As part of its mandate to provide strategic guidance to the CGIAR system, the ISPC launched a foresight work stream in 2017 that consists of a comprehensive analysis of major trends and drivers of agri-food systems and future opportunities for AR4D.
The new work stream was inaugurated with an independent assessment and a workshop on “Threats and Opportunities to Agri-Food Systems in 2050” held in Portici, Italy, on 7-8 April and co-hosted by the ISPC and Universita degli Studi di Napoli. The independent assessment was designed to tap expertise outside the CGIAR system for external perspectives on major trends and possible disruptions to the global food system in the future. Eighteen papers were presented and discussed by group of international experts. The papers will be chapters in a book to be published by the ISPC in 2018.
The workshop was organized around three thematic sessions: i) Analysis of emerging threats and challenges; ii) New opportunities and scientific discovery, and iii) Trends in the agricultural sector. The closing session of the workshop was devoted to a synthesis of the emerging findings.
