Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Friday, May 12, 2017

Agtech Leaders Summit: Innovations for competitive & sustainable food production

9-10 May 2017. Utrecht, the Netherlands. The European edition of the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture hosted the Agtech Leaders Summit to support government, industry and science as hundreds of experts convened to find new ways to ensure sufficient, competitive, safe, and sustainable food production.

Extract of the programme:
Biopesticides, biostimulants and microbial productsBiopesticides, biostimulants and microbial products are becoming a hot topic in agriculture. We will look at its opportunities and challenges to understand how the industry is using recent advancements for healthier soils, plants and ultimately bigger yields and what the future holds.
Next generation genetics - an acceptable solution in agriculture?Whilst the potential benefits of gene editing include increased yields, drought and disease resistance, sustainability, enhanced quality and nutritional value, gene editing is very controversial and regulations in Europe are blocking these new breeding techniques.
Developing sustainable agricultural technologies for, and in, emerging markets?Of the 570 million farms in the world, 90 percent of these are managed by smallholder farmers and most of these smallholdings are in Africa and Asia. So increasingly we are looking at redesigning developed world agricultural technologies so they meet the needs and financing abilities of smallholder farmers. But smallholders in many regions are very often lacking access to existing technologies, infrastructure, financing and markets.

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