 Welcome to our audience here in Davos and to those of you also tuning in from around the world. If you're following us on social media hashtag with twenty two please. We need as much audience participation and listening in and amplification. I think of the message today. We're here to discuss averting a global food crisis. So I'm going to be a little bit controversial to begin. It's just a day two of Davos and I'm already convinced we are already in a global food crisis. Just consider some facts. Global food land and ocean systems represent industries worth ten trillion dollars. That's more than 12 percent of global GDP. It's also a staggering 40 percent of all jobs and the cost of the climate of these industries is devastating. They're responsible for almost 80 percent of tropical deforestation and one third of global greenhouse emissions. All that effort and all that environmental cost and yet we waste as much as a third of the world's food supply every year. That has to stop. Today the heartbreaking tragedy of Russia's war on Ukraine is a wake up call to a much wider war. A product of years of inefficient farming regional conflict climate change. And of course the past two years of covid. Today's soaring food and fertilizer prices and broken supply chains as you'll hear are being felt all over the world. Meanwhile on Ukraine's farms the literal seeds that could help allay this crisis are not being sown. They're not allowed to be sown. Let's be clear. The consequence 49 million people now facing emergency levels of hunger over 800 million people going hungry each night. And remember of course China's food demand is down because of lockdown. This situation could get far worse very quickly. And while the alarm bells are ringing and I think we're all hearing them I'm not sure leaders understand how swiftly we need to act. Hungry societies break down wherever you are in the world. But there's hope so we can take a breathe. I'm privileged to be joined by a panel of experts who not only understand the crippling cost burden of the food crisis but there are also pioneering ways to tackle it and better still their plans could help buyers critical vital time to address the other existential crisis we face. And that's the climate crisis. So let's get to it. First may I introduce his excellency the deputy prime minister of Vietnam. Laming Kai. Your excellency please. Yes. Nha Nong is not a common man. And Nong Thong is a modern man. But we also have a lot of challenges, especially because of the impact of climate change and the people's water in the river. Long is one of the most important centers in the world. Therefore, we also want to call on international organizations, countries and universities to work together with Vietnam so that there are solutions to tackle climate change, so that we can build a sustainable business that meets the requirements of Vietnam and the world. And I would like to say thank you for being here and I would like to ask for your opinion. Your excellency thank you so much. You need to understand your destination to plot a course there. And I loved your point about needing a short term plan of action here and a longer term plan. And we're going to talk about both on the panel today. Let me introduce our panelist, his excellency Philip Pango, the vice president of Tanzania. Her excellency Miriam Almahiri, the minister of climate change and environment for the UAE, David Beasley, executive director for the World Food Programme and Eric Feawold, the CEO of Singenta. David and welcome everybody. Thank you for your time. David I want to begin with you. I think no one's ringing the alarm bell louder than you on the short term crisis which I think many of us understand because we see the headlines. For me also what's crucial is what we've discussed here which is the trajectory of where we're going without dramatic intervention. Oh boy Julia you know before Ukraine I was already out there with a clarion call that we've got a world food crisis and we're facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse over a year ago you had Ethiopia then you had Afghanistan and then the bread basket of the world this now got the longest bread lines of the world. And so now because of this crisis we're taking food from the hungry to give to the starving. It's absolutely a crisis mode. What do you think is going to happen when you take a nation that normally grows enough food to feed 400 million people and you sideline that? What do you think is going to happen? And so when you add the fuel costs, food costs, shipping costs it's devastating to not just our operations but to global food security. When you go back to 2007-2008 in Arab Spring you look at the economic indicators then and you had 40 nations with political unrest, riots, protests and today the conditions are actually worse. So look what you see in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Peru, Pakistan I could keep going on. That is only a sign of things to come and so over the next 10 to 12 months we probably will have a significant as we are having a pricing problem. But because of the fertilizer issues that we're facing, the lack of production not just in Ukraine but in North America, South America, Africa, Asia because of droughts and many other factors we very well could have a food availability problem. It's not going to impact just the poorest of the poor it's going to impact everybody. And that's why I'm excited to be here because I think the media and the leaders are now beginning to recognize that we have got a problem Houston and we've got a zero in on the solutions. Now it's a perfect storm within a perfect storm and if we don't get the port of Odessa open it's only going to compound our problems because we've got to get those fields back operational. We've got to get