Dr. Arvind Kumar, Editor, Focus Global Reporter conducted an interview with Mr. Takayuki Hagiwara, FAO Representative in India, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Excerpts from the Interview are reproduced here.
Mr. Takayuki Hagiwara is appointed as the FAO Representative in India effective since May 2023. He is a national of Japan, holds a Master of Science in Forestry from Yale University with a focus on Participatory Resources Management in the United States. During his career, Mr Hagiwara contributed to the preparation and implementation of various projects including those focused on community-based natural resources management and livelihood development, and helped JICA’s adoption of the Farmer Field School platform in Kenya and Ethiopia. He also conducted numerous training sessions and authored a farmer field school implementation guide based on his practical experiences in the field.
One of his notable achievement was his role as the lead technical officer on the Sustainable Livelihood Development Project in Kenya’s Mau Forest Complex, which received FAO’s Edouard Saouma Award in 2013. In this capacity, he piloted a mobile phone-based monitoring system, established a partnership with a local bank and Kenya Forest Service Revolving Fund and facilitated community-based enterprise development with Rural Invest.
Mr Hagiwara has served as the Regional Programme Leader at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand from January 2021. In this role, he has supported the regional office to implement FAO’s strategic framework and overseen the development and implementation of the programmes in the region, providing guidance to technical officers at the regional office and facilitate coordination with the FAO representatives in the region.
INTERVIEW
EDITOR: What are the key components of the global roadmap initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to eliminate hunger and malnutrition while staying within the 1.5°C threshold of the Paris Agreement?
MR. TAKAYUKI HAGIWARA: In 2022, 738.9 million people faced hunger, nearly 2.4 billion in 2022 lacked regular access to adequate food, and over 3.1 billion could not afford healthy diets. The pandemic added 120 million to the number of chronically undernourished. In 2030, an estimated 590.3 million will suffer hunger. The planet faces crises, exceeding safe limits on six of nine planetary boundaries, and much of them are due to agrifood systems, which contribute 30 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impede climate goals. Despite the Paris Agreement’s aims, warming rates indicate a serious gap in meeting targets.
To address this, FAO’s roadmap involves an extensive process that spans three years, which startedin 2023 with COP 28. The roadmap commences with a global vision for what ails agrifood systems today. Part 2 of the roadmap moves further from a global to a regional view and from a vision to costing and financing options for the actions required, before culminating in a discussion of how to attract concrete investment and policy packages by the time COP 30 takes place. It also examines how to integrate technical assistance into our strategies while supporting sustainable investment plans. The trilogy of COPs encapsulates FAO’s dedication to ushering in a transformative era in global agrifood systems, uniting nations in a shared narrative of progress and sustainability.
Furthermore, accelerated climate actions can transform agrifood systems and help achieve food and nutrition security. FAO calls for an integrated approach across 10 ‘domains of action’ which include – livestock, enabling healthy diets for all, fisheries and aquaculture, soil and water, forests and wetlands, food loss and waste, crops, clean energy, data and inclusive policies. In addition, FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. FAO also launched 20 Programme Priority Areas (PPA) using four cross-cutting/cross-sectional accelerators on technology, innovation, data, and complements (governance, human capital, and institutions) in all its programmatic interventions.
EDITOR: What are some specific strategies or interventions that have been effective in reducing food loss and waste, both at the production and consumption stages of the food chain?
MR. TAKAYUKI HAGIWARA: FAO estimates that – in terms of economic value – 14 percent of the world’s food is lost from post-harvest up to, but not including, the retail level. In India, 4-6 percent of cereal and 5-12 percent of vegetables are being lost every year.
Food loss is a recurring issue due to several causes stemming from different stages of the food supply chain and socio-economic factors. To address these issues and to ensure food security in the country, mitigating the challenges along the supply chain is critical. FAO works closely with the government and relevant bodies to identify these challenges and find solutions.
In India, FAO calls upon the need to adopt the Food Loss Index (FLI) methodology and monitor losses throughout the supply chain from production to consumption. In collaboration with FAO, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (ICAR-IASRI) has estimated the FLI for India. These estimates are based on the three national-level surveys conducted by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries to estimate the harvest and post-harvest losses of major crops and commodities in the country. In fact, India has been a torchbearer for the world as the only country that has established a robust system of regular surveys for monitoring food losses. These surveys conducted in India have provided the foundations for the development of the FLI methodology globally and for the technical support, FAO provides to countries across the world.
