Agricultural Summits provide an important forum for stakeholders across the food value chain to come together. Participants of such summits include government agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), farmers and private businesses.
At the Summit, delegates addressed various issues, such as the necessity for an efficient guest worker system, reducing carbon footprint and diversifying cropping patterns.
The need of these summits
Agricultural summits are necessary because agriculture needs to change in order to save our planet. Regenerative farming alone cannot solve global issues; multiple obstacles must also be cleared away before any progress can be made.
Agriculture has long been seen as an industry that receives special treatment from government. Subsidies from these programs provide agriculture with support even during times when other sectors must make cuts; it must stop immediately! This trend must end.
One challenge facing summits is their inability to achieve transparency. Participant can often debate and vote on ideas without knowing who authored them; further, Summit processes often excludes various parts of society such as those concerned with animal rights or environmental justice - these groups must be included if the Summit is to truly be effective and contribute towards creating a culture of transparency within global food governance.
The role of government
Reaching global food security requires reform of agricultural input-output systems to be less resource intensive, more profitable for small-scale farmers and micro-entrepreneurs, resilient against shocks, more socially inclusive, and supported with government subsidies and incentives. Such changes require extensive support and encouragement.
The Summits offer governments and all stakeholders an ideal forum to come together and explore the challenges, opportunities, and future of agriculture. They serve as platforms to coordinate the efforts of various actors involved in its value chain - such as government bodies, development partners, large capitalized firms and millions of small holders farmers - working towards finding solutions together.
Fresno State highlighted the significance of state policies for agriculture by appealing to California to value ag equally with Hollywood film and Silicon Valley tech industries, among others. Stanislaus State also provided opportunities for revenue growth via land repurposing; CSU Bakersfield offered discussion of water issues affecting California's Central Valley region.
The role of private sector
Agritech Summits provide equipment manufacturers, dealers, government agency representatives, industry association leaders, academia, progressive farmers and others a forum to share information and build relationships. A central message of these summits emphasizes the need to invest in mechanization and precision agriculture for strong economies, to feed an expanding world and mitigate climate change impacts.
One major difficulty lies in global agriculture systems being locked into patterns which pollute the environment and violate human rights for profit. Summit participants have endeavored to tackle this challenge through various initiatives including expanding foreign markets for Andean crops, setting up export mechanisms, protecting small ruminant producers from unfair competition and providing incentives - all efforts which represent positive steps forward but more work must be done. Change to agricultural systems will require an overhaul of their entire model and this can only happen with voluntary participation from private sector companies who share a goal of regenerative farming and food system reform. At AIM for Climate Summit partners have increased investments and support in climate-smart agriculture/food system innovation initiatives.
The role of NGOs
An international food system must be sustainable, efficient and resilient if we want it to fulfill its intended function of feeding us all. In order to accomplish this goal, policy must shift away from emphasizing quantity over quality production - something many nations struggle with at present - towards emphasizing value creation as the means.
Industrialised nations must shift their mindset, becoming willing to take risks, break through barriers and open new markets. Furthermore, there must be an investment commitment towards research partnerships focusing on comparative advantages among developing nations.
Summits provide valuable insight into regional host markets, shed light on global industry issues and serve as platforms for networking opportunities. At these summits are expert industry speakers sharing their perspectives on the shifting global agriculture landscape and innovations that will spur on its revolution. At these summits are also equipment manufacturers, dealers and suppliers; government officials; university researchers; agribusiness CEOs and progressive farmers from different fields all playing key roles in providing food supply chain sustainability, decreasing food insecurity, improving communities.
