Book Launch | IFPRI Policy Seminar
What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?
Co-organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR
This event is also part of the Policy Innovations Global Webinar Series of the CGIAR Science Program on Policy Innovations
July 23, 2025

Food systems have achieved remarkable progress in recent decades, but moving forward, they will face significant challenges in delivering the many outputs and services—such as poverty alleviation, nutrition and health, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability—we expect and need. By combining sophisticated analysis and close engagement with stakeholders, we can identify and explore the likely impacts of different future scenarios based on alternative development pathways and external factors. These results can help inform the decisions we make about food systems today.

This event marks the launch of What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?, a collection of short chapters that synthesize current knowledge about different aspects of the future of food systems. Written by more than 100 scientists from around the world with expertise in a wide range of related disciplines and regions, these chapters provide accessible overviews of the latest foresight research on each topic, guide readers toward more detailed information, and offer insights into how our knowledge of future trends can be improved.

The launch will present an overview of the book and highlight key findings from select chapters, followed by a panel discussion featuring speakers from country partners, regional organizations, and donor agencies.

Moderator Welcome
Elisabetta Gotor, Principal Scientist, Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT 

Opening Remarks
Sandra Cristina Kothe Milach, Chief Scientist, CGIAR

Overview
Keith Wiebe, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI 

Selected Chapter Highlights
Impact area: Poverty – Karl Pauw, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI 
Driver: Innovation – Daniel Mason-D’Croz, Senior Research Associate, Department of Global Development, Cornell University 
Region: West and Central Africa – Dolapo Enahoro, Senior Agricultural Economist, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Commodity: Aquatic Foods – Chin Yee Chan, Scientist, WorldFish

Panel Discussion
Vanessa da Fonseca Pereira, Advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) and analyst at Embrapa 
Kindie Tesfaye Fantaye, Head, Climate Adaptation and Resilience, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) 
Ruben Echeverria, Senior Advisor Agriculture Development, Gates Foundation 

Closing Remarks
Clemens Breisinger, Program Leader for the Kenya Strategy Support Program; Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
Elisabetta Gotor, Principal Scientist, Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Links:

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What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?

Introductory Remarks by Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Coordinator, Embrapa, Labex-USA
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.

 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018 - GMartha

Speaker: Marcos Sawaya Jank, President, Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance and IFPRI Board member
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.
 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018  - M.Jank

What happens when a child is malnourished? Can such a child ever “catch up” later in life? Why does urbanization and obesity seem to go hand in hand—and what does this mean for food production? We’ll explore big picture food system questions today on the Leading Voices in Food with our guest Dr. Shenggen Fan.

The Leading Voices in Food

Shenggen Fan on Hunger, Climate Change and the Hope of Innovation

Speaker: William A. Masters, Professor, Tufts University

Interventions and innovation can lower the price of individual foods, but healthy eating depends on access to a mix of foods from diverse sources. How has the overall cost of meeting dietary needs changed over time worldwide, and in Africa and South Asia specifically? What determines the cost of a healthy diet? And how does affordability affect dietary intake and health status in different locales?

To answer these questions, Changing Access to Nutritious Diets in Africa and South Asia (CANDASA) (https://sites.tufts.edu/candasa) has been using new food price indexes that account for food substitutions to meet nutritional needs to evaluate food systems all over the world, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

This seminar will present the outcomes of CANDASA’s work to date, with a panel discussion featuring field researchers from each country to discuss the local and global implications of their results.

Research by Tufts and IFPRI on this topic is supported by UKAid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

IFPRI Policy Seminar:  What is the Cost of a Healthy Diet? - 5/29/2019 - WMasters

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Established in 1975, IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries. It is a research center of CGIAR, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development.

What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?

International Food Policy Research Institute

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