sir. So that's the second. Third, you need a science support. First, the water in that salted lake. It's not drinkable. So local farmers and local people don't like the, ah, that's the lake is useless. But pH value more than 8.5, it's a good place to grow the high quality of fish. But you need the selective problem of species of fish to grow. Like the sea, like the sea water. So people that can catch fish from sea, even develop aquaculture in the sea near east, near coast. But if you're growing the fish in that salted lake, it was, so you turn the negative to the positive impact. That's also that. And last but not least, you need the government to support. First, because no any individual farmers or farmers are just that. The government, the law, you shouldn't give the, create the examples, create the hope. And then the purpose sector will follow. Because, oh, it's open a new window for them. And last but not least, you have to establish an enabling policy to attract the investment. Because any poor country, poor region, they have no money. Definitely, poor families. Yeah, that's the definition. And that's why I started EFL, one country, one priority products initiative. Any country, small, small seeds or LDC, LDCs. Last time I met the president of Malawi, I said, you ask your minister, you're a local government. They are so poor, but focus on one. And then they build a whole value chain, not only production then. And then you make money and they can make, copy another proper crops or animal product or fish, fish species. So that's the solution. I think now through the handling hand, through the one country, one priority product and the digital value chain, all this come together. And then you can sell it online. But you need to introduce international standards. So Cortex hosted by EFL 60 years. How to use Cortex to scale up, speed up the high quality production and development. It's not a negative. So a lot of people consider the high standards when we block their opportunity. No, if we jump out, you can slip. Development, south. This is, I hope everybody is hearing very clearly what the answer to the question, this development of an aquaculture industry. It starts with vision, but the vision based on a scientific insight and the local ecology. Well, this isn't the place to grow. This crop, this isn't the place to grow. This crop, this isn't the place to grow. This crop and this lake which you think is useless, that is your new income source if you think what's really possible. And then I wanna underscore because I think it is so essential and in my view, China has proved this time and again. When you have that strategy, it doesn't just implement itself. It's not good enough to say this is a good place for aquaculture. You need to create two things. You need first the government to help lead so that because in impoverished community, they can have the idea, but they can't implement it without resources to start. Almost everything requires an investment at the beginning and then come the results later. But investment upfront when you're impoverished is not easy. So you need the government there to start the process and then as the director general said, an enabling environment. And that means all of the rest of the ecosystem of transport, regulation, guidance and so forth so that this new industry comes together. I love the idea. I was with the president of Malawi yesterday, President Chakwara and he absolutely said we must develop agriculture. He's listening to you. So this is a natural partnership where you can make a breakthrough because Malawi wants it, needs it, the president's very intelligent, very determined and I know that that can make a huge difference for them. Yeah, that's why they committed and determined to come to the FAO because I want to share not only my personal experience, also 40 years experience accumulate in China during the open door and the reform or transform a growth system and the rural development. I think it's a small-holder farmers. I come from the small-holder farmers family. My family eight people, only 14 more, not 15 more. 50 more equal one hectare, a slight one more less. But we have to make life. President Lula asked me, what, how? I said, yeah. But your position, you need the horizontal, you are an economist. Lot of people think of the horizontal way, expanding, expanding from one hectare to 10 hectare. If we get 10 hectare, we'll have enough food. No, you only have one hectare. How to build up a vertical solution? First, it's giving you 1,000 square. If I come to your compass, I ask you 1,000 square, I can make reach. How? Build the one 10 stores of the plastic house, not need a greenhouse because there's no heating necessary in the winter. But you can, I can start building the sprout vegetables. 10 stores. And within two weeks, I can deliver to the hotels. Use all the less germinated quality of seeds. It's all the garbage from the seed company. And there's sprout vegetables, you name it. Brassica, oracea, or taekwong, or even peanuts. Sprout of peanuts. I can sell you one square meat, $2. I can make $1 profit. Only spring water. So you need the business model change based on science. Science is, you can make you reach and happiness. Science is not only scientific paper, printed or not online in the headlines of scientific journey. This is incredible. And we were also reflecting this morning that this coming year, of course, President Lula is president, is the host of the G21. And this gives, I think you also a great opportunity to work with him. And I told him yesterday we will completely support him. And he asked for the support to really make his presidency the world's scale up of these ideas. So I think it's a fantastic opportunity. You met with him. Yes, I had a long discussion with him. And we have a passion. We say he is from poor family and from first day FODG from a small-holder farmers. I'm the first one. I grew up from a small village. So we have to be survivors first. So first time I had enough food because we planned to have the rice in 1973, whatever, as a 10-year-old. Because they increased about 50% of the year to compare the conventional rice that time. So one hectare equal to two hectares. Now, South-South cooperation between FAO have them in Africa, Madagascar or Uganda or others. We introduce a new technology, new varieties. The land of Africa alone, they can feed at least two billion or three billion people. That's the current technology. But we need to invest to improve the irrigation systems, the soil mapping, and then we can use the fertilizer more efficiently, more consistent, more sustainable way. That's why FAO will say support members, the agro-physicist transformation more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable. Not only sustainable. I know you are a father of sustainable. But development. But we need the efficiency, to produce more and with less. More inclusive means also share the development with all the families and communities. And more resilient, you need investment in the rural areas to improve the precondition of agricultural food system production and storage, post-harvest. So that's a food loss that you can reduce dramatically. Easily. 