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GFFA 2025: Skupienie się na biogospodarce
GFFA 2025: Focus on the bioeconomy - Around 2,000 international experts discussed sustainable solutions for agriculture, food security and climate protection in Berlin.
Our current economic system is largely dependent on fossil fuels. This is exacerbating the climate crisis and thus global food insecurity. Most experts agree that the future belongs to a bio-based economy, subsumed under the term ‘bioeconomy’. In other words, an economy that is based on the use of renewable raw materials and which - if implemented correctly - not only protects the climate, environment and biodiversity, but can also create income prospects. But what factors make up a sustainable bioeconomy and where are the stumbling blocks in its implementation? These questions were at the centre of the 17th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA). Around 2,000 international representatives from politics and business, science and civil society met in Berlin from 15 to 18 January to discuss with around 120 panel guests at over 20 specialist events and high-level panels and to find out about pioneering projects and practical solutions at the GFFA Innovation Forum. Young scientists from India, Ghana, the Netherlands and Germany presented their research findings on the sustainable reorganisation of agricultural and food systems at the GFFA Science Slam, and young farmers from all over the world formulated their demands to politicians at the International Young Farmers' Forum.
‘We are coming together in Berlin because we know that The great challenges of our time - the climate crisis, species extinction, wars and conflicts - can only be solved together.’ Claudia Müller, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, opened the conference with these words. She reminded the audience that half of global value creation is based on an intact environment - with biodiversity, healthy soil and clean water. Nevertheless, public subsidies totalling 1.7 trillion US dollars are used every year for an economic system that destroys precisely these resources. ‘If we carry on like this, we will saw off the branch we are sitting on,’ warned Müller and called for a shift towards an economy that better harmonises ecology and economy.
‘The bioeconomy can decisively change the economy,’ Julius Ecuru, Head of the BioInnovate Africa initiative and Co-Chair of the International Bioeconomy Council (IACGB), was convinced. It could make agriculture more sustainable and economical. For Africa in particular, which is characterised by small-scale subsistence farming and at the same time has enormous biodiversity, it offers great opportunities to establish sustainable value chains. The prerequisite is close cooperation between research, industry and government, which also includes the large number of micro and small enterprises on the continent.
Éliane Ubalijoro, Managing Director of the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), demonstrated how a bio-based economy can not only promote prosperity, but also peace. For example in Uganda. The East African country is home to almost 1.5 million refugees, mainly from crisis countries such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. ‘Circular bioeconomy solutions can help to reduce the social and economic pressure in the refugee settlements,’ said Ubalijoro. As an example, she cited agroforestry systems in which the cultivation of vegetables in home gardens is combined with the planting of trees. This ensures both food and energy supplies for the refugees. The wood from the trees can also be used as a building material.
Reducing food waste is an important step towards a circular bioeconomy. This is because around a third of all food produced worldwide does not end up on consumers' plates, but in the rubbish bin. This wastes valuable resources such as soil and water, as well as labour and operating resources. In addition, food waste is responsible for around ten per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This puts them in third place behind China (just under 28% of emissions) and the USA (just under 14%) when viewed as a ‘country’. ‘If we do not succeed in reducing food losses, we will neither achieve our climate goals nor eliminate hunger in the world,’ said Kaveh Zahedi, Head of the Office for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) at the FAO High Level Panel.
This was also confirmed by the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko. Food worth 4 billion US dollars is lost in sub-Saharan Africa every year. Inadequate storage and refrigeration facilities and a lack of processing facilities are largely to blame. The best way to reduce these losses is to move towards a circular economy. With financial support from the European Union, the AU has developed a corresponding strategy for the continent. However, in order to implement this, the countries would need technical and financial support, the AU Commissioner demanded.
Shobha Shetty, Global Director Agriculture and Food Global Practice at the World Bank, calculated that around 200 to 400 billion US dollars would be needed annually to realise the necessary transformation of global agricultural and food systems. This sum could not be provided from public funds alone - cooperation with the private sector was essential. For Albania's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Anila Denaj, the harmonisation of policies plays a decisive role. However, this is difficult to implement both within the country and across borders due to the different structures and responsibilities of the ministries. ‘We see EU integration as the only way forward,’ said the minister of the EU accession candidate. She also cited raising awareness among consumers as another key element in curbing food waste.