those silos full again but they can't get the silos empty unless we get the ships flowing. It's critical absolutely critical because we will have famines around the world and the number that you mentioned when I took this job there were 80 million people marching to starvation. That's not chronic hunger you mentioned 810 million that are chronically hungry. These are the people that are in shock acute food insecurity. It was 80 million and it went to 135 right before COVID. Why? Manmade conflict? Climate. COVID comes along boom just shocks it up to 276 million people. Now we're looking at 325 million people in what we call IPC 345. Now here's the most startling fact out of that 276 or 325 million they're 49 million knocking on famine's door in 43 countries and those are the 43 countries we have got to be extremely concerned about that will result in famine destabilization and mass migration if we don't get ahead of this. And I think the danger is we try and ramp up production in the short term and we do it in unsustainable ways so actually exacerbate the longer term issues that are exacerbating the longer term crisis that we're already in. Your Excellency I want you to come in and talk not only about Tanzania because you represent solutions you've talked to the UN about how we tackle this for the continent of Africa in itself so we can talk about where Africa needs to be and how it's facilitated in that but can you talk about at least in the short term as well what escalating fertilizer prices what supply chain breakages mean for your country and how it's going to exacerbate the long term issues too to that point. Well thank you first the African continent has suffered not just from the the COVID pandemic and its implications on food we have had the climate effects droughts as it has already been said but of course bad agricultural policies as well and all these need to be addressed so for me I think if we are to avoid a global world crisis I think there are two strategies that we have to follow simultaneously one is national actions national actions by that I mean first we have to deal with the mega investments currently in agriculture we have to invest in irrigation we have to invest in rural roads we have to invest in smart agriculture so we also have to deal with land allocation issues for larger scale cultivation but importantly for the continent we have a youth population well over 70 percent of our people are young people below 25 25 and below so we have to we must strategize so that we have the youthful population involved in agricultural value change throughout and this is being done in our case in Tasmania we are even allocating land over 2000 acres subdivide them into 100 acres for our youth and we think this is going to make a major difference but critically we have to invest in improved seed varieties and here is where the world has can help we have to invest in fertilizers if we do this for the very short term we can Africa we can turn this crisis into actual an opportunity for the continent but critically it is important that we get global partnerships and this is what has changed in the continent recently so if I did the World Bank Syngeta private sector all these are coming in with solutions that quickly turn the crisis into an opportunity I think I'm going to come to you to wait for it but it's tough to invest in fertilizers at least in the short term and the prices are soaring I mean in fact governments make tough decisions in fact to go the opposite way with a critical devastating impact from crop yield that that already struggles the key word for me that kept coming out there and I was trying to count and then the loss count was invest talk to me about the UAE because you recognize for many reasons a country that has what less than five percent arable land aged in 90 percent food imports and yet you're in a far better position admittedly have far more money than many other countries but it does require a program it also requires understanding the consequences of your policy decisions not just implementing broad policies and we'll come to that talk to me about your view here and what you've seen thank you so much Julia it's lovely to be here amongst friends so many familiar faces and I was just actually saying to David every time we see each other there's another sea on top of us right we've got climate conflict COVID crisis we want it to stop because as as you all mentioned the numbers are are really going into a trajectory that we're not happy with and so for me there's a lot of things that I want to talk about so on the innovation side yes absolutely we need to look on the innovation side it's really critical that we know where it is where where we're going and I think this is also something you want us to to focus on there was already a lot talked about but I want to talk about us as also some countries who are in a better position and what our responsibilities are one thing I say is let's keep markets open the flow of food needs to keep flowing because if food does not flow we get famine as David very well knows he's always saying you guys need to put me out of my job but actually we're giving him more and more job to do another thing that I think we all need to think about we're all here and in a way we're all somewhat to blame for where we are in some way or another and so we have to really look at solutions and working together partnerships something I was talking about in another session is let's try and eat less meat this is something that I think would be a quick win for us to help in the situation we're in let's reduce food loss and food waste it is so important that we all think about how we're living because what we're doing as consumers plays a huge role yes invest in innovation and technology the UAE is doing that we