The G20 Agriculture Ministers met in Istanbul this May to discuss the group’s ongoing efforts on the issue of food and nutrition security. In their final report, the ministers highlighted several important global issues linked to food security, including the impacts of climate change and the need for sustainable food systems, the need to minimize global food loss and waste, and the goal of increasing incomes and job opportunities in rural areas, particularly for women and youth.
The report calls for the promotion of public and private investments in infrastructure, climate change mitigation strategies, social protection programs, health and education, and open market information. The report also emphasizes the need to include the entire food value chain, from production and processing through consumption, when looking at issues of nutrition and food security. All of these goals will require good governance and a proper enabling environment in order to encourage the adoption of new technologies and the exchange of information across countries and regions.
Finally, the report discusses the issue of food loss and waste, calling for efforts to prevent and recover safe, nutritious food that may otherwise be wasted. This goal will require efforts tailored to countries’ and markets’ specific situations, and may include policy incentives, infrastructure investments, market innovations, consumer education, recovery and redistribution of otherwise lost or wasted food for people to eat, business incentives, and private sector investments. The report wraps up by calling among IFPRI and FAO, together with other international organizations, to establish a food loss and waste information-sharing platform, with a focus on low income countries. This platform’s core objectives are:
- to strengthen the focus on the need to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) as a top priority in the global, regional, and national agriculture and food and development agendas;
- to support and enhance approaches and metrics for FLW and promote policy coherence in FLW reduction;
- to promote and facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, and good practices, as well as data and information in FLW reduction to better inform policy processes; and
- to enhance coordination and collaboration among international institutions when supporting developing countries in improving their capacity to reduce FLW.