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More than 60 international experts gather in Istanbul on Monday at a regional dialogue co-hosted by the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) and the government of Türkiye to discuss the latest innovations in maize and wheat value chains and agricultural systems.
Delegates attending "Sustainable Maize and Wheat: Scaling Innovations for Resilience" from Jan. 20 to 23, will address challenges around increasing maize and wheat yields while conserving forests and biodiverse ecosystems, and by reducing greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable intensification, the use of conservation and climate smart agriculture techniques, and by introducing agroforestry systems.
FOLUR wheat and maize project countries China, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan will participate.
As part of the 27-country, World Bank-led FOLUR program, these countries are part of a network of top global experts, with the capacity to tap into agricultural innovations that transform agri-food systems into resilient and sustainable systems. Worldwide, countries face challenges from climate variabilities, low productivity, and other threats, including droughts, heat stress, flooding, erratic rainfall patterns, groundwater depletion, pests, and disease.
The dialogue will focus on integrated land management practices, supporting more sustainable interventions in which maize and wheat are critical -- from local livelihoods to value chains -- and how they can promote economic growth, and benefit human health. It will explore efforts to improve agricultural policies and ecosystem services through collaboration among smallholder farmers, land managers, governments, researchers, private sector, international development agencies, and financial institutions.
These innovations include new, improved, or adapted products, technologies, services, or institutional arrangements with high potential to deliver positive impact.
Discussions will link with FOLUR project countries insights into which innovations work in which contexts and how to scale them up to fortify the resilience and sustainability of value chains.
The specific objectives are as follows:
- Promote a common understanding of global and regional drivers, challenges, and proven solutions for sustainable maize and wheat production intensification.
- Enhance understanding of integrated landscape management and the link between cereal production, environmental landscapes, and agroforestry.
- Consider ways sustainable cereal production can support efforts in ecosystems restoration and ensure food and nutrition security.
- Showcase the innovations and scalable business models within and outside the project to support national projects.
- Share experiences and lessons of regional and country project-specific improved practices, opportunities, and barriers to scaling innovations at farmer -- including women and youth -- and landscape levels.
- Develop a strategy to identify, introduce, and promote innovations within cereal production systems and scale them in national projects of the FOLUR program.
FOLUR country projects include gender-related objectives, which will also be under discussion. By sharing knowledge of practices that are generating gender-responsive rural landscape and sustainable food system projects, programs and investments, the goal is to enable and discuss improvements in project and program design and implementation across the FOLUR projects with the aim of enhancing inclusivity and creating measurable improved equity impacts.
FOLUR is a $345 million initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that seeks to transform the global food system by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains. The program targets the production landscapes of eight commodities: beef, cocoa, corn, coffee, palm oil, rice, soy, and wheat. Core partners include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Land Use Coalition, Global Landscapes Forum, Good Growth Partnership led by the United Nations Development Program, and the International Finance Corporation.
This is the third FOLUR regional dialogue. The first was held in Nairobi in October 2023 and focused on coffee and cocoa. The second was held in Hanoi in September 2024 and focused on rice.
~ By Julie Mollins
[published Jan. 19, 2025}