launched food tech valley that's already nearly complete in its first phase we launched food tech challenge again trying to get agri technologists innovators to come and innovate partnerships is really important with that guru we had him just a few days ago and save the soil campaign how important soil is to our food systems I can only also urge countries in their NDCs put more ambitious NDCs and put food systems in your NDCs it's really really important Pippa Margram actually said something he said if she said if we fix food systems we fix world order and I really believe in that another thing I had as well is yeah the coalitions with the aim for climate is something we were spearheading with the United States of America we have 170 people on board now and all this is about creating kind of vehicles to to get countries to commit and also other countries who don't have the investments to say you know what we want to be on board we want to learn from you we want to use the science what seeds should be we be using what methodologies should we be using and this morning we signed with the world economic forum the Muhammad bin Rashid global innovation or initiatives signed with WEF to set up it's an ecosystem a global ecosystem for food innovation hubs as his excellency also mentioned so all these countries or all these initiatives are coming together to create that ecosystem so that investors and investments can flow into this to accelerate innovation enhancement I mean there's so much in there I'll add one more thing fixed food security a fixed world order inadvertently but directly tackle climate change and I know that's going to be incredibly important to you is that's in COP 28 and we'll come back to that before I get to Eric last but not least I just want to ask the audience who likes to eat organic food who purposely and mostly I'm talking to 0.01% here but who likes organic food be honest please participation always welcome yeah a lot of you we like organic food um tough audience Eric because you've been right out there and said organic food's great it's not the way to feed the world you've also as a company come under severe fire and it goes back to what I said at the beginning there's a war in Ukraine but there's a wider war going on and when I look at what you're doing I see you fighting a wider war but that comes at a heavy cost for a business and for PR for that business talk to me about what you're doing and what you think we need to be tackling longer term too so I think it's really important as we talk about solutions right to start with what is the problem and talk about we've got a major food security crisis globally and we've got a major climate change crisis right and the climate change crisis is part of the reason for the food crisis in addition to conflict and other issues so we've got these two major global issues that we have to tackle agriculture has to be part of the solution to climate change and has to tackle food security so if we're going to go after these we need many solutions short term medium medium term and long term so I'm not trying to talk negative about organic or positive about organic I'm talking about what do we need to do to have to meet outcome goals to make sure there's enough food for everybody in the world that agriculture is more productive we can grow more food on less land and if we can do that and at the same time the same practices the same technologies that do that help address and solve climate change take agriculture from 12% of greenhouse gases ag food system from a third to nature positive how do we do both and so I talk about things like regenerative agriculture practices which food companies are increasingly talking about governments are increasingly talking about banks how can we help farmers do things like don't till the soil leave the carbon in the soil don't take away the stover don't burn the stover leave the carbon in the soil cover cover crops in the winter so that you don't have soil erosion puts more carbon in the soil rotate crops so that you have more nutrition going into the soil these types of practices and the technologies that enable them are the solutions let's talk about solutions not just not not just preconceived notions about what they should be what are the facts what's the data how are these things doing we've worked with 1600 demonstration farms with these types of practices and have seen dramatic yield increases after several years 33 percent reduction in greenhouse gases far less fertilizer and pesticides and that that's better for the soil better for food security and deals with climate change I want to go back on your point there though because you know it goes back to the point of policy and understanding where your destination is I mean you said it's not against organic or not and it's great for your margins because you make better margins the product the problem is the yields are lower and if you look at the green deal in the EU they're now mandating 25 organic so a policy makers coming up with bold ideas that sound really good but actually come at the cost of perhaps famine in other parts of the world that's the consequence of some policy decisions like organic farming for example it's like we have to work out where we're going and then work backwards right so we and and our industry are encouraging the EU for in the farm to fork strategy to have outcome goals right to have goals around productivity land productivity agriculture productivity and greenhouse gas reductions per unit of of food production then that will unleash technologies and practices that make that happen and if organic can be improved in order and achieve those goals fantastic what I would I see happening the reality because I talked to a lot of farmers and spend a lot of time in farms is that if you