Biotech Updates

FAO Director-General Calls on Academia in Fight Against Hunger

August 3, 2012

Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva called for involvement of the academics in research on rural poverty and the food and agriculture business with focus on small-scale producers. In his speech at the World Congress of Rural Sociology in Lisbon, da Silva said, "One of the great challenges we have today is to use academic knowledge to understand and improve the life of rural populations throughout the world. To do so, we need to look at the reality outside of university walls."

He mentioned some research strategies that should be included in proposals from academics and policy makers. These include large-scale investments in agriculture, where universities could conduct research into principles for responsible agricultural investments; integration of small-scale farmers into the agricultural and food chains; issue of governance in the food and agriculture sector; and how to achieve a fair distribution of benefits.

The original news can be viewed at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/153887/icode/.