FAO draws attention to the critical need to measure post-harvest losses across the country. This approach aligns with achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, Target 12.3 which seeks to halve per-capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, and SDG 2 – Zero Hunger.
Cold chains and proper storage, along with good handling practices, also play a crucial role in ensuring food safety and reducing food loss and waste; increased investment in this sector is also an essential part of the agrifood systems transformation. Under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Programme, FAO is conducting an assessment of the barriers that hinder investments by both public and private sectors aimed at transforming India’s agrifood systems. This project focuses on four Indian states: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab. The assessment aims to develop critical recommendations of solutions to mobilize additional investments, particularly in cold chains and storage infrastructure, to reduce food loss across India.
Food loss also translates into loss and waste of water. Water is critical for not only agricultural purposes but also for the very sustenance of humankind. FAO is certain that reducing food loss will lead to reduced loss and waste of water thereby paving the way for food security and transforming agrifood systems in India.
EDITOR: In what ways does FAO support smallholder farmers in India and strengthen the agrifood systems in the country?
MR. TAKAYUKI HAGIWARA: Agriculture is an important sector of the Indian economy. It contributes about 16.5 percent to the country’s overall gross domestic product (GDP) and employs nearly 42.3 percent of the country’s workforce (2019/20). However, India’s agrifood systems face several challenges such as managing the sustainability of agricultural practices in light of climate change, enhancing the productivity of smallholder farmers, addressing issues of food safety and quality, improving post-harvest handling and storage, lack of equal distribution of water resources, reducing food waste and fostering inclusive growth in the agricultural sector.
Farmers, especially smallholders in India face significant hurdles in access to markets and credit. Limited access to modern technology, information and market linkages often isolates them from lucrative value chains resulting in low income and increased vulnerability to market fluctuations.
One of FAO’s priority focus areas in India is to achieve sustainable and improved agricultural productivity and increased farm incomes, especially for smallholders. FAO’s initiatives aim to improve climate resilient and sustainable agriculture and adoption of digital agriculture, enhance climate resilience of local landraces and seed systems, reduce the footprint of aquaculture for sustainability and climate resilience and enhance global health security through the One Health approach.
In India, FAO is implementing the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded Green-Ag project across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand to mainstream biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land management objectives and practices into the Indian agricultural sector. The project aims to catalyze transformative change for India’s agricultural sector to support the achievement of national and global environmental benefits and conserve critical biodiversity and forest landscapes. Under GEF -7 Food Systems and Land Use Restoration project, FAO will develop integrated models of sustainable and healthy food systems in rice and wheat-dominated landscapes in India. Furthermore, FAO has a tripartite technical collaboration with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and ICAR to support farmers’ transition to sustainable agrifood systems.
FAO also promotes innovation and the widespread adoption of digital technologies in agriculture to increase agricultural productivity and enhance farmers’ incomes as well as enhance food security. FAO collaborated with the National Rainfed Area Authority and the Weather Risk Management Services Pvt. Ltd to develop and test forecasting/predictive techniques and tools using multiple data points and big data analysis to aid vulnerable farmers and planners in making informed decisions on crop choices, particularly in rainfed areas. Through these interventions, the project reduced the impact of the risk (weather, biological, market/price) faced by rainfed areas farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. By harnessing the power of digital agriculture, FAO aims to enhance food security, increase agricultural productivity, and support the livelihoods of Indian farmers, contributing to more resilient and efficient agrifood systems.
Sustainable water management is critical to address the food and nutrition security threats. Extreme weather events and variability in water availability are severely affecting agricultural production and changing agro-ecological. As a part of its overarching priority, FAO is embarking on a strategic endeavour to engage with India’s blue economy, particularly focusing on the fishery subsector. To this end, FAO is committed to working closely with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to facilitate the transformation of aquaculture practices within the region. This transformation will involve the development of innovative, sustainable, and climate-resilient approaches to aquaculture, which reduce its environmental footprint and enhance the sector’s long-term prospects.
Currently, FAO is also collaborating with key government stakeholders to improve data collection that will aid in the development of interventions to improve the sustainability of agrifood systems and the use of water resources. This work will provide a harmonized indicator for tracking sustainable agriculture under the National Indicator Framework, and the Global Indicator Framework for SDGs. Additionally, FAO will foster policy dialogues to monitor water use by introducing digital technologies.
EDITOR: How does FAO contribute to addressing food and nutrition security in India?