take the best from organic the rotation of crops and the best from conventional where you you use limited only way you need fertilizer and crop protection but you also go beyond that with these other practices and technologies to enable them you can dramatically increase the yields and you can drop the greenhouse gas emissions dramatically would you like to come in here and talk about what this would mean this kind of science this kind of specific targeting this data analysis of understanding farming would mean for a continent like Africa for example well that that's key for example we have initiatives right now where we deal with the acidity of the soil salinity and these make a lot of difference because you are dealing with climate related issues but again you are also making a big impact on agricultural productivity so I think these are just some of the initiatives that we need to scale up but aside from that in the case of the African continent I think there is another dimension that is often sidelined we are all focusing on Ukraine that terrible war and warranted but we have similar challenges across the continent in Mozambique Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo South Sudan Central African Republic and therefore there has to be regional interventions regional collaboration to resolve these conflicts as well otherwise know whatever the science you are going to apply to improve agricultural productivity if we don't silence the guns it's not going to work so we have to deal with both yeah I mean that's such a vital point and we we can't escape that whatever we talk about in terms of gene editing or science or agri tech when it comes to the possibility at some point in the future of the continent of Africa not being a net importer actually being a net exporter and providing incomes for the farming households I mean that that's a dream but it's to your point it takes more than just perhaps science Mary can you comment on this point sure sure whether it's strategic plans ahead of of cop 28 or more targeting because every every area is different tailored responses are required to that point specifically wherever you are in the world it's so difficult because now we're all sort of looking at what's happening in the news and it's kind of swaying us a little bit away from all the things we were discussing before I mean again climate crisis food crisis friends it's right outside that door and the danger short-term solution yeah to address exactly the supply crisis and it pushes us in the wrong direction in every other way yeah and the complexity is that everyone is at a different level everyone has different resources and everything is kind of interlinked together food systems contribute to a third of global greenhouse gases food systems are a problem but they're also a solution we've got because of the conflict all the humanitarian work that needs to be done all the the focus areas that needs to be swayed so that we get the people that are actually in need of food that they get to the food that they get the access of food that those who want to go into more sustainable methods of farming can get access to finance it's really really complex and there's no how do you say a solution or or silver lining to do this but what we can say is that by working together we're much stronger and I also feel that going to now towards COP 27 in Egypt and then COP 28 in the UAE we're really looking to make sure we have the inclusivity element in it that we're looking across the whole food supply chain not only looking on the production side but as I said also on the consumer side because we all have a role to play in this we want to make sure that we have solutions that we can scale up it's so important because solutions are there but we really have to scale up knowing that we also are going to be needing 50 percent more food by 2050 is also a scary thought because not only do we have the pressures that we have now today but also thinking of the future moving ahead and I can just say that we just need to make sure that leaders are seeing the food crisis as it needs to be a priority for everyone and as a punchline I just want to say that solving the global food crisis is everyone's business everyone and it's smart business please David you've got a great statistic and that is I think what Germany and other nations learned during the Syrian war which was the price it takes to feed a person who wants to stay in their own country despite the challenges relative to the cost of providing food support whatever it is in a country like Germany and you can quote me I don't want to misquote you but I think the difference was 50 cents in Syria versus 70 dollars a day in Germany it's smart business sense above everything it's sensible policy did I get the stat right that you're going to come in there and correct me you get it right well the only add to that is it's it's it's less it's about seven cents per per person if they if we teach them to farm that's the other thing not just to feed yourselves too but to feed others as well it can be an income generating project rather than just feeding yourself Eric on that point China what can we learn from China I believe 75 percent now of agricultural patents for things like gene editing to try and protect against crop wastage viruses whatever it is are coming from China and this is a country that knows it's got a lot of people to feed and more people to feed in the future yeah I think China agriculture is transforming rapidly and they're doing it by government working together with companies to support farmers but not just farmers going all the way to the food companies and the consumers with sustainability data what's amazing now in China we have these map centers which multiple companies support farmers with everything the