Conference on Agrifood Evolution

The agrifood sector constantly faces challenges that continue to evolve over time. This includes global warming, which decreases harvests and reduces crop quality. Consumers’ preference for fresher, appealing produce poses another challenge as it leads to increased use of pesticides, wasteful packaging, and greater food loss and waste. Recently, supply chains have presented major new challenges. The massive disruptions caused by the pandemic are not over yet. Amid this, a new trend of scarcity in several key commodities is emerging due to stoppages in exports by key producing countries.

Current and future challenges of the agriculture sector are compounded when demographics are taken into account. It is estimated that the population in Asia will reach 5 billion by 2030 (UN, 2019), requiring substantially more food. However, in some developed APO members such as Japan, the population is both decreasing and aging, underlining the issue of a diminishing agricultural labor force and the urgency of accelerating the adoption of smart agricultural technologies.

Understanding future challenges is important to prepare entrepreneurs for sustainable management of the agrifood sector. This conference will discuss the latest emerging challenges and those that might affect the agrifood sector in the future with a focus on ensuring food security in APO members.

For more details please click on PN.