The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2023-2032 provides a consensus assessment of the ten-year prospects for agricultural commodity and fish markets at national, regional, and global levels, and serves as a reference for forward-looking policy analysis and planning. Recent surges in agricultural input prices experienced over the last two years have raised concerns about global food security. This year’s Outlook demonstrates that rising fertiliser costs can lead to higher food prices.

Agricultural innovation has played a critical role in the economic transformation of developing East Asian countries over the past half century. This transformation began with the diffusion and adoption of high-yielding seed varieties, modern fertilizers, and other agricultural technologies (for example, pesticides, machinery), commonly known as the Green Revolution.

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 “Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security” (SALSA) project has brought together 16 partners, from European and African countries and the UN system, who have a unique blend of multidisciplinary expertise and experience from a wide range of geographical and socio-political realities. 
SALSA has aimed to provide a better understanding of the current and potential contribution of small farms and food businesses to sustainable Food and Nutrition Security (FNS).

Food security is critical to creating an inclusive and peaceful world. Accelerating the pace of innovation in agriculture will be key to addressing the many challenges facing our planet. ACS Agricultural Science & Technology (AAST) supports the building of inclusive science communities to speed progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

AgriFoodTech start-ups are coming to be seen as relevant players in the debate around and reality of the transformation of food systems, especially in view of emerging or already-established novel technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence, Sensors, Precision Fermentation, Robotics, Nanotechnologies, Genomics) that constitute Agriculture 4.0 and Food 4.0. However, so far, there have only been limited studies of this phenomena, which are scattered across disciplines, with no comprehensive overview of the state of the art and outlook for future research.

The overarching research question developed in the Conceptual Framework conveys the core objective of SALSA (What is the contribution of small farms and of the related food businesses to sustainable FNS in a wide range of foos systems?) by highlighting that the research follows a systemic approach.

The SALSA project aims at assessing the current and future role of small farms and related small food businesses in contributing to sustainable food and nutrition security at regional level in Europe and in selected African regions, and to identify the conditions for them to meet the demand for food in an increasingly populated and resource-constrained world.