30, 40% of the loss before they reach the storage. And then food waste. Also, that's why FAO will advocate the food loss on the west day, 29th of September each year. And that's also its marginal utility, is the highest action globally. Reduce the food loss. Stop food waste. I'd like to, in closing first, to recognize if I could, you have a wonderful team here, and I want to pay tribute to your chief economist, if I could, because economist to economist, Moximo Terraro, really a great leader and supporter of all of this effort. So I really want to thank Moximo for also all of the wonderful collegiality and the leadership. And I'd like to ask Glenn, if he would just say a word or ask a question, because Glenn Denning, you reminded me after the Cambodian disaster in the 1970s, Glenn helped get Cambodian agriculture up and running again with Erie and replanting seeds that otherwise had been lost, but they had been saved, stockpiled. So just to Glenn, just to say a word. I won't climb up on the stage. It's very difficult to say any more than what the director general has already said. But I'd really sort of underline how important it is for FAO's leadership at this time. And as the headlines have been screaming, we have a food crisis like no other. There's no question about that. If you, and FAO's own statistics, the under-nutrition coupled with what I call incorrectly, probably the over-nutrition and all of the diseases that come with that, we're really looking at a world where about half of the world's population, as many as four billion people, are not getting it right in terms of the diet, combining these two and even allowing for some overlaps. So it really is a crisis like no other. And everybody's aware of this now. Why? Because of the price of food and the way it's been increasing. And especially now in Asia with rice, really spiking. So again, a huge role for FAO in terms of policy support. We have countries that are panicking right now and even some exporters are saying, well, we're gonna stop exporting. And all that does is trigger further crisis as a result. We've got a number of countries, I think scrambling to ensure food security in their own countries, sometimes doing it well through social protection programs, less well in terms of price caps. So this is the time when FAO's role is more important than ever. And it's not just Asia, of course, Africa, but as you point out very correctly, there's great potential in Africa for intensification and to do it sustainably. To feed two billion, three billion people is absolutely possible. A country like DRC this morning, the president talked about the challenge of productivity there. The yields haven't changed in 50 years in DRC. If you look at the core staple foods, so much can be done. So all I would say is more power to FAO and working with countries to, I think, create platforms whereby the policies can be coherent across countries, so it's not making matters worse. Learning, providing a way of learning from positive experiences and also some negative experiences. And yeah, I mean, being here to, as you rightly pointed out, we're not gonna hit the SDG2 by 2030, but we should be at least thinking about what can be done 2035, 2040, and beyond. And there's a big role for FAO there. Thank you. Thank you. So let me thank you very, very much for being here. If this is your first lecture, you're not rusty at all. And it was really, it's such an honor to work with you with your reelection by worldwide demand. We have the time with your leadership in the next few years to really make these breakthroughs. And I think politically, what we're seeing at the UN this week is the realization, even the grudging realization of great powers that there is no alternative but to work together. And I heard that from President Biden yesterday. I was happy to hear that. The United States had, okay, we know, we have to partner with everybody on the SDGs. This was good news and a good speech. And President Lula gave a wonderful call to action. And here you are, a person that's gonna lead the action. So thank you, thank you so much. Before I leave, I used to, you are holly stages back with two short comments. First, I'm so happy with my colleagues. Highly qualified colleagues support me. Not only chief economist, chief scientist, also ADG from, DDG from the United States and from all over the world. That's why I'm a big team, right? Without the high qualified team, I'd also appreciate all the members support me. If you're first time in the history, not only because of pandemic, because the crisis of war in Ukraine, we face so much, but the first time in history, we are building one FAO and with strong solidarity. In that aspect, I really appreciate America, government, relevant agencies, university, not only Columbia, also Mississippi or others support me. It's a one FAO, one solidarity. I got support from China, Japan, and Europe, Africa, of course, Latin America, you name it. And also some even, you know, small state. I said, in Chinese, we all joke. Ant, ant, ANT, ant meat is a meat. Elephant meat also is a meat, no matter big or small. So I really appreciate big or small contribution, but here in America, I should the public say, America did the past four years, no $80 delay and double the volunteer contribution. Japan also, China of course, and Europe still keep increase. So I manage in that during challenge time, quite a while, and we can do more and better. I know there's so much and high, especially from FAO, from my side. I won't keep it wrong. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.