farmer needs so with a 60 kilometer radius the farmer gets their soil sampled gets taught regenerative techniques gets their seed everything they need the financing then they get higher quality sustainably grown foods and in the blockchain goes all the way to the consumer who can scan the final product and see a picture of the farmer who grew their product and the sustainability data how much greener that product is and I think the learning for me there is government working together with industry to support not only farmers but the whole value chain all the way to the consumer and then consumers wanting sustainably grown healthy foods it works in a command economy does it work in other countries it has to okay so I took this role at syngenta six years ago and I would say we had no collaborations with any ngos and I would say I would spend maybe two percent of my time with other companies through the value chain now we collaborate across the whole value chain the ag input companies with the grain companies the processors the food companies the retailers ngos government officials world food program you know we're all and we know that we're all in this together and we have to collaborate so the answer is yes we have to do it we have no choice it's the only way we solve food crisis and climate crisis you presented to the united nations and said look we're ready echo us countries we're ready to invest we just need the money we need financing we need support we need to be listened to so you understand to your point about the challenges of conflict there are many complexities but if you provide people with the money that they can do more than just provide food for their families they could perhaps sell some of that food and provide income you would transform some of the 30 million farming households across the african continent what was the response when you went to the UN and said hey show me the money well the the response was good in some cases but in others i feel like you're being a diplomat yeah of course we as africa we would want more we have had support from the world bank the african development bank in particular coming up with the finances that we need to invest in the range of measures that we are that are being discussed here so for example we will have to invest in making sure that we minimize post harvest losses we 30 to 40 percent to be clear across the african continent this is each harvest we we need we need resources to invest in warehousing of the crops that are produced and i can tell the audience that africa has the capacity to actually produce surplus for them for the world and i mean this is such an important point africa could be a net exporter to the world david what difference would that make no africa can feed the entire world clearly but there's what's the problem there's many there's been a lot of money poured into africa in the last two three four decades and we're just not making the progress we need to make and i think from the world bank to ifis and as well as donor nations have got to be more strategic and effective with how we move into nations that need to improve productivity etc from transparency rule of law in the list of many many other things i know we've changed how we do a lot of things in africa we no longer just bring food in africa we now buy a lot inside africa trying to stimulate local markets we do now cash base transfers uh literally a couple billion dollars inside africa and we're doing everything we can to teach and i can i can tell you for every benefits fishery i've ever met i've never met a beneficiary that wanted to hand out they want to be able to take care of their own families their own villages their own communities and you want to talk about entrepreneurship talk to an african woman out there in the village oh my gosh it's unbelievable i i can show you video after video with me talking with like beba and these other women like mr beasley you came in here and you gave us a water well so that we can now fish ourselves yeah and she and she said she said i'm no longer feeding just my family i'm now feeding the village selling into the marketplace we're buying clothes we're buying medicines and now i'm paying for my son's wedding and she said it was such pride she says if i can get five more acres i mean that's the thinking when the difference between handing out food and given a tremendous way an opportunity and so the donor nations have got to rethink just you gotta give us the tools to scale up and achieve this success because the entrepreneurial spirit is just as strong in africa it is in any developed nation around the world clearly and i can tell you the world food program will never end hunger united nations will never end hunger until the private sector is front and center and engage with leaders around the world you're never going to end poverty and hunger are you engaged enough as a business community i know you are but the business community we have to be engaged more i mean we've got to solve this but let me give you one example so the world food program has put together something called the farm to market alliance in east africa and so it's it's yara it's buyer agra um brabo bank and singenta trying to work together to figure figure this out with farmer solution centers in the number of countries including tanzania and rwanda ethiopia and zambia and and and we're learning a lot but we've got to do better but but the fact that we're coming together what we what we figured out what we need to do though is we're willing to come together and work together but we have to connect to the demand downstream and we have to get stronger government connections right so all of that has to come together so we need some examples of that happening and success and then we'll get there okay i'm energized we're