Martien van Nieuwkoop
Global Director for Agriculture and Food, World Bank
The world is producing more food than ever. But more people than ever — around 800 million — don’t know where their next meal will come from.
Food crises are complex, and the temptation is to fix the symptom rather than identify the cause. The underlying systemic issue remains: We need to radically transform our food systems – the way we produce and consume food – to feed the world’s growing population.
Five critical actions to transform food systems
Incentives. Every year, governments around the world provide $800 billion in food production incentives, leading to negative climate and environmental outcomes while only a third of the subsidies are actually reaching farmers. Decoupling production incentives and paying farms to improve soil health and sequester carbon in the ground, while producing food, is key.
Innovation. Public spending on agricultural research and development can give returns of up to 44%. Innovation can deliver more productive food systems that address global hunger and climate change. Increasing public research and innovation budgets for the food system to at least 1% of agriculture GDP is a good start.
Institutions. Export bans and non-tariff trade barriers are causing self-inflicted damage to the food system. Predictable and transparent institutions that can scale well-targeted safety nets, such as in-kind or cash transfers to feed the poor, will reduce the need for reactive policies.
Most companies perform poorly when it comes
to climate change, progress on human rights
and contributions to nutritious diets.
Information. Uncertainty on everything from weather to prices and the number of hungry people can lead us astray. Everyone can use open data, and it is inexpensive to replicate. The marginal cost of delivering digital goods to network-connected devices is nearly zero. Mandating open data from the public sector can help prevent future crises.
Investments. Most companies perform poorly when it comes to climate change, progress on human rights and contributions to nutritious diets. By stepping up environmental, social and governance standards, the private sector must provide sustainable livelihoods for farmers, decent employment for workers and nutritious choices for consumers — without depleting natural resources — to reach global zero hunger.
The world is making positive steps, but accelerating global food system transformation will reduce hunger and greenhouse gases while boosting economic growth that benefits the poorest and most vulnerable.
Martien van Nieuwkoop is the World Bank’s Global Director for the Agriculture and Food Global Practice. He provides leadership to the formulation and implementation of the Bank’s strategy and knowledge in agriculture and food, overseeing the operationalisation of the Bank’s vision for this sector in regional and country programmes.
