Innovation from investment to impact

By QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Hunger is not inevitable. The world already possesses many of capacity, tools, technologies and knowledge needed to ensure food security for all. Yet in 2025, 645 million people still faced hunger, while about one in three people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet.

At a time when scientific advances and new technologies are reshaping entire economies and societies, innovations that can help people around the world better produce and access nutritious foods, improve livelihoods and build resilience remain out of reach. The challenge is not a shortage of innovation, but a shortage of adoption at scale: turning proven solutions into locally adapted, affordable and investable

options that farmers and agrifood enterprises can use, sustain and scale.

This idea is at the heart of this year's World Food Day theme: "Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow." The transformation of agrifood systems is a comprehensive approach, under the overall guidance of the Four Betters – better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Digital advisory services can give farmers access to weather forecasts, market prices and tailored guidance, helping them make better decisions on planting, farm management and marketing. Animal disease surveillance and early-warning systems can detect emerging threats earlier, giving veterinary services and livestock keepers more time to act before outbreaks spread.

Soil moisture and nutrient sensors and precision irrigation can help farmers use resources and inputs more efficiently. Satellite and geospatial tools are enabling countries to monitor forests and changes in land use. Better market data and early-warning systems can also help governments anticipate pressures on food prices, supplies and trade, and respond sooner.

For generations, farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have conserved and developed crop varieties, harvested and managed scarce water, cared for soils, and managed landscapes and biodiversity. Agricultural systems built around such knowledge and practices are now recognized and supported through FAO’s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme. Such knowledge remains an important source of innovation today, including when combined with modern science and technology to help producers adapt to changing climatic and environmental challenges.

Yet too many proven innovations remain unavailable, unaffordable or insufficiently adapted to local farming conditions. For millions of small-scale producers, particularly women and young people, limited access to finance, technologies, infrastructure, information, markets and connectivity continues to constrain adoption and scale.

Closing this gap requires stronger links between science, innovation and delivery, working with institutions, governments, the private sector, producer organizations and communities. FAO is also innovating through institutional design, including shared digital platforms, public extension systems, cooperatives and other delivery models that can lower access costs and expand coverage.

Co-creating solutions with users helps ensure that innovations respond to local needs, are technically and economically viable, and are more likely to be adopted, sustained and scaled.

Agricultural research is widely considered one of the highest-return investments in rural development. Greater investment must be matched by the infrastructure, institutions, skills and partnerships needed to take successful innovations to scale. Adopting innovative practices will be critical to reducing the environmental footprint of agrifood systems, which account for around one-third of global greenhouse

gas emissions and more than an estimated 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals. It is also critical to helping farmers and other producers adapt to climate extremes.

Innovations must be adapted to local realities and needs, supported by appropriate policies and backed by investment over time. Governments can create enabling conditions and invest in research, infrastructure and extension services; businesses can turn ideas into affordable products and services; and producers and communities can provide the knowledge needed to make them work in practice and impact.

This agenda matters just as much to major industrialized economies. Better data and analytical tools can help anticipate supply disruptions and emerging risks in increasingly complex food markets. Innovation can strengthen supply chains, support competitiveness and help protect consumers when shocks in one part of the world affect prices and availability elsewhere. But innovation delivers impact only when it

can be translated into investable and bankable projects. That requires linking science and technology with sound project design, viable business models, risk-sharing instruments and public and private finance, so that promising solutions can move from pilots to commercial scale and generate measurable economic, social and environmental returns.

Every harvest grows from what came before. Every breakthrough builds on knowledge, old and new. When innovation reaches and serves the people and communities who need it, tomorrow's harvest can truly take root to nourish the future.