in 18 months i mean we'll come back very briefly at the end to the short short short term but you have 18 months we shouldn't be going to any cop without talking about food security quite frankly given as we've said the two things are inextricably linked what's the game plan give me five bullets or however many want to give me but the pressure's on okay because we need to come out of cop 28 cop 27 fine too but yes you know your key for this um the same ways we did last year like deals signing agreements the business community supernatural bodies we we can make huge strides but we need a game plan yeah so give me the vision 18 months out okay so cop 26 most countries put out when they want to reach net zero but it's quite far yeah far into the future but it's only it's only what nine harvests so if i think about that in terms of food security i'm already like jumping up and down on my seat sorry to interrupt no problem um so what's really important is that we need to ensure that first of all as i said innovation right and a lot of initiatives have happened and even just today all the meetings i've had there's so many new initiatives happening where people want to collaborate and really push forward the innovation like i said the NDCs making sure that countries are now putting more ambitious targets because innovation has just gone so far and those who have already submitted their NDCs i'm sure they're a lot further on they can put more ambitious targets including food systems in the NDCs yeah we're going to have definitely at cop 28 food systems is going to have as much weight as the energy conversation is going to have because it's something that's touching us all and we need to make sure that this is getting the attention that it deserves um also making sure we have the inclusivity part we need to make sure we're taking all stakeholders from smallholder farmers youth women that they're all part of this conversation i know we're a country it's an oil and gas country again this is very unique about cop 28 we've got the global stock first global stock take we're an oil and gas country but we're serious about this we're serious about this we're here we know that within our journey that we've already taken on the on the energy sector we're not perfect but we at least have a vision we have an aim and we want to make sure that we are part of the conversations as global responsible citizens in this conversation and there's there's no time we can't let perfection get in the way of action quite frankly um we have one and a half minutes left so david the challenge is on i mentioned i want to bring it back to the short term and i want to talk about the alarm bells that the the focus um yes he was a keynote speaker and did not want to participate so we i my apologize i know um again at some point in the future i promise you're in demand you're excellency um we have one and a half minutes i do want to go to david on the immediate crisis you've said open the ports we need to find a solution to open the ports and let the supply out we didn't talk about russia too but we can't sustain our food system without fertilizer from russia that's a basic fact and we need to acknowledge that i think and and globally we need to acknowledge that and crops from russia and crops i agree and i think people don't understand the implications of sanctions with which i think it's important too we have to look at the consequences of all of them um but david i think what we're looking at here and and we can debate how you open those food corridors how you get that grain out but we need to do it and there will be global consequences if we don't but i think what we perhaps have to say is um whatever putin bloodmer putin's legacy is and hopes to be he's potentially threatening famine global famine around the world how about that for a legacy does that need to be the short-term message that we present today failure to open up the ports is a declaration of war on global food security right it's that it's that simple uh if we can get the ports open it doesn't solve the problem but it begins to create stability of a volatile food market right now combined with all these other issues that we're facing which we could talk about all day long and so every one percent increase in hunger there's a two percent increase in migration just think about that for a minute and we just gave some numbers we've gone from 80 million to now 323 million people marching towards starvation starts doing the math break down down to which countries african countries asian countries middle east countries and i tell my friends in europe you don't need to be concerned only what's happening to the east of you you need to understand what's going to be happening to the south and to the southeast of you if you don't reign in this global food security problem and if you think you're having a problem now with a nace with a world of 7.7 billion people and we're struggling now to feed everyone which is absolutely horrendous imagine what's going to happen when we have 10 billion people 12 billion people and climate impact is only going to increase and what breaks your heart there's 430 trillion dollars worth of wealth on planet earth today there should not be a single child on this planet that goes to bed hungry much less starve to death and there are enough leaders in davos this week to end hunger not just by charity yes that's important and a very singular crisis we're having right now but long term we need their engagement their ingenuity their creativity that is what the world needs at a time like this the rallying cry doesn't get stronger and by the way david to the earlier point we don't want to put you out of business we just want you to be the last line of defense not the first and that's the challenge to your panel thank you