Innovation, investment needed for food security, G-7 officials say

Ministers from the Group of Seven nations agreed Sunday to promote agricultural innovation and investment as farmers face the twin challenges of an aging workforce and extreme weather at a time when global food demand is increasing.

“Motivated, skilled and enterprising farmers are essential for the growth of the agricultural sector,” the ministers said in a joint statement after two days of meetings focused on food security in Niigata Prefecture. “We will help farmers enhance their capability and skills” by facilitating access to information and communication technologies, precision farming and agricultural innovations, they said.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has warned that left unchecked, aging farmers could threaten the ability to produce the food the world needs. The average age of growers in developed countries is now about 60, according to the United Nations. At the meeting, Agriculture minister Hiroshi Moriyama outlined his idea of replacing retiring growers with Japanese-developed autonomous tractors and backpack-mounted robots, as the average age of farmers here reaches 67.

Ministers decided at the gathering to hold a meeting with developing nations this autumn in Tokyo to discuss concrete steps to bolster more active participation by women and young people in the farming industry, ministry officials said.

Another daunting front farmers will face in the coming decades is the surging population.

With the global population expected to grow by more than 20 percent, to around 9.2 billion by 2050, world agricultural production would need to increase by about 60 percent by then, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The outcome of the farm ministers’ meeting, the first since 2009, will be reflected in discussions at the G-7 leaders summit on May 26 and 27 in Mie Prefecture.

The ministers also agreed to set up an international framework to better share information on livestock epidemics and cope with food supply problems caused by the cross-border spread of major animal diseases such as bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease, the ministers said in a statement.

Under the framework, they will also exchange information on the rise of anti-microbial resistance amid concerns that the long-term use of antibiotics to prevent livestock infections is contributing to the emergence of resistance in livestock.

The ministers also agreed on the importance of increasing investment to developing countries’ agriculture and food industries to strengthen cooperation between farmers and businesses and create value-added farm products that increase farmers’ incomes.

The ministers plan to hold a meeting to discuss investment in the agricultural food sector to determine “best practices, exchange policy experiences on access to credit” and help facilitate “responsible investments in agriculture and agribusiness,” the statement said.

Saturday evening, Moriyama served guests a dinner of premium Kobe beef, which Japan hopes to promote overseas, as well as sake from 90 breweries in Niigata, Japan’s largest rice-producing region. The menu also included dishes with vegetables grown in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture to showcase the recovery of agricultural production in the area hit by a record 2011 earthquake and ensuing nuclear crisis.

Officials attending the meeting included Germany’s Christian Schmidt, Italy’s Maurizio Martina, and Canada’s Lawrence Macaulay. The U.K. was represented by George Eustice, a parliamentary undersecretary, while French Ambassador to Japan Thierry Dana represented Paris.

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