CGIAR, the world’s largest agriculture research partnership, has helped transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people with the tangible outcomes of agriculture research, including improved crop varieties, sustainable farming methods, new fish strains, novel livestock vaccines, climate-smart solutions, and incisive policy analysis. It continues to bring cutting edge science to bear on a wide range of issues facing millions of farmers and other poor smallholders in developing countries who collectively generate nearly 70 percent of the world’s food production. This is increasingly important as the world must meet the difficult challenge of feeding a growing world population while facing the impact of climate change and resource constraints. Japan has been a strategic partner of CGIAR throughout its history, and continues to play an important role in the work carried out by CGIAR partners, especially in Africa and Asia.
This presentation will cover four main topics of interest to policy makers, development practitioners and scientists, namely: (i) analyze the rising challenge of food security in a world that will soon reach a population of 9 billion; (ii) follow-up of The Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-V); (iii) update on the progress being made in improving rice varieties in Africa and Asia, made possible by the generous support and scientific partnership with the Government of Japan; and (iv) inform the audience on the ongoing reform process of the CGIAR system, and how this will continue to sharpen the focus, effectiveness and efficiency of CGIAR.
Speaker
Mr. Antony Kalm, Deputy Head of the CGIAR Fund Office
Before joining CGIAR, Antony Kalm was the inaugural leader of One Acre Fund in the US, and was named 2013 Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship at the World EconomicForum. He now serves on the Board of Directors of One Acre Fund. Prior to that he helped establish the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which maintains a collection of genebanks around the world as an insurance policy for the world's food supply. Antony is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Sri Lanka with a BA from Cornell and an MPH from Johns Hopkins.
Commentary
Mr. Osamu Koyama, Director, Research Strategy Office, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)
Registration
To register the event, please click on the link below to access the online event registration page. As seating is limited, registration will be on a first come, first served basis.