The FAO International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers: Unlocking the potential of agricultural innovation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals takes place in Rome from November 21-23 and is a direct and firm response to member countries’ enthusiastic encouragement for FAO to play a strong catalytic and supporting role to empower family farmers through innovation.

Innovation is the central driving force which will transform food systems, lift family farmers out of poverty and help the world to achieve food security, sustainable agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To promote the exchange of knowledge, information and practices, to review enabling policies and platforms, and to help the development of potential partnerships and action plans, FAO will hold the “International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers” in Rome on November 21-23, 2018.

Conceived as a dynamic multistakeholder and multidisciplinary forum, the Symposium will help in understanding the socio-economic potential of innovation, its key drivers and processes, and why it is critical to unlock its potential to achieve the transformative change required in agriculture and rural development.

The Symposium will provide inspiration for innovation actors and decision-makers and, among other things, will celebrate inspiring success stories of innovators, acting as catalyst for boosting partnerships as well as public and private investments to foster and scale up agricultural innovation.

Objectives

• Serve as a global knowledge and partnership platform to better understand the potential of innovation in agriculture to address the SDGs, with a special focus on supporting smallholder and family farmers
• Increase understanding of the drivers of innovation and the main constraints
• Propose processes, pathways and interventions needed to unlock the potential of innovation in agriculture and scaling up inclusive innovations;
• Celebrate inspiring success stories of innovation and innovators in sustainable agriculture
• Act as a catalyst for boosting partnerships as well as public and private investments to foster and scale up agricultural innovation

Please visit the website for more information on the Symposium.