MR. TAKAYUKI HAGIWARA: FAO assists the Government of India in strengthening food and nutrition security by strengthening institutional capacities, increasing technical knowledge and promoting long-term behavioural changes throughout the agrifood systems.
Nutritional issues in India are complex, necessitating multifaceted, multidisciplinary solutions. FAO targets relevant pathways for safe and healthy diets for nutritional security in India. This includes improving dietary diversity, empowering women, enforcing food safety standards, packaging and labelling, food safety awareness and nutrition education, and using information communication technology (ICT) and innovative nutrition communication methods. It will also seek to support relevant initiatives under the umbrella programme, Poshan 2.0, aimed at improving nutritional outcomes for especially vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants and children. FAO aims to ensure that gender equality and social inclusion are mainstreamed into this strategy.
Unsafe food results in a vicious cycle of disease and starvation, harming the most vulnerable people. Food-borne diseases were estimated to cost the country 0.5 percent of GDP in 2011. Food contamination has an impact on the export of food commodities, particularly fresh and processed foods. In Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, FAO addresses sanitary and phytosanitary challenges in high-value chains such as spices, especially cumin, fennel, coriander and black pepper, to enable poor, rural households to improve food safety and quality. FAO’s work also focuses on cross-cutting issues such as awareness of AMR, pest control, food safety, and certification, particularly in relation to good agricultural practices (GAP) and good hygiene practices (GHP) to achieve the overall objective of food and nutrition security in India.
FAO will assist the Government of India in strengthening regulatory systems for food safety – particularly clean and safe milk – by developing institutional frameworks for certification. Furthermore, efforts will be made to establish a roadmap and strategies for integration of non-bovine milk into the dairy economy. These interventions have the potential to improve food security and nutritional outcomes while simultaneously raising incomes of food producers.
Additionally, to address the challenges of food and nutrition security, the practical entry points and interventions in the agrifood system approach must consider the nutritional impact of agriculture policies and programmes. To this end, FAO will take a comprehensive capacity development approach to strengthen individual capacities, advocate at the organizational and policy level, and form partnerships with national and regional institutions to create an enabling environment in India’s agrifood system. The interventions at the household and farm level will encourage crop diversification and the growing of more millets and nutri-grains as well as fruits and vegetables to support the National Food Security Act’s nutritional security objectives. FAO will also work to improve the resilience of agrifood systems to mitigate food insecurity among disaster-affected communities and vulnerable populations.
EDITOR: How will integrated investment approaches address the multiple dimensions of sustainability in food and agriculture?
MR. TAKAYUKI HAGIWARA: Indian agriculture, primarily rainfed, is susceptible to extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, cyclones, and soil salinity. Climate mainstreaming into agrifood systems requires much larger investments and an integrated approach from global climate finance, domestic budgets, and the private sector.
FAO recognizes the need for the identification of national priorities and policy platforms for financing climate-resilient agrifood systems through a variety of investments spanning equity, grants supported by bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions (DFIs), green and social bonds, and other guarantee or output-based financing through corporations, blended finance, venture capital firms, among others. It brings forth key stakeholders to provide insights on several opportunities that can be leveraged through regional collaboration on climate-smart agrifood system initiatives and suggest probable arrangements to maximize resource consolidation, route catalytic findings and support large-scale climate advocacy campaigns.
In January 2024, FAO organized a first-of-its-kind national-level Investment Forum for Advancing Climate Resilient Agrifood Systems to develop an investment and partnership strategy focused on this area. The Investment Forum was organized in collaboration with the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India.
The two-day multi-stakeholder meet paved the way for discussions and deliberations among key stakeholders, and their perspectives on national priorities, investment opportunities, partnership, technical support and cooperation. The Forum facilitated discussions and deliberations on six key areas namely, (i) Climate resilient agriculture (experiences and pathways) (ii) Digital infrastructure and solutions (iii) Financing climate resilient agrifood systems (domestic and global) (iv) Climate resilient value chains (v) Production practices and inputs for climate resilience and (vi) Gender mainstreaming and social inclusion for climate resilience.
The meet brought together more than 200 attendees with senior representatives from the government, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, ICAR, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management, World Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delegation of the European Union, International Finance Cooperation, and UN agencies.
FAO intends to organize similar Investment Forums and facilitate discussion, engagement and collaboration with stakeholders such as the government, private sectors, farmers’ organization and financial institutions on issues related to livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and one health approach in India.
*FAO Representative in India, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