‘For us, managing food losses is a matter of survival,’ emphasised Vitaliy Koval, Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine destroyed storage capacities for millions of tonnes of grain in the country, as well as the largest storage facilities for vegetables. This has not only had a negative impact on the quality of food, but has also led to massive food price inflation. ‘All countries should work towards building decentralised food storage and refrigeration infrastructure to ensure food sovereignty, prevent food prices from rising and thus protect their vulnerable population groups,’ said the Minister.
Every country has different starting conditions and therefore faces different challenges when it comes to advancing the bioeconomy and making it sustainable. The importance of research, innovation and knowledge exchange was emphasised more than once during the conference. ‘We are focussing on practical innovations that directly benefit farmers,’ said Philippine Vice Minister of Agriculture Christopher V. Morales at the High Level Panel of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The aim is to make agriculture more inclusive, intelligent, efficient and environmentally friendly. This applies in particular to the staple food rice, which is consumed per capita in the country of 116 million inhabitants at 120 kilograms per year. Morales cited water-saving, solar-powered irrigation systems and the use of drones as examples, as well as the breeding of high-yielding varieties and the ‘conversion of waste into value’, for example through the production of organic fertilisers from rice and coconut husks.
Water-saving solutions, such as the use of recycled water, are also a crucial building block on the path to greater sustainability in food production for Europe's vegetable garden Spain with its pronounced dry periods, reported Agriculture Minister Luis Planas Puchades. In order to reduce the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilisers, the country is also testing the use of algae as so-called biostimulants. South American Uruguay, on the other hand, for which beef is one of the most important export products, primarily needs technologies that can reduce methane emissions from cattle farming, according to Uruguay's Agriculture Minister Fernando Mattos Costa.
‘As in many other African countries, in the past our main focus was on producing as much as possible. Now we are seeing the consequences of overexploiting our valuable resource soil, including through hazardous chemicals. We urgently need to invest in its rehabilitation,’ said South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen. The restoration of degraded soils is also an issue that concerns Pedro Neto, Secretary of State in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. The causes are primarily to be found in overgrazing and massive deforestation. Since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office again as president in January 2023, various laws have been introduced to curb illegal deforestation, including alternative income opportunities for poor population groups. Brazil has also launched a global bioeconomy initiative as part of its G20 presidency.
The political highlight of the GFFA was the 17th Berlin Agriculture Ministers' Conference, at which Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir exchanged views with 62 counterparts from around the world and representatives of 14 international organisations. ‘One in ten people in the world still goes to bed hungry. Wars and conflicts act as an accelerant for hunger; hunger in turn stifles peace - a vicious cycle,’ said Mr Özdemir at the end of the conference. The minister sharply criticised the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. ‘Using hunger as a weapon is against international law,’ he warned - also with regard to other crisis regions. In order to ensure secure harvests in the future, our agricultural and food systems need a ‘comprehensive update’. In this context, Özdemir praised Brazil's bioeconomy initiative and welcomed his South African counterpart's announcement that he would continue along the same path - including the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty - under South Africa's G20 presidency. He also promised to take the concerns of young farmers seriously. In their declaration, they expressed their concern that the bioeconomy, which is being driven forward primarily by the industrialised countries, is reinforcing rather than eliminating existing inequalities in the countries of the global South. They demanded that corporate interests should not be allowed to undermine the rights of small farmers and local populations - for example in terms of access to land and other resources.
In their final declaration, the agriculture ministers commit to the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity. They support the FAO project sponsored by Germany to establish a global bioeconomy partnership, which aims to promote cooperation beyond the existing G20 structures and create a coherent global approach to a sustainable bioeconomy. Food security must always be a priority. Science, technology and innovation, training, communication and cross-sectoral cooperation are named in the communiqué as crucial for a sustainable bioeconomy, as is the recognition of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Access to finance is also important, especially for smallholder farmers, young entrepreneurs, women, indigenous peoples and local communities.
The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) has been organised as part of the International Grüne Woche since 2009. The high-calibre conference brings together experts from all over the world to find solutions to key challenges facing global agriculture and world nutrition.
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