G20 Agriculture Ministers Meet in Istanbul to Discuss Sustainable Food Systems

G20 Ministers of Agriculture met in Istanbul on 7-8 May 2015 for the first time since 2011 to address rising challenges concerning food security.

World population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. This will increase the challenge for global food security and nutrition. In their Communique, Ministers underlined their commitment to meet this challenge. They agreed that establishing sustainable food systems is essential to cope with growing challenges in food security. They also highlighted the importance of reducing food losses and waste, which is a global problem.

"We note with great concern the significant extent of food loss and waste throughout food value chains and their negative consequences for food security, nutrition, use of natural resources and the environment," they said.

"To better target interventions to reduce food loss and waste, there is a need for better estimates of the economic and physical magnitude of food loss and waste and a shared understanding of their economic, social and environmental impacts and their underlying drivers."

Ministers agreed that a G20 Action Plan on Food Security/Sustainable Food Systems will be prepared to be submitted for consideration at the Antalya G20 Leaders’ Summit.

Ministers also invited FAO, IFPRI and other international organizations to establish a platform in measuring and reducing food loss and waste. IFPRI is currently working with the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) to better understand the levels of investment required to effectively reduce post-harvest losses through infrastructure development and technology improvements combined with best practices.

The platform will include experiences of G20 members and other countries and also focus on low-income developing countries. Sharing country experiences in reducing food loss and waste-- policy incentives, infrastructure investments, market innovations, consumer education, recovery and redistribution methods, business incentives, and private sector investments-- will also facilitate global efforts to tackle this issue, Ministers noted.

To read the G20 Agriculture Ministers Communique, please click here.

Additional Reading:

How much investment is needed to reduce postharvest losses?

This article was written by Rachel Kohn.

Rachel Kohn is a Communications Specialist in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at IFPRI.